Going long long on time_t

throwaway_yy2Di wrote: post #2

If anyone has trouble reading this, there's also plain text versions of individual slides: http://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon_2013_time_t/mgp0000... http://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon_2013_time_t/mgp0000... etc. Here's the whole thing in one page, minus images: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/6757266/raw/3469464cb802e7...

My god, I'm not a fan of reading slides in general but this... this is a new dimension of horror. I can't shake the feeling that there's some sick humour in this.

Re: Going long long on time_t

#4

Post by tiziano88 » Sun, Sep 29, 2013, 10:28 PM UTC

simias wrote: post #3

throwaway_yy2Di wrote: post #2

If anyone has trouble reading this, there's also plain text versions of individual slides: http://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon_2013_time_t/mgp0000... http://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon_2013_time_t/mgp0000... etc. Here's the whole thing in one page, minus images: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/6757266/raw/3469464cb802e7...

My god, I'm not a fan of reading slides in general but this... this is a new dimension of horror. I can't shake the feeling that there's some sick humour in this.

Comic saaaaaaaaans!

Re: Going long long on time_t

#5

Post by parennoob » Sun, Sep 29, 2013, 10:40 PM UTC

simias wrote: post #3

throwaway_yy2Di wrote: post #2

If anyone has trouble reading this, there's also plain text versions of individual slides: http://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon_2013_time_t/mgp0000... http://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon_2013_time_t/mgp0000... etc. Here's the whole thing in one page, minus images: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/6757266/raw/3469464cb802e7...

My god, I'm not a fan of reading slides in general but this... this is a new dimension of horror. I can't shake the feeling that there's some sick humour in this.

What's so horrible about it? Obviously, it isn't on the same level as any of the slide decks web designers put up that are in a sane format (HTML5+js / PDF) which don't require you to actually click through, but then

a) Theo De Raadt works much further down the stack

b) This is probably something put up by the EuroBSDCon folks after converting his slides (can someone who was at the Con weigh in on this? If he actually presented his talk like this, that's extra bad).

Re: Going long long on time_t

#6

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Sep 29, 2013, 10:49 PM UTC

simias wrote: post #3

throwaway_yy2Di wrote: post #2

If anyone has trouble reading this, there's also plain text versions of individual slides: http://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon_2013_time_t/mgp0000... http://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon_2013_time_t/mgp0000... etc. Here's the whole thing in one page, minus images: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/6757266/raw/3469464cb802e7...

My god, I'm not a fan of reading slides in general but this... this is a new dimension of horror. I can't shake the feeling that there's some sick humour in this.

[deleted]

Re: Going long long on time_t

#7

Post by alextingle » Sun, Sep 29, 2013, 10:52 PM UTC

Any idea why they would use long long rather than int64_t?

Re: Going long long on time_t

#8

Post by sirclueless » Sun, Sep 29, 2013, 10:58 PM UTC

alextingle wrote: post #7

Any idea why they would use long long rather than int64_t?

int64_t is a userspace libc typedef. long long is ICO C (C99) and guaranteed to be 64 bits or more.

Re: Going long long on time_t

#9

Post by michaelhoffman » Sun, Sep 29, 2013, 10:58 PM UTC

parennoob wrote: post #5

simias wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My god, I'm not a fan of reading slides in general but this... this is a new dimension of horror. I can't shake the feeling that there's some sick humour in this.

What's so horrible about it? Obviously, it isn't on the same level as any of the slide decks web designers put up that are in a sane format (HTML5+js / PDF) which don't require you to actually click through, but then a) Theo De Raadt works much further down the stack b) This is probably something put up by the EuroBSDCon folks after converting his slides (can someone who was at the Con weigh in on this? If he actuall…

It might not be immediately obvious that you can zoom in on a slide by clicking on it.

Re: Going long long on time_t

#10

Post by cbsmith » Sun, Sep 29, 2013, 11:02 PM UTC

So, this slide confused/troubled me: http://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon_2013_time_t/mgp0002...

I don't see why it would be a good idea to convert "time_t" to "long long". Having an alias specifically for time_t is part of what makes this kind of work doable. I could see maybe introducing another alias like "time64_t" or something, but once you convert it to "long long" the type is no longer tagged in a way that makes it easy to find and more importantly suggests to the programmer they ought to NOT make assumptions about its size. Heck, in a perfect world I'd either introduce a new % symbol specifically for time_t width or have a macro that expands to represent its width (not to mention make it mandatory to use compiler warnings about string formats not matching argument widths).

I also found the comment about "would love better compiler tools -- none found so far". Certainly there are things like Sparse (https://sparse.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page) which correctness verification easier.