File names you can NOT create on Windows

Try to create a file named NUL.txt on Windows XP, and you probably get an error message.

Many characters are not allowed for file names on Windows. This includes
< > : " / \ | ? *

Besides, many reserved device names should be avoided. This includes
NUL, CON, PRN, AUX, COM1, COM2, ..., LPT1, LPT2, ...

Also, using the device names unintended might raise security vulnerability.

Dimensional Modeling vs Interval Tree

The concept Dimensional Modeling is like the Interval Tree (Segment Tree). Both speed up queries by storing information at different levels. The difference is that in Dimensional Modeling, levels are defined by users, while in Interval Tree, levels are usually defined by a complete binary tree. Interval Tree usually solves problems on one dimension, but it could also be applied to 2D problems. One dimension is not a limit.

Quotes

Quoted

Quotes are widely used in scripting languages, including (but not limited to) Bash, SQL, Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, JavaScript. However, there is no universal rule for quotes. Most languages support single quote (') or double quote ("), while others have their own quotes like triple quote (''' or """), or braces ({, }). When one should code in a combination of different languages, the quotes would definitely confues programmers, not mentioning variable substitution, regular expression, etc.

Different outputs in Tcl - Stdout vs Return Value

When both set a {hi} and puts "hi" echo a "hi" in an interactive tcl shell, what is the difference between them?

Clarification on "output"
1. standard output
puts command will output to stdout by default.

% puts "hello"

hello

2. return values
set hi {hello} has a return value hello and will echo back to user

% set hi {hello}

hello

To make things clear, look at this example.

% set ret [puts "hello"]

hello

% puts $ret

(blank)

So that the return value from puts is blank.

Compound statements
Let move on to compound statements.

% set a "hello"; set b "hello2"

hello2

This gives a single line of output from `set b`, and a and b are both set.

% puts $a

hello

% puts $b

hello2

Here's two lines of output from stdout.

% puts "hello"; puts "hello2"

hello

hello2

Importance
Why is this important? What if we would like to store a calculated value into variable a.

% set a [expr 3+3]

6

% puts $a

6

This is what we expected. However, if we wrote another version of expr that output the result into stdout.

% set a [set b [expr 3+3]; puts $b]

6

% puts $a

(blank)
We get nothing.

Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to print to screen from many functions. Because this would make the testing difficult, if not impossible. Usually, assert will compare the return result to expected result, while the output to standard output are ignored. Despite all that, we can still try to test function which output to stdout. The idea is to trap the stdout. This assert for stdout would look like this pseudo code:

procedure assertStdout (expected, command) {

  create out for this instance

  execute command > out

  flush out

  return expected == out

}

One trick is that if multiple assertStdout procedures are running, 'out's must be distinct in order to keep thread-safe.

The echo back of tcl might be of use, but it could confuse people with the output from within procedures. However, it is mandatory to distinguish them for a programmer. Other scripting languages like shell does not have such echo back, but that doesn't mean it is OK to output from many functions for them. Especially, for compicated software that requires a thorough test, standard out or output to file everywhere would definitely bring down the testing.

Snapshot in UI Testing

If you have experience in JUnit or other testing tools, you probably know the importance of setup and teardown methods. These two methods help build a testing environment. However, when it comes to UI testing, it is not the case. UI testing means taking a long time, boring, and random exceptions. What's more, every time an error occurs, which might be caused either by a typo or by the tested codes, the only solution is to start over again from the very beginning. This is boring!

If we could take a snapshot at certain points (which are called save points), we could easily get started from those points. It should be time efficient. It certainly save a lot of time otherwise wasted in setting up the environment again. What's more, you can benefit from reproducing some random errors. If a snapshot were taken just before it occurs, the error would probably show up again, which also helps reduce the number of bugs.

It is not too hard to implement such a system. There are various ways though. It can be implemented as a functionality of the testing tools, or it could be bounded with the help of underlying systems. One good candidate is the virtual machine. Most VMMs, including open source ones, have a similar function. Taking snapshot takes seconds to minutes, depending on the implementations of VMM and the size of the virtual machine. We could take multiple snapshots, and rollback to a certain one, and even make branches. Although making use of VMM might seem easier, it is harder, but necessary, to integrate the snapshot into the testing tools. Taking snapshot should be as simple as setting breakpoints in debug. 

Expecting analytical tools for individuals

Analytical tools for websites are everywhere. However, analytical tools for individuals are rare. Google web history might be one, but has much less functions compared to its analytics.

One may wonder why would we need an analytical tool for individuals. The reason is that tracing one's activities is interesting (as long as it's not privacy related). As it should be helpful to a website, an analytical tool for individual would benefit the user and even provide suggestions on time management. The analytical tool for individual has to be

1. automatic; users won't log each into a document manually.
2. complete; a partial result is of mere use.
3. precise; an imprecise log will lead to fault result.

Of these characters, automatic is the most important. A user is usually not willing to log his/her activities manually. Users are not able to log each activity precisely. However logging is a required step in time management, without which analyzing would be impossible.

It would be difficult to implement such an analytical tool, especially for fine-grained user activities. There are different operating systems, browsers, etc. Besides, there are hundreds of thousands of activities outside computer world.

Seamless mode of virtual machines could be improved.

Thanks to Windows, we are so used to Ctrl+Tab. (What? You are using a device called mouse?)

Virtual machine has advantages over host machines, though it is usually because of the users rather than the OS itself. Consider the case that you are using Linux as your host OS, but you would also like the the benefits from Windows, besides you get an licensed version. You might be using VirtualBox, or VMware products. They both have a seamless mode which integrates the guest OS into your host OS. This blurs the edge between the host and the guest. You might not notice that the applications are running on different machines. I could watch from Windows Media Player and update my Ubuntu at the same time.

All seems good before you come to a keyboard-only guru. The 'Ctrl+Tab' simply won't work when you want to switch between host and guest. The focus will not be released, when it is captured by the guest, unless the 'host key' is pressed. This is not an idea 'seamless' mode, where even gurus will not notice the switching from guest from host.

There are two possible trends of seamless mode for virtual machines on Linux. One is to make use of workspace on Linux. A workspace is like a separate root window on windows and the number of workspace can be changed by users. A virtual machine could use one entire workspace for the guest OS. This is especially convenient if the guest OS is a single workspace operating system. Another possibility is to make guest applications more like host applications. This is similar to Wine. However, one might still want to keep the original theme from guest OS.

A 'seamless mode' is a very good start point for improved user experience.

A screen shot of seamless mode of VirtualBox.