In article <uce-4A1737.07301626052008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Gregory Weston <uce@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> In article <mbGdnTY3uaSXWqTVnZ2dnUVZ_gidnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> Don Bruder <dakidd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > In article <uce-2F0837.15275025052008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> > Gregory Weston <uce@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >
> > > In article <1YudnaMcRoXILqTVnZ2dnUVZ_vCdnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> > > Don Bruder <dakidd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Beat on me long enough, and EVENTUALLY it sinks in.
> > >
> > > You got it. Dead on. And your persistence speaks well of you.
> >
> > Aw, shucks... <blushes and kicks at some imaginary dust> 'Tweren't
> > nuthin' like that - I'm just too damn stubborn to let an overpriced
pile
> > of chips and wires beat me in a battle of wits! :)
> >
> > > In stark
> > > contrast to someone else I tried to help in the last couple of days
who
> > > insisted that his code was completely valid and his tools must be
broken.
> > >
> > > Technically he was persistent, too, I suppose.
> > >
> > > So, Don: How would you react to someone blindly reading from a
register
> > > and using whatever they happened to find there?
> >
> > Depends... Is he/she looking for a (pseudo)random number, or is the
> > value actually supposed to have some useful meaning?
>
> He expected to find the address of a writable area of memory.
YIKES! Now that sounds like a description of a crash just waiting for
the right moment to cause the most possible havoc!
>
> > On the other hand, *IF* someone were doing this blind read with the
> > specific knowledge that there *SHOULD* be useful data laying there
> > because of something they did in a previous operation... But in that
> > case, it wouldn't exactly be a "blind" read after all, would it?
>
> The value he was looking at is defined to be indeterminate.
Officially, yeah, but unofficially, I'd call it first cousin to a
side-effect - *IF*, as stated, the value being grabbed was expected to
be there as a leftover due to a previous operation that happened to use
that register. It would still be *REALLY* dodgy, but if *VERY CAREFULLY
PLANNED AND USED*, it might actually be reliable and/or useful in some
situations. It's not something I'd want to try messing with, and god
have mercy on the poor sap who has to try to maintain it after it's
deployed, but... <shrug> If somebody's adventurous enough to try it, and
bright enough to pull it off, more power to 'em, I guess...
> > <in best Foghorn Leghorn voice>
> > D'I hafta explain EVERYTHING to ya, boy? That wuz a joke, son! A
funny!
> > A real knee-slapper! <looks into camera while pointing thumb over
> > shoulder and stage whispering> This kid's about as sharp as a bowling
> > ball... :)
>
> Sorry. I'm absolutely terrible at inference. I'm completely at sea when
> there's a difference between what people say and what they mean. Sadly
> that seems to be over 99% of the time, even if it's just little
> subtleties. Most people assume I'm being disingenuous because they can't
> comprehend someone honestly being as literal as I am but I really just
> don't know how to navigate the squi****er parts of human communication.
Ah, OK...
<Note to self for future reference: >
[self AddItemToPropertyList:SubtleFunnies who:@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Greg" value:DoesntDo];
[self SavePropertyList];
:)
Look, Ma! Self-modifying software! :)
--
Don Bruder - dakidd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- If your "From:" address isn't on my
whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text
"PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without
my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd>
for more
info
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