Tom Van Vleck
Member for
23 years 11 monthsTom Van Vleck has learned from wonderful colleagues in the computer field since 1959, when he was a high school student building computers in a suburban basement. He worked on the Multics operating system for sixteen years, and then spent twenty years at Silicon Valley startups, working on operating systems, applications, software tools and quality, and security. Currently he is doing computer security research at Network Associates Laboratories.
Tom Van Vleck has learned from wonderful colleagues in the computer field since 1959, when he was a high school student building computers in a suburban basement. He worked on the Multics operating system for sixteen years, and then spent twenty years at Silicon Valley startups, working on operating systems, applications, software tools and quality, and security. Currently he is doing computer security research at Network Associates Laboratories.
All Articles by Tom Van Vleck
All Stories by Tom Van Vleck
| Structure MarkingStructure marking is a programming technique that defends data against damage, especially from software bugs. It adds flags to data structures and checks them at each use to detect damaged data immediately. | |
| Nasty Question | |
| A Few Minutes' Discussion Sometimes a little communication can save millions of dollars. In this article, Tom Van Vleck talks about how important it is for the QA people and programmers to talk to each other from the beginning of a project. |
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| Hellandizing: Using Test Points in Server Programs In 1984, Pat Helland invented a technique to help test server programs. We called the method Hellandizing a program to be tested. It involves placing test points at all significant locations in a program. When the program reaches a test point, it consults a master debug-mode switch to see if testing is enabled, and just continues if not. I had the privilege of working with Pat Helland at Tandem in the 1980s. |