Articles
Deep-dive technical articles on computer science, networking, and systems programming.
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Type Qualifiers
The three C type qualifiers, const, volatile, and restrict, what they mean, and how to apply them to variables, pointers, and objects.
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RFC
What an RFC is, how the RFC Editor works, the types of RFCs, the Internet standards track, and the tradition of joke RFCs.
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Processor Modes
Why grouping similar CPU instructions together improves performance by reducing mode-switching overhead, illustrated with the Pentium MMX example.
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Null Pointer
Why NULL is reserved for pointer operations in C, how it is defined, and why mixing it with integer zero causes problems.
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Magic Numbers
Why hardcoded numeric literals in code are harmful, and how to replace them with named constants, macros, enumerations, or typed constants.
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Macro Usage
A key rule for defining macros in C, always parenthesize macro definitions to avoid operator precedence bugs.
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Macro Overloading
How a macro and a function can share the same name in C, and how to force the function version to be called by wrapping the name in parentheses.
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Linux Bootup
A walkthrough of the Linux boot process, from kernel initialization through init, runlevels, and getty login.
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Introduction to Templates
How C++ templates enable generic programming, template functions, behind-the-scenes instantiation, overloading, specialisation, explicit instantiation, and template classes.
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Introduction to Operator Overloading
How C++ operator overloading lets you define the behaviour of operators for user-defined types, covering member functions, global functions, friend functions, and unary operators.
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Introduction to DNS
A comprehensive introduction to the Domain Name System, name space, resolution, caching, and DNS configuration.
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Introduction to DHCP
How DHCP dynamically allocates IP addresses, message structure, options, the DORA flow, leases, and bindings.
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Introduction to C++ Streams
A comprehensive introduction to the C++ stream I/O library, covering cin, cout, cerr, clog, stream operators, error handling, and character-level input.
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Global Variables
Why global variables are harmful to software design, and what environment variables and lessons from C and .NET era teach us.
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Game Trees
An introduction to game trees and the minimax algorithm for building AI in two-player games like chess and tic-tac-toe.
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Debug and Release Builds
The differences between debug and release builds, symbol tables, and how to use GDB for debugging compiled programs.
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Comments
Best practices for writing code comments, documentation tools like JavaDoc and Doxygen, and using CVS and XML documentation comments.
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C++ Streams and Formatting Manipulators
How to control output formatting in C++ using ios_base flags, setf/unsetf, precision, width, fill, and stream manipulators.