Continuous Learning

Below are the web clippings of the day. Enjoy.

• State of the Art of Model-Based Testing with Markov Chain Usage Models
  
  I long believe that xUnit approach to testing creates test case explosion with minimal returns and usage-based testing is superior. This is a document that provides a theoretical description of usage based testing.

• cruizer : Static instances in PHP4
  
  How to use function & static variables inside function to “fake” singleton pattern - make sure not to use reference (&) because in pHp static objects are already references.

• All about Linux: How to securely erase the hard disk before selling ones computer
  
  Tools such as shred or DBAN can help you “securely” remove the data - how secure depends on who is trying to retrieve it. Mere mortals are not likely to recover the data erased this way.

• PHP: assert - Manual
  
  In PHP the combination of assert and assert_options can be used to build design by contract framework.

• PHP: Error Handling and Logging Functions - Manual
  
  Introduction on how to handle PHP errors (in PHP4). In PHP5 try/catch exception models are used.

• Last RSS - PHP RSS parser/reader
  
  An alternative to magpieRSS - claims to be simpler, and appears to be less featured. Also GPL.

• PECL :: Package :: apd
  
  A full-featured engine-level profiler/debugger. APD is a full-featured profiler/debugger that is loaded as a zend_extension. It aims to be an analog of C’s gprof or Perl’s Devel::DProf.

• Profiling Lisp programs
  
  Apparently there are many paths to nirvana in lisp A few simple and different approaches to profiling in lisp.

• cakebaker � Run PHP5 in PHP4 mode
  
  How to run PHP5 in PHP4 mode.

• PHP: Magic constants - Manual
  
  PHP offers some magic constants to allow for inspection on where you are in the script, including __LINE__, __FILE__, __FUNCTION__, __CLASS__, __METHOD__.

• PHP: var_dump - Manual
  
  How to dump a variable in PHP - the comments have some novel and interesting approaches.

• Validating Email Addresses Are Complicated
  
  Many code on how to validate email addresses are wrong. This page demonstrates why… it is more complicated than most people give credit for. Click on the links to see the Perl version of regex. Hint: one-liners are not even close.