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C Vu articles
I wrote for the ACCU.org members-only journal "C Vu" (ISSN 1354-3164, not formally peer-reviewed but well-edited) starting from 1995. I found it to be a good learning environment: if I wrote an article with a misunderstanding, someone would correct it (and the journal being members-only reduces the odds of that situation later being misjudged by an overly-hasty potential employer or similar). The journal's style has changed a bit since the early days. Here is a list of my articles for reference.- Blaming Organisational Incompetence on Inclusivity?
- C Vu, 36(4):7-9, September 2024. (Crowdstrike, care in coding, Twitter/X toxicity & unintended consequences of engagement optimisation)
- Adding Python Scripts to PyPI.
- C Vu, 36(3):8, July 2024.
- Long Lines of Python.
- C Vu, 36(3):3, July 2024.
- Mental models in design.
- C Vu, 35(5):3-4, November 2023.
- Standard libraries are faster than you think.
- C Vu, 35(3):10, July 2023. (vector implementations and Box64-style emulation)
- Avoiding 4 in Customer-facing Numbers.
- C Vu, 35(2):5-6, May 2023. (modifying C++17
charconv
base-9 for tetraphobia) - Developing on a Chromebook.
- C Vu, 34(5):8, November 2022.
- On Code Optimisation Part 1 in CVu 34.3.
- C Vu, 34(4):9, September 2022.
- Inline Confusion.
- C Vu, 34(3):7, July 2022. (why use
static
inlines in plain C) - A C++ Quiz.
- C Vu, 33(6):9-10, January 2022.
- Working for Equity.
- C Vu, 33(4):7, September 2021. (on entrepreneurs' recruitment issues)
- The Tips Jar.
- C Vu, 33(3):13, July 2021. (`fix a class of faults' + partial Python 3 on RISC OS)
- Avoid "proofreading golf".
- C Vu, 33(2):8, May 2021.
- Revival of RISC OS?
- C Vu, 33(2):6, May 2021. (for introductory coding on low-end Raspberry Pi models, but Python still on 2 and gcc still pre-C++11)
- Machine-sensitive Makefiles.
- C Vu, 33(2):4, May 2021. (via conditional macros set by shell file-existence tests)
- Professionalism in programming: does it translate?
- C Vu, 33(2):7, May 2021. (敬业程序员协会/敬業程序員協會)
- Making a FreeBSD Port.
- C Vu, 32(6):3-4, January 2021.
- Is Gitee China's GitHub?
- C Vu, 32(5):5, November 2020.
- GPL out, Apache in.
- C Vu, 32(5):11-12, November 2020. (GPL now widely misunderstood as denying commercial use of code)
- Book review: Girl Decoded by Rana el Kaliouby and Carol Colman.
- C Vu, 32(4):23-24, September 2020.
- Jumping around in Emacs.
- C Vu, 32(4):12, September 2020.
- When Will Python 2 End: An Update.
- C Vu, 32(3):9, July 2020. (Python 2 due to be in Ubuntu 20.04 till 2025 or paid till 2030; unclear how long Pip's servers will support pip 20 after 2021; Python 2 was going to be in CentOS till 2029---update December 2020: CentOS changed this to end-2021 and RHEL8/OEL8 to 2024)
- Static analysis in GCC and Clang.
- C Vu, 32(3):11, July 2020.
- The trouble with GitHub forks.
- C Vu, 32(3):10, July 2020. (The path of least resistance is to let them go out of date. Update: by November GitHub had implemented a way to send pull requests downstream to forks, and in 2021 made "Fetch upstream" a UI option.)
- Thoughts on ``Computational Thinking''.
- C Vu, 32(2):8-10, May 2020. (Pitfalls of trying to assess it in children; see also correction in C Vu, 32(3):20, July 2020)
- Adding Python 3 Compatibility to Python 2 Code.
- C Vu, 32(1):7-8, March 2020.
- "HTTPS Everywhere" Less Harmful Now.
- C Vu, 32(1):5-6, March 2020. (A follow-up to my 2016 article. The protocol has improved and public Wi-Fi's treatment of HTTP has worsened, but low-income users on old devices are still a concern.)
- Letter to the Editor.
- C Vu, 32(1):20, March 2020.
- Why I don't develop for iOS.
- C Vu, 31(6):5-6, January 2020. (It costs too much just to find out if your app is allowed or not)
- Python 2 has setdefault.
- C Vu, 31(6):9, January 2020. (I somehow missed it for 19 years)
- How to stay out of a webmaster's bad books.
- C Vu, 31(6):13, January 2020. (Try identifying your program in the User-Agent, and save your downloads instead of hammering my server thousands of times a day)
- GitHub's Crazy Contribution-Graph Game.
- C Vu, 31(1):8-11, March 2019. (How I ended up playing it as a favour, with unintended consequences like delaying commits to other days. Current streak 1446; previous streak 1026)
- China's New AI School Textbooks.
- C Vu, 30(6):13, January 2019. (I suspected the "AI" word was imposed on the authors by the series editor)
- When Will Python 2 End?
- C Vu, 30(6):8, January 2019. (Canonical's commitment to 10 years of support for Ubuntu 18.04 meant they were promising to maintain Python 2 until 2028, but they later clarified that support after 2023 is paid-only.)
- Don't Brush Bugs Under The Carpet.
- C Vu, 30(5):4, November 2018. (A PrimerPooler user stopped giving me details on finding a local workaround)
- One SSH Key Per Machine!
- C Vu, 30(4):13, September 2018. (A common private key is a bad idea, especially if an admin's new assistant accidentally puts it on the Web)
- Don't Assume Any Non-Zero
exit()
Will Fail! - C Vu, 30(3):8, July 2018. (Unix tools using POSIX
wait()
get only the low 8 bits of your exit code) - A Brief Introduction to Docker.
- C Vu, 29(5):8, November 2017.
- Why I Avoid PHP.
- C Vu, 29(4):9-10, September 2017. (Existing PHP code tends to be worse than it looks)
- Thonny: Python IDE for Beginners (review).
- C Vu, 29(4):5, September 2017. (Update: beware Thonny 4 contains a pro-Ukraine message which might get you in trouble in some countries; Thonny 3 is not affected)
- A Hollywood Take on Dangling Pointers?
- C Vu, 29(2):6-7, May 2017. (A parody film script to explain a danger of
cstr
) - Delivering Bad News from QA.
- C Vu, 28(5):4-5, November 2016. (The wrong approach has cost people their careers)
- Random Confusion.
- C Vu, 28(4):10-11, September 2016. (BSD-manual unclarity on
rand()
vsrandom()
, plus XorShift) - An Introduction to OpenMP.
- C Vu, 28(4):8-9, September 2016.
- Why Floats Are Never Equal.
- C Vu, 28(4):5, September 2016. (Well they are sometimes, but unexpected things happen e.g. compiler changes precision on register spill)
- How to Block Russia From Your Website.
- C Vu, 28(3):9-10, July 2016. (Russia's anti-extremism law is too indiscriminate; even some ACCU code reviews could count as "extremist" by Russian standards)
- Book review: Make Games With Python by Sean M. Tracey.
- C Vu, 28(1):23, March 2016. (I'm sorry to say I couldn't really recommend giving this book to a child)
- "HTTPS Everywhere" Considered Harmful.
- C Vu, 27(6):8, January 2016. (Especially for people whose only connection to the Internet is via 2G GSM, reading public-service articles that could be identified by traffic analysis anyway)
- Use the DOM Inspector.
- C Vu, 27(4):22, September 2015.
- WattOS R9 Worth Knowing About.
- C Vu, 27(4):13, September 2015. (old hardware)
- Ode to the BBDB.
- C Vu, 27(4):5, September 2015.
- Letter to the Editor.
- C Vu, 27(3):21, July 2015.
- Golang programming on AppEngine.
- C Vu, 27(3):8, July 2015.
- Simple Android programming with WebKit.
- C Vu, 27(1):13-14, March 2015.
- Using ACCU Membership for Unique IDs.
- C Vu, 27(1):5, March 2015.
- Perl is a Better Sed, and Python 2 is Good.
- C Vu, 26(5):10-12, November 2014.
- Checking Websites for Specific Changes.
- C Vu, 26(3):8, July 2014.
- From Raspberry Pi to the Cloud.
- C Vu, 26(1):17-18, March 2014. (porting to AppEngine and OpenShift 2)
- The Soundtrack to Code 2: Going Classical.
- C Vu, 26(1):11, March 2014.
- The Windows XP Threat: A Call to Action.
- C Vu, 25(5):7-8, November 2013. (I tried to encourage webmasters to detect and warn their Windows XP visitors to upgrade to GNU/Linux)
- Future-Proofing your Python Scripts.
- C Vu, 20(2):18, April 2008. (Speculation on making Python 2 code compatible with Python 3 which wasn't then complete)
- An NSLU2 "Slug".
- C Vu, 19(5):4, October 2007.
- One Laptop per Child.
- C Vu, 19(5):18, October 2007.
- A Brief Introduction to Cygwin.
- C Vu, 19(4):8, August 2007.
- Customising a Diskless Linux.
- C Vu, 19(3):16-17, June 2007. (Knoppix remastering for a media-desk application)
- A Python Gotcha.
- C Vu, 19(1):9, February 2007. (Floating-point precision loss could lead to an infinite loop in an early version of Gradint's scheduler)
- Book review: Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance by Thatcher et al.
- C Vu, 19(1):32, February 2007.
- QEMU as a Means of Software Distribution.
- C Vu, 18(3):20, April 2006. (At the time it could run virtual machines without needing administrator privileges)
- Putting Old Modems to Use.
- C Vu, 18(1):17, February 2006. (fax, SMS, textphone, dialer)
- ROX Filer.
- C Vu, 17(6):31, December 2005. (brief review)
- Recycling throwaway hardware.
- C Vu, 17(5):39-40, October 2005. (Debian-3.1 based scripts to navigate educational recordings on a monitorless PC for a refugee)
- Cross-Compiling Python Scripts into Windows Applications.
- C Vu, 17(3):16, June 2005. (Used by Gradint; works with Python 2.3 but not 2.5+)
- Automatically Generating Word Documents.
- C Vu, 17(2):26-28, April 2005.
- Book review: Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQs by John Arthorne and Chris Laffra.
- C Vu, 17(1):42, February 2005 (Web only; printed in C Vu, 18(3):39, April 2006).
- Automatically-Generated Nightmares.
- C Vu, 16(6):30, December 2004. (on being asked to debug a 100-page printout of automatically-generated code)
- Book review: Contributing to Eclipse: Principles, Patterns and Plug-ins by Erich Gamma & Kent Beck.
- C Vu, 16(5):36, October 2004.
- Using a Live Linux Distribution.
- C Vu, 16(4):19, August 2004.
- I Wish They'd Use the Standard.
- C Vu, 15(5):23, October 2003. (Bugs in early versions of FoxMail)
- Intrusive Identifiers.
- C Vu, 15(3):16, June 2003. (Undefine
format
,divert
andshift
before running English text through M4) - TCC review.
- C Vu, 15(3):18, June 2003.
- Book review: Reader's Digest How to do just about anything on the Internet.
- C Vu, 15(3):34, June 2003. Not recommended.
- A Python Project.
- C Vu, 15(2):24-26 and 15(3):21-24, April & June 2003. (2-part article about an early version of Gradint's code)
- A Programmer's View of Book Writing.
- C Vu, 15(1):14, February 2003.
- PDF Problems---Can We Learn From Them?
- C Vu, 14(6):26, December 2002. (Acrobat 4 failing to properly tell users it can't handle version 5)
- Don't Touch That Clock!
- C Vu, 14(4):17, August 2002. (overnight
wget
downloads crashed by NTP-sync) - An Introduction to 4DML.
- C Vu, 14(4):26-27, August 2002. Also: 4DML Revisited. C Vu, 14(5):23, October 2002.
- Quick thought on Ruby.
- C Vu, 14(4):11, August 2002. (it's more like Perl than Python)
- On Keeping Notes.
- C Vu, 14(3), June 2002.
- On Re-Inventing the Wheel.
- C Vu, 14(2), April 2002.
- My Top 25 Unix/Linux Utilities.
- C Vu, 14(1), February 2002.
- Book review: Java and XSLT by Eric Burke.
- C Vu, 14(1), February 2002.
- Book review: Data Structures & Algorithms in Java 2ed by Michael Goodrich & Roberto Tamassia.
- C Vu, 13(4), August 2001.
- POVray review.
- C Vu, 13(3), June 2001.
- Emacs (long-term review).
- C Vu, 13(3), June 2001.
- Conference review: ACM CHI 2001.
- C Vu, 13(2), April 2001.
- Book review: Professional Linux Programming by Neil Matthew & Richard Stones.
- C Vu, 13(2), April 2001.
- Some Thoughts on Academic Papers.
- C Vu, 13(1), February 2001.
- Various Ergonomic Equipment.
- C Vu, 13(1), February 2001.
- Apache Cocoon and XML Publishing.
- C Vu, 12(6), November 2000.
- ED: Should You Know It?
- C Vu, 12(6), November 2000. (Also correction in C Vu, 13(1), February 2001.)
- Visual Control and COM.
- C Vu, 12(5), September 2000.
- Appropriate Teaching.
- C Vu, 12(5), September 2000.
- SDF and FunnelWeb review.
- C Vu, 12(5), September 2000.
- (Shell script interfaces in) LUCI
- C Vu, 12(5), September 2000.
- Burning Your Own CDs.
- C Vu, 12(5), September 2000.
- Book review: Designing Effective Speech Interfaces by Susan Weinschenk & Dean Barker.
- C Vu, 12(5), September 2000.
- Book review: Teach Yourself GTK+ Programming in 21 Days by Donna Martin et al.
- C Vu, 12(5), September 2000.
- Book review: Business Modelling with UML by Hans-Erik Erikson & Magnus Penker
- Overload 39, 2000.
- ISO 8601: A Standard You Should Know About.
- C Vu, 12(4), July 2000.
- An Introduction to Fuzzy Logic.
- C Vu, 12(3), May 2000.
- A Personal View.
- C Vu, 12(3), May 2000. (Fear of being criminalised by unintentional patent infringement)
- An Issue of Patents.
- C Vu, 12(3), May 2000. (on adequate disclosure to prove prior art)
- Reinventing Wheels.
- C Vu, 12(3), May 2000.
- The Clock is Still Ticking.
- C Vu, 12(3), May 2000. (S2G in 2038 and Y2K sliding-window fixes)
- An Introduction to CGI Programming.
- C Vu, 12(2), March 2000.
- Domain Name Registration.
- C Vu, 12(2), March 2000. (negative experience helping a friend register a
.net
domain) - Doc++ review.
- C Vu, 12(1), January 2000.
- Is there a "best language"?
- C Vu, 12(1), January 2000.
- Syntax Highlighting.
- C Vu, 12(1), January 2000.
- Commenting Your Work.
- C Vu, 11(6):18, September 1999.
- On Configurability and Consistency.
- C Vu, 11(6):10-11, September 1999.
- Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Edition review.
- C Vu, 11(6):70-76, September 1999. (Also some GNU/Linux tools that worked better)
- Book review: Lingo Sorcery (2nd ed) by Peter Small.
- C Vu, 11(6):67, September 1999.
- Difference Structures in C/C++.
- C Vu, 11(5):13-14, July 1999. (on writing C or C++ in the style of Prolog)
- A Personal View.
- C Vu, 11(5):10-12, July 1999. (on being made anxious by university careers-service rhetoric)
- What's In a Struct?
- C Vu, 11(4):23-33, May 1999.
- Using Bit Patterns.
- C Vu, 11(4):47-48, May 1999.
- Tools and Un-smart Pointers.
- C Vu, 11(4):50-51, May 1999.
- Pointers in Hyperspace.
- C Vu, 11(4):48-49, May 1999.
- Compile Time Assertions in C Revisited.
- C Vu, 11(4):51-52, May 1999. (Jon Jagger made a correction to this in C Vu 11(5):39-42, July 1999.)
- So You Want to Do Research?
- C Vu, 11(4):15, May 1999. (The 10 funniest responses to my informal enquiries)
- Writing for Voice Synthesisers.
- C Vu, 11(3):13, March 1999.
- Looking Stupid v Being Stupid.
- C Vu, 11(3):6-7, March 1999. (on admitting one has learned from mistakes rather than covering them up)
- Boolean Assumptions.
- C Vu, 11(3):18, March 1999.
- Assumptions.
- C Vu, 11(3):12-13, March 1999.
- Book review: A Programmer's Guide to Sound by Tim Kientzle.
- C Vu, 11(3), March 1999 (Web only, not in printed issue).
- Book review: Software Reliability Engineering by John Musa.
- C Vu, 11(3):64-65, March 1999.
- Book review: Interface Design: The Art of Developing Easy-to-Use Software by Peter Bickford.
- C Vu, 11(3):65-67, March 1999. (Includes some accessibility-related aggression, plus author's response. I'm glad to see Apple improved since then.)
- A Personal View of Microsoft Visual C++
- C Vu, 11(3):70-71, March 1999.
- Naming Conventions for Spoken Readability.
- C Vu, 11(2):26-28, January 1999.
- The Scope of ACCU.
- C Vu, 11(2):4, January 1999. (on a `C++ vs Java' discussion)
- letter about Japanese encodings
- C Vu, 11(2):15-16, January 1999.
- TeraTerm Pro 2.3 & Various X servers (review).
- C Vu, 11(2):70-72, January 1999.
- Security Implications of Running a Web Gateway.
- C Vu, 11(1):36-38, November 1998.
- A Letter on Java.
- C Vu, 11(1):28-29, November 1998. (Character-encoding handlers in early versions)
- Ming GNU C++ and Programmer's File Editor review.
- C Vu, 11(1):59-61, November 1998.
- An Overflow Problem.
- C Vu, 10(3):37-40, March 1998. Also: A Random Missed Message. C Vu, 8(4):21-22, May 1998 (plus various responses from others in the same issue)
- Symptoms of a Composer Doing Too Much With Computers.
- C Vu, 10(3):12, March 1998.
- Why I left GeoCities.
- C Vu, 10(3):15, March 1998. (Their newly-added popup advertising spoiled my page's accessibility for blind people)
- Bill Gates' Lecture at Cambridge (report).
- C Vu, 10(2):4-5, January 1998.
- A Little Thought on Qualifications.
- C Vu, 10(1):44-45, November 1997.
- Automatic Optimisation Aids.
- C Vu, 10(1):45-46, November 1997.
- Book review: Beyond MIDI: The Handbook of Musical Codes.
- C Vu, 9(6):72-73, September 1997.
- Palmtop C++.
- C Vu, 9(5):38-40, July 1997. (This was about programming the Psion Series 3a)
- Dr Dobb's Journal (report).
- C Vu, 9(5):6-7, July 1997. Also C Vu, 9(6):6-7, September 1997; C Vu, 10(1):8-10, November 1997; C Vu, 10(2):15, January 1998.
- ACCU and the Disabled.
- C Vu, 9(4), May 1997.
- The "Professional Touch": Using Double Bezier Cubics.
- C Vu, 9(4), May 1997. (Trying to improve my music program's font)
- Introducing PCM.
- C Vu, 9(4), May 1997.
- Randomness.
- C Vu, 9(3):7-9, March 1997. (Responses were in the following issue)
- Automatic Calibration and "Heuristic" Programming.
- C Vu, 9(3):10, March 1997.
- Computer Music Composition.
- C Vu, 8(6):40-41, September 1996.
- HP LaserJet Programming (review).
- C Vu, 8(5):62, July 1996.
- Writing Applications for the Visually Impaired.
- C Vu, 8(4):26-28, May 1996.
- Parallel and Distributed Background Processing.
- C Vu, 8(4):30-32, May 1996.
- Multi-Player Games.
- C Vu, 8(4):24-26, May 1996. (I wrote a networked text-adventure for blind students at New College Worcester)
- Using Persistent Data.
- C Vu, 8(3):34, March 1996.
- Increase your Program's Execution Speed?
- C Vu, 8(1):27-32, November 1995.
- Various learning discussions (in letters to the editor etc)
- "Write First---Join After" C Vu, 7(4), May 1995; C Vu, 7(5):30-32, July 1995; C Vu, 7(6):44-47, September 1995; C Vu, 8(1):12-13, November 1995; C Vu, 8(3):-56, March 1996; C Vu, 8(4):15, May 1996; C Vu, 9(2), January 1997; C Vu, 9(4), May 1997; C Vu, 9(6):18-19, September 1997; C Vu, 10(1):16-18, November 1997.
All material © Silas S. Brown unless otherwise stated.
Acrobat is an Adobe trademark.
Android is a trademark of Google LLC.
Apache is a registered trademark of The Apache Software Foundation.
AppEngine is possibly a trademark of Google LLC.
Apple is a trademark of Apple Inc.
Debian is a trademark owned by Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of the FreeBSD Foundation.
GitHub is a trademark of GitHub Inc.
HTC and Touch are trademarks of HTC Corporation.
Java is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation in the US and possibly other countries.
Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.
Python is a trademark of the Python Software Foundation.
Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
RISC OS is a trademark of Pace Micro Technology Plc which might now have passed to RISC OS Ltd but I was unable to find definitive documentation.
Twitter and Tweet are trademarks of Twitter Inc.
Unix is a trademark of The Open Group.
Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.
Any other trademarks I mentioned without realising are trademarks of their respective holders.