Forgetting about the Problem of Memory

There’s a pattern that emerged in software some time ago, that bothers me: in a nutshell, it is that it’s become acceptable to assume that memory is unlimited. More precisely, it is the… | Continue reading


@davmac.wordpress.com | 2 years ago

Hammers and Nails, and Operator Overloads

A response to “Spooky action at a distance” by Drew DeVault. As Abraham Maslow said in 1966, “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything … | Continue reading


@davmac.wordpress.com | 3 years ago

Is C++ type-safe? (There’s two right answers)

I recently allowed myself to be embroiled in an online discussion regarding Rust and C++. It started with a comment (from someone else) complaining how Rust advocates have a tendency to hijack C++ … | Continue reading


@davmac.wordpress.com | 3 years ago

Escape from System D, episode VI: freedom in sight

I don’t write often enough about my init-system-slash-service-manager, Dinit ( Lots of things have happened since I began writing it, and this year I’m in a new country with a new job, … | Continue reading


@davmac.wordpress.com | 4 years ago

Thoughts on password prompts and secure desktop environments

I’ve been thinking a little lately about desktop security – what makes a desktop system (with a graphical interface) secure or insecure? How is desktop security supposed to work, in par… | Continue reading


@davmac.wordpress.com | 5 years ago

Bad Utmp Implementations in Glibc and FreeBSD

I recently released another version – 0.5.0 – of Dinit, the service manager / init system. There were a number of minor improvements, including to the build system (just running “… | Continue reading


@davmac.wordpress.com | 5 years ago

On the vagaries of init systems

When I started working on Dinit I had only a fairly vague idea of the particulars of various other init systems, being familiar mainly with Sys V init and to a lesser extent, Systemd and Upstart (t… | Continue reading


@davmac.wordpress.com | 6 years ago

Wrap on integer overflow is not a good idea

A discussion of undefined behaviour and compiler optimisation, particularly in regards to signed integer overflow. C (and C++) compilers are becoming notorious for exploiting the notion of undefine… | Continue reading


@davmac.wordpress.com | 6 years ago

Escape from System D, episode V

Well, yes, I’m still working on Dinit, my portable and “lightweight” intended-as-an-alternative to Systemd. The first commit was on August 27, 2015 – just under three years … | Continue reading


@davmac.wordpress.com | 6 years ago