HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: frisk@complex.is (Fridrik Skulason)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Re: SCAN 95b doesn't find MtE in EXE files (PC)
Date: 4 Nov 92 09:24:15 GMT

Stefano_Turci@f0.n462.z9.virnet.bad.se (Stefano Turci) writes:

>Well, I converted the files from COM to EXE, and made some scanning
>tests with the mentioned programs.

>The results were a bit strange, in fact:

>    F-prot 2.05
>    Scan 97
>    VirX 2.4

>missed *ALL* the converted files, while

Not surprising - what you did was simply to add a new layer of
encryption to the files.  Of course, the virus could be distributed in
this form, and would probably replicate, but all the second (and
later) generation copies would be detected normally.

I am not at all surprised that my scanner, as well as the others
missed the virus - actually, no matter how you had encrypted it, it
probably would be missed.

>converted files are still able to propagate the virus, so I think the
>authors of the "missing-in- action" programs should improve their a-v
>packages. 8-)

In my case the reson I miss this particular sample is simple.  I scan
inside LZEXE-compressed files, but only for signatures - that is, I
uncompress the virus in memory, and run my scanning engine over it.
If I uncompressed to disk, and stripped off the COM/EXE conversion, I
would detect it, but it would slow the scanner down considerably.

I don't consider it a serious problem - basically it is equivalent to
distributing an old virus, with a new encryption wrapper...the
original sample will not be found, but all the second generation
copies will.

- -frisk
From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: FDISK /MBR and Boot Sector Viruses (PC)
Date: 3 Nov 92 17:29:31 GMT

>From: (decided that this is unnecessary)

>The FDISK/MBF will NOT work right on drives that are partitioned by
>DiskManager program. If you have a DOS/DM drive and you boot from a
>clean floppy to use FDISK/MBR, your DM partition is lost.  The DM
>partition, for that matter, is any NON-DOS partition.

NO ! (excuse the shout) FDISK /MBR does NOT lose DM partitions.
PERIOD.  (there are ignorant minds out there seeking elucidation and
mis-information can be worse than none at all)

(nor STACKER, nor SUPERSTOR, nor NOVELL partitions, nor
Bernoulli/Syquest drives) What happens is that when you boot from a
floppy without the proper driver in the CONFIG.SYS file *on the
floppy* they will not be accessable by DOS. Those partitions will not
be "lost", you just have not loaded the necessary driver to access
them.

Admittedly, the DMDRIVER.BIN is the most dangerous since it is
essentially unique to each system and if it is damaged could fail to
find the partition (I could but if you have to ask, you can't), but
FDISK/MBR has no effect on DMDRIVER.BIN (or anything other than the
code portion of the MBR which knows nothing about partitions other
than how to find the ACTIVE one).

You must realize that DMDRIVER.BIN is a "kludge" from back in the
antidiluvian days of DOS 2.x that permitted access of over-32 MB hard
disks with a special driver that replaced the DOS access mechanism.
After DOS 3.31/DOS 3.3+ which could access big disks (DOS 5.0 does it
better), such drivers became unnecessary though DOS still permits such
drivers today. ONTRACK never removed the capability (at least my Disk
Manager 4.0 has it) since it costs nothing to leave it in, but it has
been superceeded by the LARGE capability built into FDISK and FORMAT
today.

					Warmly,

						Padgett
Newsgroups: comp.programming
From: s1110238@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au (Lee Hollingworth)
Subject: Re: HELP with scanf/getchar!
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 02:13:16 GMT

sjm@bcrki65.bnr.ca (Stuart MacMartin) writes:

>In article <1992Nov9.162547.11163@seas.smu.edu> pedersen@seas.smu.edu (Ted Pedersen) writes:
>>
>>The following is an annoying little problem that I just can't figure
>>out. I'm trying to get the program to prompt me for how many
>>characters I want to enter and then once I have said how many
>>characters I want I want the program to ask me to input those
>>characters.
>>
>>What really happens is that it asks me how many characters I want. I
>>input that and then my program sits. When I input the appropriate
>>number of characters the program goes ahead and prints out the message
>>asking for characters and then runs the program ok.
>>
>>It seems like this is running out of order. Anyone have any idea as to
>>what might be going on?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Ted Pedersen
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>You need to flush your buffers.  This is normally done with a '\n', but
>if you don't have that, you need to explicitly call fflush:

>>    printf ("Enter number of characters you want : ");
>     fflush(stdout);   /* <=== THIS LINE WAS MISSING */

Shouldn't that be "fflush(stdin)" ?
However if you look at the ANSI standard library it says that using fflush
"on an input stream, the effect is undefined", therefore a more portable
method is to define a macro...

#define myflush()   while (getchar() != '\n)

Of course the macro has to be used *after* user input not before.

However from the little bit of code left in this posting I would think
you are trying to do unbuffered input which is not possible with standard
C library functions.  (Unless of course you wish to let the user add as many
characters as they like but only read 'x' of them into your array).

#include <stdio.h>

#define myflush()   while (getchar() != '\n')

int main(void)
{
    int count;
    char word[81];
    int i;

    printf("Enter number of characters: ");
    if (scanf("%d", &count) == 0) {
        puts("Non-integer entered");
        return (1);
    }
    myflush();
    if (count > 80) {
        printf("Array dimensions exceeded\n");
        return (1);
    }
    printf("Enter %d characters: ", count);
    for (i = 0; i < count; ++i) {
        if((word[i] = getchar()) == '\n') {
            /* print warning or something */
            break;
        }
        word[i+1] = 0;  /* avoid junk in memory for newline test */
    }
    if (word[i] != '\n') {
        myflush();
    }
    word[i] = '\0';
    printf("%s\n", word);
    return (0);
}


Lee Hollingworth
s1110238@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au
From: landauer@morocco.Eng.Sun.COM (Doug Landauer)
Newsgroups: comp.programming
Subject: Re: What is Language Lawyering?
Date: 7 Nov 1992 00:43:12 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: morocco
Summary: language lawyers & language standards

> : What is 'language lawyering'?   [...]  My guess is that it refers
> : to arguing over petty features or usage of a programming language
> : that is often is of no value.
> 
> [from ] the "New Hacker's Dictionary" ...:
>    language lawyer: n. A person ... [able] to show you the
>       five sentences scattered throughout a 200-plus page manual which
>       together imply the answer to your question "if only you had
>       thought to look there".

Most compiler implementors need to be language lawyers.  *ALL* C++
compiler implementors need to be language lawyers.  If you ever send
anyone to language standards meetings, you send your language lawyer.
Unfortunately, this (together with the abovementioned ability) means
that standards are usually written in such a way that they *require*
that ability, and therefore only language lawyers can understand the
standard (sorta like most real law being written in such a way that
only real lawyers can understand most of it).

Of course, there are exceptions -- the Scheme standard comes to mind.
I guess, when you're trying to describe a very complex set of rules,
the more precise you get, the harder it is to put the description into
the one-dimensional form of a stream of text.  I suppose it's time for
language standards to be written in a hypertext-like form.

> So, its use in the broader sense is not always pejorative ...

Right.  Despite the jokes, sometimes you do need a real lawyer.
Same with a language lawyer.
--
Doug Landauer - Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Languages - landauer@eng.sun.com
Newsgroups: comp.programming
From: ravn@imada.ou.dk (Thorbjoern Ravn Andersen)
Subject: Re: Help - What Is Wrong?
Organization: Dept. of Math. & Computer Science, Odense University, Denmark
Distribution: comp
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 22:43:30 GMT

>>Discussing a fragment of code of the form 
>>
>>	for ( i = 0;  i != 5;  i++ )
>>		...
>>
>>>I've always seen (and used) the "i<max" form of the for loop, and
>>>messed up when faced w/ anything else.  "i!=max" WILL work, but
>>>is less safe for a number of reasons (more so if initial condition
>>    ^^^^^^^^^
>>>is set by variable instead of literal).
>>

[Lotta stuff deleted regarding infinite loops]

Some languages does not use integer variables (prime example is the
Comal80 I was taught to program in), but reals.

Some times the inaccuracy in the real number operation would cause the
above test to fail utterly, as 4.999999999999 isn't the same as 5.
Correct code, but infinite loop.

Our teacher urged us to use the "i<5" instead of "i!=5" in order to
avoid these pitfalls.  Try explaining the inabillity of a computer to
count to school kids......

(And, no -- I do not use Comal80 anymore.  Functional programming is
much better; much more interesting pitfalls)



-- 
Thorbj{\o}rn Andersen |  b="a=\"b=\"++show b++';':b";a="b="++show b++';':b
ravn@imada.ou.dk      |  Graph Theory:  Building trees out of bridges.
From: brett@bambi.wg.waii.com (Marc Brett)
Newsgroups: comp.programming
Subject: Re: first-year programming languages
Date: 11 Nov 92 21:41:33 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Western Atlas International, Inc.

In Queens University, Kingston (Ontario), they used a home-grown
language NIAL for their introductory class in computers.  This was
around 1984.  (Where is it now...???)

Besides being frustratingly buggy, it was unfair to the students to
have to learn a language they would never see again.  There are plenty
of real-world languages which would have been be far better.  QuickBasic
springs to my mind because of its simple sintax, context-sensitive editor,
and on-line help.

-- 
All opinions made from fresh ingredients.  No official additives.
Marc Brett                           | brett@wg.waii.com
Western Geophysical                  | Phone:    (713) 963-2311
10001 Richmond Ave. Houston TX 77042 | Fax:      (713) 963-2490
Newsgroups: comp.programming
From: alexande@borland.com (Mark Alexander)
Newsgroups: comp.programming
Subject: Re: Finding a zero byte in a 32-bit word
Date: 9 Nov 92 18:37:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: borland.1992Nov9.183758.27054
Organization: Borland International
Originator: alexande@genghis.borland.com

>A follow-up question:  There are algorithms which are _proprietary_??!

Apparently not, since the solutions that have been posted are the
same as the one I had been looking at suspiciously.
Newsgroups: comp.programming,sci.physics,sci.math
From: rivin@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (Igor Rivin)
Subject: Re: area in closed curve; similar to net work calculation
Organization: Computer Science Department,  Stanford University.
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 17:23:02 GMT

In article <1992Nov5.132626.21379@hubcap.clemson.edu> mark@hubcap.clemson.edu (Mark Smotherman) writes:
>
>I want to get a reference to the first use/publication of an algorithm
>to find the area within a discretized closed curve.  While CAM is the
>application for which I came up with the algorithm, I later found the
>same type of problem as a net work calculation for a heat engine in
>a freshman physics text (figure 19-8, Sears and Zemansky, University
>Physics, 4th ed., 1970, p. 271).  So I expect this algorithm has been
>around for quite a while.
>
>Given a closed curve completely described by unit movements LRUD (left,
>right, up, and down), calculate the enclosed area.  The description
>may be clockwise or counterclockwise and of arbitrary shape.
>
>[pseudocode omitted]

There is a mechanical device called a "planimeter", dating back to
time immemorial, that implements your (or a slightly different)
algorithm in hardware. It is used by land surveyors and the like --
you roll a little wheel along the boundary of a territory on a map,
and read off the area at the end.



Newsgroups: comp.programming
From: jfr@RedBrick.COM ()
Subject: Re: What is Language Lawyering?
Organization: Red Brick Systems, Los Gatos, CA
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 17:35:03 GMT

In article <lfm490INNkfk@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> landauer@morocco.Eng.Sun.COM (Doug Landauer) writes:
>> : What is 'language lawyering'?   [...]  My guess is that it refers
>> : to arguing over petty features or usage of a programming language
>> : that is often is of no value.
>> 
>> [from ] the "New Hacker's Dictionary" ...:
>>    language lawyer: n. A person ... [able] to show you the
>>       five sentences scattered throughout a 200-plus page manual which
>>       together imply the answer to your question "if only you had
>>       thought to look there".
>
>Most compiler implementors need to be language lawyers.  *ALL* C++
>compiler implementors need to be language lawyers.  If you ever send
>anyone to language standards meetings, you send your language lawyer.
>Unfortunately, this (together with the abovementioned ability) means
>that standards are usually written in such a way that they *require*
>that ability, and therefore only language lawyers can understand the
>standard (sorta like most real law being written in such a way that
>only real lawyers can understand most of it).

  The SQL92 standard will require a veritable Wall Street firm of
  language lawyers plus a platoon of language paralegals, a couple
  of districts worth of Federal language judges and half a dozen
  Supreme Court justices for good measure. :-) :-)  Sigh...

  The SQL92 standard is over 600 pages.  The SQL89 standard is
  under 150.  Gag...

  Jon 

>Right.  Despite the jokes, sometimes you do need a real lawyer.
>Same with a language lawyer.

  When they start to sort out SQL92, you might need BOTH a
  language lawyer AND a real lawyer :-)

  Jon Rosen
Newsgroups: comp.programming,comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer,alt.msdos.programmer,alt.sb.programmer,comp.os.msdos.programmer
From: ghahrema@cat11.cs.wisc.edu (Houman Ghahremanlou)
Subject: I need a mod player souce code ** URGENT **
Organization: University of Wisconsin, Madison -- Computer Sciences Dept.
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 21:30:01 GMT



	Hello,

		recently I am programming a demo for msdos machines, I use
	a 486 DX 33, and I am looking for a source code of mod player. it does
	not matter that the source code is written in Borland c++, turbo 
	pascal 6.0 or turbo assembler, if you do have a mod player source code
	or you know a ftp site where I could get it, please let me know at

	ghahrema@cs.wisc.edu , I am really desperate, 

	P.S : mod source code should play mod songs for sound blaster or adlib
	card.

	Thank you a lot.
From: ed@titipu.resun.com (Edward Reid)
Newsgroups: comp.programming
Subject: Re: Generations of Programming Languages
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 17:23:30 EST(-0500)
Organization: Accuracy, Ltd.
Reply-To: ed@titipu.resun.com (Edward Reid)
X-Mailer: uAccess - Macintosh Release: 1.6v0

hmiller@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (Harry Miller) writes:
> The evelolution of programming languages is broken down into generations.
> What is the latest generation and what does it correspond to?  Well, while
> I'm at it what programming languages do the generations refer to?

First generation: machine language.
Second generation: assemblers.
Third generation: higher level languages.
Fourth and higher: marketing hype.

Edward Reid  (8*}>
  eel:   ed@titipu.resun.com  or  nosc.mil!titipu.resun.com!ed
  snail: PO Box 378/Greensboro FL 32330
Newsgroups: comp.programming
From: uesu03@giac1.oscs.montana.edu (Lou Glassy)
Subject: Re: first-year programming languages
Keywords: n
Organization: Montana State University, Bozeman  MT
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 17:59:09 GMT

At MSU, Pascal, C, and Fortran are taught in the introductory CS14x
sequence of courses.  There is a movement afoot to move to Ada as
the first language, sometime in the next 4 years...

Lou.
-- 
Lou Glassy (uesu03@giac1.oscs.montana.edu)   Watch the field behind the plow
Earth Sciences Department                    Turn to straight, dark rows
Montana State University                     Put another season's promise
Bozeman, Montana 59715 USA                   In the ground...  --Stan Rogers
Newsgroups: comp.programming
From: minard@qucis.queensu.ca (Brian Minard)
Subject: representing international languages
Keywords: international languages, representation
Organization: Computing & Information Science, Queen's University at Kingston
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 19:21:21 GMT

does anyone have any pointers to literature dealing with representing
international languages. 

i've read about something called "Unicode", but can't remember where i saw it 
(and am not sure if that is the correct spelling of it, in any event).  

any information would be appreciated.

thanks.

brian
Newsgroups: comp.programming
From: hmiller@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (Harry Miller)
Subject: Generations of Programming Languages
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 05:32:08 GMT

The evelolution of programming languages is broken down into generations.
What is the latest generation and what does it correspond to?  Well, while
I'm at it what programming languages do the generations refer to?

O.K. strange question, but since I don't know someone can enlighten me.

Harry E. Miller ----------------- just a jerk lurking on the net
hmiller@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu ----- where to send the hate mail
Newsgroups: comp.programming
From: oz@ursa.sis.yorku.ca (Ozan Yigit)
Subject: NH. [Re: What is Language Lawyering?]
Organization: York U. Student Information Systems Project
	<1992Nov4.085231.15582@jyu.fi> <1992Nov4.222641.25346@cci632.cci.com>
Distribution: world 
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 15:39:39 GMT

Please take this topic to comp.lang.misc. It has no relevance
to this newsgroup.

oz
From: torek@horse.ee.lbl.gov (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.programming
Subject: Re: HELP with scanf/getchar!
Date: 12 Nov 92 12:30:05 GMT
Reply-To: torek@horse.ee.lbl.gov (Chris Torek)
Followup-To: comp.lang.c
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.112.15

I was going to stay out of this; the original question should have been
sent to comp.lang.c, not comp.programming.

In article <s1110238.721534396@giaeb> s1110238@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au
(Lee Hollingworth) provides a workable (if a bit buggy; it will loop
forever if EOF occurs without a newline).  solution.  Along the way to
that particular article (see references: line), however, a lot of
incorrect advice went out.

The original problem was caused by the call

	scanf("%d\n", ...)

In the C language, this means to read through standard input, as follows:

	- skip any leading white space, including newlines;

	- read and convert an integer, storing the result through the
	  pointer provided; and (here comes the problem)

	- skip any further white space, including newlines.

The last is a result of the `\n' directive.  It does not just skip
`current' white space, but also `future' white space.  In order to get
the future white space, it will read the next line (and any subsequent
lines as needed) until it encounters EOF or a non-white-space character.

This may seem like a bizarre thing to do.  Well, it is.  On the whole,
C's scanf() formats are not particularly well designed.  The
comp.lang.c FAQ advises against direct calls to scanf(): line-at-a-time
input should generally be done with calls to fgets followed by calls to
sscanf.

Further discussion of C's scanf() belongs in comp.lang.c (but please
read the FAQ first!).  Note that I have redirected followups.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Lawrence Berkeley Lab CSE/EE (+1 510 486 5427)
Berkeley, CA		Domain:	torek@ee.lbl.gov
Newsgroups: comp.programming
From: jov@styx.ornl.gov (Judd Jones)
Subject: Re: first-year programming languages
Summary: why not binary?
Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 21:20:17 GMT

In article <1992Nov13.171915.26423@cbnewsc.cb.att.com> bdewbank@cbnewsc.cb.att.com (bryan.d.ewbank) writes:
>The first language in a computer science should be a machine language or
>two.  Perhaps a single-address machine, a double address machine, and
>something "unusual".

I wasn't going to say anything, but since you mention it...

I used to help teach an intro to computing course for biologists.
The students _started_ by writing a couple of very small programs
in machine language (yep, in hex) using a small subset of the
available instructions. Then a few more in assembler, looking
at the listings, which show you what the assembler does. Then a few
more in C, also looking at the listings, to see what the compiler
does.

The students ate it up. It was a real quick way to take the mystery
out of it.

#include "all_appropriate_disclaimers"

judd jones -- oak ridge national lab -- jonesjp@ornl.gov
From: sjm@bcrki65.bnr.ca (Stuart MacMartin)
Subject: Re: HELP with scanf/getchar!
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd., Ottawa, Canada
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 20:55:48 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.162547.11163@seas.smu.edu> pedersen@seas.smu.edu (Ted Pedersen) writes:
>
>The following is an annoying little problem that I just can't figure
>out. I'm trying to get the program to prompt me for how many
>characters I want to enter and then once I have said how many
>characters I want I want the program to ask me to input those
>characters.
>
>What really happens is that it asks me how many characters I want. I
>input that and then my program sits. When I input the appropriate
>number of characters the program goes ahead and prints out the message
>asking for characters and then runs the program ok. 
>
>It seems like this is running out of order. Anyone have any idea as to
>what might be going on?
>
>Thanks,
>Ted Pedersen
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
You need to flush your buffers.  This is normally done with a '\n', but
if you don't have that, you need to explicitly call fflush:

>    printf ("Enter number of characters you want : ");
     fflush(stdout);   /* <=== THIS LINE WAS MISSING */
>    scanf ("%d\n", &count);
>    printf ("Enter your characters :");
     fflush(stdout);   /* <=== THIS LINE WAS MISSING */
>    for (loop = 0; loop < count; loop++) {

Stuart
--
: Stuart MacMartin                                    email: sjm@bnr.ca      :
: Bell-Northern Research                              phone: (613) 763-5625  :
: PO Box 3511, Stn C, Ottawa, K1Y-4H7, CANADA    Standard disclaimers apply. :
From: ehh@camis.Stanford.EDU (Edward H. Herskovits)
Newsgroups: comp.programming
Subject: Mutual reference in C?
Date: 8 Nov 1992 15:16:45 GMT
Organization: Stanford University School of Medicine
NNTP-Posting-Host: camis.stanford.edu


simple question to which i couldn't find an answer in standard c books:
if there are two structures, a and b, that refer to each other,
struct {
	...
	b	*bPtr;
	...
} a;

and

struct {
	...
	a	*aPtr;
	...
} b;

how can i declare these two structures such that they can refer to pointers
of each other? i know that self-referential structures can be declared with
tags, but i can't get these declarations to compile no matter how i modify
them. i know that in pascal (ugh) i could use the "forward" keyword; what
would be the equivalent thing to do in c?
please reply by email, since it's probably not of general interest.
-eddie