We're not dead yet...

It has been a while since I posted to my blog. I've been fairly busy moving into my new home. I'm in now and the computer is set up. So it is time to blog again...

We have been hiring people to work in my department, Software Quality Assurance. Because our software products are development and system administrator tools, our QA staff needs to know how to program and how to validate the information our tools are providing; do you know AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Linux (Redhat and SuSE) and Windows? Can you confirm the Disk I/O, Process, Thread, NIC, etc. information is correct? Can you write a multithread application which is guaranteed to deadlock so our tools will detect the deadlock? Can you write a J2EE application that exercises all J2EE technologies (EJB, JDBC, Servlets, JSPs, RMI, JNDI, etc.)?

These are the sort of skills the QA staff at my company possess. We interview a lot of people. Most don't have a clue about the basics. No one (myself included) had all the knowledge necessary to do the job well. So how do we do it? An ability to learn and find answers.

As we hire people, some work out but many more don't make it through the probation period; we either terminate them or they quit. I've been trying to put my finger on what the survives have that the others don't and I think I figured it out. Those who survive have a hacker mentality. One guy I hired, Jerry, found this magazine and thought it would be right up my alley. It was called alt.2600.

It has been over a decade since I hung out in alt.2600. When I saw the magazine I thought I'd point Jerry to the alt.2600 newsgroup. I was surprised to find out it was gone. I checked google.com to see if the archives were there and there was no hint of alt.2600. If you google "alt 2600" you will find the FAQ and references to the newsgroup but the newsgroup itself is gone. The last time the FAQ was updated was April 2004.

The magazine made me realize though that hackers think differently. Case in point, when Kryponite locks came out they were advertised as impossible to cut with bolt cutters. I knew someone who took 4 foot bolt cutters and tried. He bent the bolt cuts. I looked at the lock and realized the locking mechanism overlapped the Kryponite bar by 2mm. A swift whack at this point with a 2 pound hammer and the the lock popped open. Most people looked at the ad and tried to figure out how to cut the bar (the ads indicated the bar was uncuttable). I stepped back and thought, the problem is not cutting the bar. This is narrow thinking. The real problem is removing the lock from what it held. Cutting the bar was only one way to do this.

Hackers get into web sites by looking for the weak points. They don't let the requirements lead them. The login web page only lets me enter limited information; don't use the login web page. Create your own web page and set the FORM action to point to the other web site. Design your FORM so you can send more information. Do something you know will fail just to see if there is useful information in the error message. The more you can reveal about the technology the more you can determine the weak point.

When I test a piece of software I'm looking for the weak point. This ability to see things form a different point of view lets me find the bugs the developer did not see.

Is being a hacker a dying art?

Sun is not the only vendor of Java

Many people who know about the Java programming language only know about the Sun implementation. But there are actually different vendors. There is:

IBM
HP
Apple
BEA
Blackdown

If you are programming Java on the AIX operating system (IBM's version of UNIX) then you would be using IBM Java. If you are programming Java on the HP-UX operating system (Hewlett-Packard's version of UNIX) then you would be using HP Java. Similarly, if you are programming Java on MacOS X then you are using Apple Java. BEA is not a creator of an operating system. They create a J2EE application server called WebLogic. It typically ships with the Sun version of Java and BEA's version of Java. The BEA version is called JRockit. Finally, Blackdown is an implementation associated with Linux.

The idea behind all these different implementations of Java is that they are better in some way. You should get better performance on your web applications if you use JRockit on the BEA WebLogic application server. If you are running Linux, the Blackdown implementation should give you better performance.

If you don't have access to HP-UX, AIX or MacOS X then you will not have the opportunity to use the OS manufacturers specific version. If you want though, you can download JRockit from BEA. Go to the BEA website, select Products then select JRockit. On the main JRockit page is an option to download JRockit for free. You can get Blackdown for free from the Blackdown website.

Identifying UNIX versions

I work in an environment with numerous different versions of UNIX and Linux. Sometimes I'll be accessing multiple machines from my workstation. Occasionally, I need to confirm the OS for the current terminal. The way to determine which version of UNIX you are using is with:

uname -a

For Solaris you would get something like:

SunOS rd-r220-01 5.8 Generic_117350-26 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-60

For HP-UX you would get something like:

HP-UX l2000-cs B.11.11 U 9000/800 158901567 unlimited-user license

or

HP-UX rdhpux04 B.11.23 U ia64 0216397005 unlimited-user license

For AIX you would get something like:

AIX rd-aix09 2 5 00017F8A4C00

From this it is a little harder to see the version. It is actually AIX 5.2. If you check the man page for uname it will help you decode the hexidecimal number at the end. This will tell you things like 4C is the model ID and the 00 is the submodel ID. Additionally, AIX uses other switches to tell you about things the -a normally gives you on other platforms. For example,

uname -p # the processor architecture
uname -M # the model

For Linux things are a little tricker. The uname -a will tell you it is Linux but it will not tell you if it is SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10.0, Redhat AS 5.0, et cetera. To figure this out, look for a text file in /etc/ which ends in 'release', i.e.

cat /etc/*release

This text file will tell you which distribution of Linux you are using.

Going from small programs to large programs

Whenever I'm interviewing someone (or being interviewed) I like to know how many lines of code you have created for one project. I'm not looking for a magic number; people tend to have either programmed a few hundred to a thousand lines of code and others will have worked on something in the tens of thousands.

The reason for asking this is because you can be a junior programmer and still survive programming a few hundreds lines of code.

The trick to programming thousands of lines of code is DON'T. When junior programmers write a program they tend to write the entire program at once. If you are programming 100 lines of code, you can keep the entire concept in your head. Trying to remember 500,000 lines of code would be impossible for all but a few people.

The way you do it is to take the program and break it into sub-programs. You keep breaking it down until you have 5000 small snippets of code. They you write one of those snippets.

For example, I assigned a co-op student to write a small Bourne shell script. Our product builds in parts and has dependencies. The build system puts all the build output in a specific directory (let's call it $BUILD_DIR). The structure is:

$BUILD_DIR/$PRODUCT/$BRANCH/$BUILD/

What I wanted for the script is for the user to specify the product, branch and build. Then the script would scan the build log for references to any other product in $BUILD_DIR.

The co-op student wrote a getops loop to get the inputs from the user. Inside the loop was a case statement for each input (product, branch, build, help). In each case statement was an if/else statement for, if you did or didn't get the needed input. If you did not get the needed input was a loop to list all the possible inputs.

As you can see, I'm writing the code to get input, parse it, deal with it, etc. all in one loop/case/if/else/loop structure.

How could this be written easier?

# Check that $BUILD_DIR is defined and exists

# Get the user input
# Save the product in $PRODUCT
# Save the branch in $BRANCH
# Save the build in $BUILD

# if $BUILD_DIR/$PRODUCT is not defined or does not exist
# list possible inputs for product
# exit

# if $BUILD_DIR/$PRODUCT/$BRANCH is not defined or does not exist
# list possible inputs for branch
# exit

# if $BUILD_DIR/$PRODUCT/$BRANCH/$BUILD is not defined or does not exist
# list possible inputs for build
# exit

# build a list of all other products (omit the current product)

# search $BUILD_DIR/$PRODUCT/$BRANCH/$BUILD for references to anything from
# list of all other products

# print the results

Each break is a separate concept. I would program one at a time. I am going to write the check for $BUILD_DIR. I'm going to think about all the possible problems. The variable could be undefined, check for that. The variable could have the wrong value, check for that. The directory might not be readable by me, check for that. I'd keep thinking of things like this. Once I am positive $BUILD_DIR will hold a good value, I forget about it and focus on getting input from the user. I'm just going to get input from the user. I'm not going to validate it is good input. I'm just going to parse the command line and save all the inputs. Once I have written that, perfectly, I'm move on to validating the $PRODUCT. This will be similar to validating the $BUILD_DIR. Maybe the code to validate $BUILD_DIR should be a subroutine and I can use it to validate $PRODUCT as well.

By breaking it down into small, manageable chunks it is just writing a bunch of small code snippets. If you can write one code snippet then writing a dozen is possible.

It is good to get into this habit with small programs. If you practise this technique on small programs then writing the large ones will come naturally.

Planning a multi-threaded application

I have used analogies to teach programming to people for over two decades. A while ago I realized that analogies aren't only good for teaching but sometimes you can apply the concepts from something completely different to programming (and you can apply programming concepts to other aspects of life).

For example, I used to talk about Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) using file cabinets, drawers, folders, index cards, etc. and I realized that systems libraries used when I was a kid (before computers were affordable) actually worked and the concepts helped to form RDBMS we see today. In other words, before computers existed, secretaries, clerks, librarians, etc. had to keep track of data (books, client information, etc.). If I wanted to search for a book by author they had a set of index cards sorted by author. If I wanted to search for a book by title they had a set of index cards sorted by title. The actual books were sorted, on the shelves, according to the Dewey Decimal System. If a book was added to the library, they had to insert it on a shelf (leave room for new books so you don't have to shift the entire collection) and an index card for each index was created. Same sort of thing happens for a database. You insert the record for the book in the database and then you update all the indices.

So, how does this relate to multi-threaded applications? Well, we just need to look at a multi-threaded application differently. A professor at U of T used things like Human, Male, Female, Baby, etc. or Animal, Mammal, etc. to teach object oriented design (OOD). I learned to used project management software; people were 'resources'. You planned the activities of resources. You created dependencies between two resources, e.g. Karen might be working on something but she need work from Bob opn day 4. So at day 4 there is a dependency between Bob and Karen. If the work Bob is doing will take 9 days, I want Bob to start 5 days before Karen or I want someone to help Bob so it will get done early or I want work for Karen to do while she is waiting for Bob to finish. Basic techniques to ensure my 'resources' are used efficiently.

What if we look at the threads in an application as 'resources' and use project planning software to make sure all the different threads are working together well. Or what about systems with multiple processors. Each processor could be a resource and I want to make sure they are utilitized efficiently. If the math co-processor will take 9 seconds to complete a computation and the main cpu will need the result in 4 seconds, I have the same options as with Karen and Bob. I can start the math computation 5 seconds before the cpu needs it, I can have 5 seconds of other work for the cpu while it waits for the math computation, I can put more math co-processors. As I type this I also realized, I could put a faster math co-processor. This means for the human scenario, I can put someone who is faster than Bob on the task so it will get completed in 4 days rather than 9 days.

So for everyone who thinks learning how to use project management software is only for managing project, think again.

Named pipes

If you are familiar with UNIX, you are familiar with pipes. For example, I can do:

ps -ef | sort | more

The ps command will output a list of all processes to stdout. Normally, this would be to the console window. The pipe (|) will tell UNIX to take the output of ps and make it the input to sort. Then the output from sort will become the input to more.

Without using pipes I could do:

ps -ef > temp_file1
sort < temp_file1 > temp_file2
rm temp_file1
more temp_file2
rm temp_file2

This is like using the pipe but instead we put the output of ps into temp_file1. Then we use temp_file1 as the input to sort and send the output to temp_file2. Finally, we use temp_file2 as the input to more. You should be able to see how this is a lot like the first example using pipes.

Now here is a third way using Named Pipes. To create a named pipe use:

mkfifo temp_file1

If you list this entry using ls -l you will see something like:

prw-r--r--   1 dgrainge staff          0 Mar 23 08:13 stdout

Notice the first letter is not - for a file or even d for a directory. It is p for a named pipe. Also the size of the 'file' is 0. We will need two shells to do this.

# shell 1
mkfifo temp_pipe1
mkfifo temp_pipe2
ps -ef > temp_pipe1            # this will block so switch to shell 2

# shell 2
sort < temp_pipe1 > temp_pipe2 # this will block so switch back to shell 1

# shell 1
more temp_pipe2
rm temp_pipe1
rm temp_pipe2

The interesting thing about this example is that we needed two shells to do this. At first this might seem like a downside but the truth is, this is a positive. I can do something like:

mkfifo stdout
mkfifo stderr

# shell 2
more stdout

# shell 3
more stderr

# shell 1
sh -x some_script.sh 1> stdout 2> stderr

The -x will turn on trace. Debug information will be output to stderr. By using the named pipes, I can redirect the regular output to shell 2 and the debug information to shell 3.

Windows Manage

Originally, there was Windows 3.1, Windows 9x and Windows NT. The 3.1 version was pretty much dead when Windows 95 came out. Windows 95/98/ME were okay but did not have the robustness of Windows NT.

If you wanted to use a home computer you'd go for Windows 9x but for a work environment they liked Windows NT. Windows NT 4.0 came before Windows 2000. Windows 2000 is REALLY Windows NT 5.0. If you look in the registry (regedit.exe) you will see evidence of NT 5.0. Windows XP Professional is Windows NT 6.0. Windows 2003 Server and Windows XP Professional are on par. One is server class and the other is workstation class.

Since Windows 2000, all of these (including Windows Vista) have an extra menu option when you right click on "My Computer". It is the Manage option. When you select Manage it opens up the Microsoft Management Console (mmc). You can even find this on Windows XP Home.

MMC is a framework that you can open other programs inside. If you go to the Control Panel, you will find things like Services, Disk Management, Event Viewer, etc. When you open up Manage, it opens the MMC with *ALL* these administrative tools in it. You can edit users/groups, manage disk drives, view events, create performance logs, etc.

Any place you can see "My Computer" you can right click on it and select Manage. This is a great shortcut to these administrative tools. You should give this area a peek and see what is available in there. Be careful though; this is an area where you can lock yourself out of the system or disable the bootable hard drive if you are not careful.