static functions in pthread_create() using solaris compiler

Create a C function to basically do the conversion from static to extern “C” for you:

extern “C” int CreateThread( pthread_t*& pThread, CVoidFunction pVoidFunction, void* pArgument )
{
// Create the thread
const int nResult = pthread_create( pThread,
(const pthread_attr_t*)0,
(void*(*)(void*))pVoidFunction, // cast to extern “C” void* (*)( void* )
pArgument );

return nResult;
}

GCC Compiler defines

gcc -E -Wp,-dD hello.c |grep \#define |sort

Big Endian Little Endian bit fields

For big endian machines (e.g. Motorola) :

typedef union{
   struct{
      uint32_t MSB       :1;
      .
      .
      .
      uint32_t LSB       :1;
   }_bit;
   uint32_t _word
} typename_t;

For little endian machines (e.g. Intel):

typedef union{
   struct{
      uint32_t LSB       :1;
      .
      .
      .
      uint32_t MSB       :1;
   }_bit;
   uint32_t _word
} typename_t;

Save Bash History

Use the following command to force Bash to save command history:

history -w

VB Hex Function used for Bit Decoding in Excel

Attribute VB_Name = "HexFunctions"
' Returns the a bit range in a given hex
Function Bits(HexNum As String, startBit As Integer, endBit As Integer) As String
    Dim num, mask, startDivider, Results As Long

    num = CLng("&H" & HexNum)
    mask = 0

    ' play this silly trick to avoid overflows when doing things with 2^31
    If endBit = 31 Then
        endBit = 30
        OrVal = &H80000000
    Else
        OrVal = 0
    End If

    'create the mask 1s
    For i = startBit To endBit
        mask = mask Or (2 ^ i)
    Next

    mask = mask Or OrVal

    Test = Hex(mask)

    Results = (num And mask)
    Test = Hex(Results)
    ' shift to the right
    For i = 1 To startBit
        ' overcome the stupid sign extension
        Results = Results \\ 2
        If (Results < 0) Then
            Results = Results And &H7FFFFFFF
        End If
        Test = Hex(Results)
    Next

    Bits = Hex(Results)
End Function
' Pads the given hex number with leading zeros
Function PadZeros(HexNum As String, size As Integer) As String
    Results = HexNum
    For i = 1 To size - Len(HexNum)
        Results = "0" + Results
    Next

    PadZeros = Results
End Function

'Converts a hex number to long
Function HexToDecimal(HexNum As String) As Long
    HexToDecimal = CLng("&H" & HexNum)
End Function

'Converts Decimal To Hex
Function DecimalToHex(num As Long) As String
    DecimalToHex = Hex(num)
End Function

Handling spaces in bash scripts

To handle spaces in bash scripts, set the IFS variable to $’\n’. e.g

#!/usrbin/bash
export IFS=$’\n’
for i in `find . -type f -name *.mp3`; do
mp3info -p “%a,%l,%n,%t,%F\n” “$i”
done

Exporting and Importing Data into Postgres

To export a postgres database

 pg_dump mydb > db.sql

To reload such a script into a (freshly created) database named newdb:

$ psql -d newdb -f db.sql

If statements in SQL

To have a conditional statement in a SELECT statement, use CASE WHEN…THEN….ELSE.

create view logbook as
        select  "Date",
                "N Number",
                "From","To",
                "Number of Instrument Approaches",
                "Number of Night Landings",
                "Total Flight Duration" - "Night" as "Day",
                "Night",
                "Simulator",
                "Simulated Instrument",
                "Actual Instrument",
                 case when "IsCrossCountry" = true  then "Total Flight Duration"  else 0.0 end as "Cross Country"
         from flights;

A simple file IO program in Perl

This program searches the instructions.txt file line by line to and print the lines immediately after the ones matching the Patter /Read.*RegAddr:\ 0×3/.

#!/usr/bin/perl

open INSTR_FILE, "< Instructions.txt" or die "Cannot open instruciton file $!";

print "## Register 3n";

while ($line = <INSTR_FILE>){

        if ($line =~ /Read.*RegAddr: 0x3/){

                $line = <INSTR_FILE>;

                @fields = split /t/,$line;

                print $fields[2],"n";

        }

}

close INSTR_FILE;

a2ps

To print code in color
a2ps –pro=color [files]

To generate a color PDF of code
a2ps –pro=color -Ppdf [files]

When using a2ps use the following to fix the cropped margins on a Deskjet printer:
a2ps -M letterdj counter_test.vh

In Cygwin, to convert things to a PDF
a2ps -r -M letterdj -o - Parity_Gen.vhd | ps2pdf - foo.pdf

 Another good way to print a bunch of files

a2ps  –toc -l 120 -r -M letterdj -o -  *.vhd |ps2pdf -  foo.pdf