When I updated my LZW reference code to use the latest C++ features, I abstracted my input and output functions using templates. Data was read and written using the iostreams paradigm, which requires simple classes that implement just a few functions. Would I have been better off using the iterator paradigm instead? The C++ algorithms [...]

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Windows users who need a command line connection to another system via telnet or SSH are big fans of PuTTY. It’s free, it has every feature you need, and it’s reliable. One thing many people would like to do is use PuTTY as a component in their program. Apparently this comes up so often enough [...]

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This summer I’m teaching a graduate class, Principles of UNIX, which is more or less a crash course in the Mother of All Operating Systems. One of our early topics is email on UNIX, in which I try to impart to the class just how transformative email was back in the day. For early Internet [...]

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