Slashdot Mirror

roarl asks: "Is anyone working on an Open Source bounds checking system? (A system that checks a program at runtime for array out of bounds access, reading uninitialized memory, memory leaks and so on). I've been using BoundsChecker for some time and believe me, there are situations where you know you are going to spend hours debugging unless you let BoundsChecker sort it out for you. But it annoys me that I have to transfer (and sometimes port) the buggy program to Windows each time. I'd much rather stay in Linux. Insure works on Linux. I haven't tried Insure for some time, but last time I tried I wasn't especially impressed. Purify seems still not to support Linux, but on other Unix platforms it works great. The problem with all of these products is that they are so da*n expensive. So it makes me wonder, are all Open Source programmers doing without them? If so, what can we expect of the quality of Open Source developed programs? If not, is there a free alternative?"

Christopher Bibbs writes "Microsoft is trying once again to rally the troops and let Congress know that the American people want them to back off. They also have a pretty funny letter to the shareholders over here." The shareholder letter says, "Regardless of your perspective, this tool will allow you to share your views, send a letter or email to your elected officials..." There's also an invitation to "call us at 1-888-642-4097." Remember, polite comments do more good than nasty ones, regardless of your perspective. ;-)

Christopher Bibbs writes "News.com is carrying the story of the Open Source split between Raymond and Perens. Basically their infighting is now open to the whole world. Its embarassing really. " It's not flattering, but it's interesting to see that this whole movement is made up of people (RMS/ESR/Bruce/Linus/+ zillions of others who often deserve even more credit but don't get it simply because a few people are all the world can handle). It's always been much more open than corporate software. Anyone can be on most of the lists. That human factor can be scary, but its often possibly our greatest asset. I mean- if Balmer and Bill fought, would we know? Everyone knows when Linus and Alan argue (hell, someone submits it here as a story every time they disagree over anything) But what about if it mattered?