[ale] [OT] Helping others learn C, D, X, Y, Z, EIEIO...

[leam hall]

Scott, that does bring up a good point. Those of you offering advanced
mentoring may want to establish a minimal requirements list, or a way
to assess someone's skills before mutually committing time.

I'd have no problem with you telling me I'm not ready, especially if
you could point out things I could do to get ready!



On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 12:25 PM, Scott M. Jones <eff at dragoncon.org> wrote:
> I could offer the following topics but you'll need a good C background.
>
> - Data structures, associated algorithms, Big-O Notation
>
> - Beginner compiler design, at least stack vs. heap but if you want,
> BNF, lex, yacc, etc.
>
> - Beginner thread coding and thread safety
>
>
> Sample data structure exercise, we need to do this kind of thing to make
> it real:
>
> Write 'llproc' (linked list processor) in C with the following command
> line options:
>
> llproc [-d] file1 file2
>
> llproc will construct a linked list of structs using newline-terminated
> strings from file1 with the following definition:
>
> struct {
>    int line_no;  /* Line number in file1 */
>    char *line;
> }
>
> Linked list will be parsed for each line in file2 and any exact matches
> will be deleted from the linked list, otherwise a warning is written to
> STDOUT if no matches.  Remaining linked list will be traversed and
> written to STDOUT after file2 is processed.  '-d' option prints every
> insert/delete, otherwise only warnings and the final list are printed.
>
> All linked list access must be through functional API (with add, search,
> delete, iterate_all, etc.).  NOT COOL to put everything in main()!  No
> goto, setjmp, or longjmp either.  Use malloc/free for all list elements
> and string storage.
>
> Students will present solutions via code walkthrough to everyone.  No
> grading after the fact.  Instructor to make solution available after
> walkthroughs.
>
> BONUS: Solution survives fuzzing attempts with very long strings; only
> acceptable failure modes are invalid command line options, file not
> found, or out of memory, all handled gracefully.  Add an arbitrary
> number of files with file3 being tacked on to the end of the list, file4
> then being deleted from the list, etc., to prove that memory is being
> free'd correctly.
>
>
> On 12/15/15 7:06 AM, Leam Hall wrote:
>> I'd like to encourage those of you who are decent to very good
>> programmers to consider what we're doing as a calling.
>>
>> Recently I took a C based pre-test for a software security course
>> (https://class.coursera.org/softwaresec-008). Realizing that I guessed
>> more than I was comfortable with is one of the big things that drove me
>> to re-learn C. That, and a stack of books from previous failed attempts.
>> I've resolved to either learn C or give away the books. Being a
>> bookworm, that's motivation!
>>
>> Your conversations have pointed out something many of us unskilled
>> programmers have heard of; there are other skills and tools to be
>> learned when moving from example code in a book to putting "coder" on a
>> resume. Things like lint, TDD, gmake, coding standards, etc.
>>
>> Would you consider a "Next Steps" course starting in April or May? While
>> the LCTHW-90DW is a 3 month challenge, it is based off the learning idea
>> that the early stages of any new and difficult project are discouraging.
>> With just 2-4 hours of C it can be hard to glimpse the possibility of
>> becoming a kernel hacker. However, there comes a point (~20 hours per
>> Josh Kaufman) where you're still a rank beginner but things aren't so
>> painful.
>>
>> By the time someone is through the 90 day challenge they will have
>> enough discipline and pleasure to take on new tools. Maybe you run a one
>> month "TDD with C" program, or "Dive into Pointers"? Or maybe you like
>> some of the Coursera classes and offer to help mentor alongside the
>> classwork? The security class is one option, there are Algorithm
>> classes, Java classes, and a bunch of Python things going.
>>
>> There seem to be several of you who are good at this. Could you talk
>> amongst yourselves, come up with a list of "new programmers should have
>> these skills", and pick one to mentor? If each of you did one to two
>> "skill months" a year, and there were 4-6 of you, we could just about
>> fill the year!
>>
>> Here are some of the things that have come to mind while reading your
>> notes.
>>
>>     Pointers
>>     Kernel module basics
>>     TDD
>>     Secure coding
>>     Large project management (splint, gmake, SDLC)
>>     Assembler basics
>>     Code profiling (gdb, valgrind)
>>     Systems programming on Linux
>>     Algorithms
>>
>> Thoughts? Could we go so far as to resurrect a project like splint or
>> something and bring it forward? Or help people transition into kernel
>> janitors?
>>
>> Leam
>
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