The Old New Thing

October 8, 2009 - The Old New Thing

In Hawaiʻi, "mahalo" might officially mean "thank you"

October 8, 2009 Oct 8, 2009 10/8/09
Raymond Chen
In Hawaiʻi, you see the word Mahalo on signs everywhere. In theory, the word means Thank you, but my friend Joe Beda pointed out that in practice the word has a completely different meaning. Here are some examples: In practice, the word mahalo means You're screwed. Obligatory clarification: This was a joke, an attempt at ...

What is the format of a double-null-terminated string with no strings?

October 8, 2009 Oct 8, 2009 10/8/09
Raymond Chen
One of the data formats peculiar to Windows is the double-null-terminated string. If you have a bunch of strings and you want to build one of these elusive double-null-terminated strings out of it, it's no big deal. But what about the edge cases? What if you want to build a double-null-terminated string with no strings? Let's step back ...