分类： Win故知新

原文链接：https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20041202-00/?p=37153

The story behind the 55ms timer tick rate goes all the way back to the original IBM PC BIOS. The original IBM PC used a 1.19MHz crystal, and 65536 cycles at 1.19MHz equals approximately 55ms. (More accurately, it was more like 1.19318MHz and 54.92ms.)

定时器的运行频率是 55ms 追根究底要回到原始的 IBM PC BIOS 上。最初的 IBM PC 使用了一颗 1.19MHz 的晶振，而 1.19MHz 上 65536 个时钟周期所需的时间大约就是 55ms。（更准确的说，应该是 1.19318 MHz 和 54.92ms。）

But that just pushes the question to another level. Why 1.19…MHz, then?

不过这样一解释只是将问题又推高了一个级别，为什么是 1.19 MHz 呢？

With that clock rate, 2¹⁶ ticks equals approximately 3600 seconds, which is one hour. (If you do the math it’s more like 3599.59 seconds.) [Update: 4pm, change 232 to 216; what was I thinking?]

在这样的时钟频率下，2¹⁶ 个嘀嗒（tick）大约就是 3600 秒，也就是一小时。（精确一些的话，也可以说是3599.59 秒。）

What’s so special about one hour?

为什么『一个小时』这个周期那么特别呢？

The BIOS checked once an hour to see whether the clock has crossed midnight. When it did, it needed to increment the date. Making the hourly check happen precisely when a 16-bit tick count overflowed saved a few valuable bytes in the BIOS.

BIOS 每小时会检查一次系统时钟来确定是否跨越了午夜，当这种情况发生时，系统就会将日期向前推进一天。让这种检查机制发生在16位嘀嗒存储器溢出的时刻，可以在 BIOS 中节约宝贵的几个字节。

Another reason for the 1.19MHz clock speed was that it was exactly one quarter of the original CPU speed, namely 4.77MHz, which was in turn 4/3 times the NTSC color burst frequency of 3.5MHz. Recall that back in these days, personal computers sent their video output to a television set. Monitors were for the rich kids. Using a timer related to the video output signal saved a few dollars on the motherboard.

另一个采用 1.19MHz 时钟频率的原因是因为这个值正好是原始设计中 CPU 运行速度—— 4.77MHz ——的四分之一，而这正好又是 NTSC 制式的彩色信号频率的三分之四倍（译注：没有打错，4.77除以3.5约等于4除以3）。当年，个人电脑是将其视频信号输出到电视上的，那时候显示器是有钱人的玩具，而将定时器频率与视频信号关联起来则又在主板上省出了几美元的成本。

Calvin Hsia has another view of the story behind the 4.77MHz clock.

Calvin Hsia 提供了有关 4.77 MHz 时钟频率的另一个角度的故事。（译注：链接已失效）

(Penny-pinching was very common at this time. The Apple ][ had its own share of penny-saving hijinks.)

（那时候一分钱掰成两半花是很常见的事，Apple ][ 有其自己的省钱小妙招。）（译注：链接已失效）

原文链接：https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20041122-00/?p=37233

If I had a nickel each time somebody asked for a feature that was a security hole…

如果每当有人要求加一个实际上是安全漏洞的功能，我就能得到一个镍币的话……

I’d have a lot of nickels.

那我应该早已攒下了很多钱。

For example, “I want a file that all users can write to. My program will use it as a common database of goodies.”

例如，『我想要一个文件，对所有用户可写，我的程序会用它来作为一个存放好东西的公用数据库。』

This is a security hole. For a start, there’s an obvious denial of service attack by having a user open the file in exclusive mode and never letting go. There’s also a data tampering attack, where the user opens the file and write zeros all over it or merely alter the data in subtle ways. Your music index suddenly lost all its Britney Spears songs. (Then again, maybe that’s a good thing. Sneakier would be to edit the index so that when somebody tries to play a Britney Spears song, they get Madonna instead.) [Minor typo fixed. 10am]

这就是一个安全漏洞。首先，这是一个很明显的拒绝服务攻击点，某用户以独占方式打开它，然后永远不关闭就可以了。此外这还是一个数据篡改漏洞，用户可以打开文件，然后将数据用0全部覆写，或者对数据做一点细微的变动，你的音乐库里所有 Britney Spears 的歌就突然全部消失了。（说实话，这样都还算好的，更加鬼鬼祟祟的人会修改索引，这样等下次有人想播 Britney Spears 的歌时，放出来的却会是 Madonna 的了。）

A colleague from the security team pointed out another problem with this design: Disk quotas. Whoever created the file is charged for the disk space consumed by that file, even if most of the entries in the file belong to someone else. If you create the file in your Setup program, then it will most likely be owned by an administrator. Administrators are exempt from quotas, which means that everybody can party their data into the file for free! (Use alternate data streams so you can store your data there without affecting normal users of the file.) And if the file is on the system partition (which it probably is), then users can try to fill up all the available disk space and crash the system.

安全团队的一位同事还指出了这种设计制造出的另一个麻烦：磁盘配额。谁创建了这个文件，谁就为此付出了与文件大小等同自己的磁盘配额，即便文件内容中大多数的条目都属于其他人。如果这个程序是在你的安装程序中创建的，那么这个文件的所有人大概率会是系统管理员（Administrator）。系统管理员是从磁盘配额管制中豁免的，意味着任何人都可以将任何数据写到这个文件里，而且还不受配额的限制。（如果使用交换数据流（译注：alternate data stream，个人认为译为『备用数据流』更佳，此处采用通行译法）的方式，你还可以将自己的数据存进交换数据流里，而不会影响到其他人的数据）。如果这个文件存放在系统分区中（大概率会是这样），那么用户就可以尝试耗尽剩余的磁盘空间，让系统崩溃。

If you have a shared resource that you want to let people mess with, one way to do this is with a service. Users do not access the resource directly but rather go through the service. The service decides what the user is allowed to do with the resource. Maybe some users are permitted only to increment the “number of times played” counter, while others are allowed to edit the song titles. If a user is hogging the resource, the server might refuse connections for a while from that user.

如果你有一项共享资源想放开给用户折腾，一种比较可行的做法是通过服务。用户需要通过服务而不是直接去访问这项资源，而服务决定了允许用户对这项资源的所作所为。例如，一些用户只有权限增加『已播放次数』的计数器，而另一些用户则可以编辑歌曲的标题等等。如果某个用户对这项资源的访问过于贪婪，服务器可以决定暂停对这个用户提供服务。

A file doesn’t give you this degree of control over what people can do with it. If you grant write permission to a user, then that user can write to any part of the file. The user can open the file in exclusive mode and prevent anybody else from accessing it. The user can put fake data in the file in an attempt to confuse the other users on the machine.

单一一个文件无法给予这种等级的控制，来管制用户可以对其进行的操作。如果你授予用户写入的权限，那用户就可以对文件的任何部分进行写入。用户可以以独占方式打开这个文件，从而阻止其他人对其的访问。用户甚至可以在文件中写入伪造的数据，借此使同一机器上的其他用户感到困惑。

In other words, the user can make a change to the system that impacts how other users can use the system. This sort of “impact other users” behavior is something that is reserved for administrators. An unprivileged user should be allowed only to mess up his own life; he shouldn’t be allowed to mess up other users’ lives.

换句话说，某个用户可以对系统做出变更，而这些变更会影响其他用户对系统的使用。这类『影响其他用户』的行为是保留给系统管理员的权力。没有特权的用户应当只被允许对其自己的生活瞎折腾，而不应被允许去折腾其他用户的生活。

Armed with this information, perhaps now you can answer this question posted to comp.os.ms-windows.programmer a few months ago.

了解了这一点之后，大概现在你就有资格去回答这个几个月前贴在comp.os.ms-windows.programmer上的问题了。

原文链接：https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20041118-00/?p=37263

If you have both a folder named, say, C:\Folder and a program named C:\Folder.exe and you type C:\Folder into the Start.Run dialog, you get the program and not the folder.

如果有一个文件夹，比如是 C:\Folder，与此同时有一个程序，其路径为 C:\Folder.exe，当你在开始—运行中输入 C:\Folder 时，会运行那个程序而不是打开那个文件夹。

Why is that?

这是为什么呢？

Because it is common to have D:\Setup.exe D:\Setup\… where there is a setup program in the root, as well as a setup folder containing files needed by the setup program.

因为同时在根目录下包含作为安装程序的 D:\Setup.exe 和作为存储安装程序所需文件的 D:\Setup\ 这个目录是很常见的情况。

Before Windows 95, you couldn’t open a folder by typing its name. (If you wanted to view it in File Manager, you had to run File Manager explicitly.) As a result, programs written for earlier versions of Windows would have instructions like

在 Windows 95 之前，你是不能通过输入目录的名字（译注：即输入到目录为止的路径）来打开一个目录的。（如果你想在“文件管理器”中查看目录的内容，你必须刻意去运行“文件管理器”）因此，为早期版本Windows撰写的程序通常都包含有类似如下的操作指南：

• Insert the floppy disk labelled “Setup”. (CDs were for the rich kids.)
  插入标有『Setup』（安装）标签的软盘。（那年头CD是有钱人才用得起的东西）
• From Program Manager, click File, then Run.
  在“程序管理器”中，单击“文件”，然后选择“运行”
• In the dialog box, type “A:\SETUP” and press Enter.
  在弹出的对话框中，输入“A:\SETUP”，然后按下回车键

Since there was no such thing as “opening a folder”, the only option was to run the program A:\SETUP.EXE.

由于并没有（通过运行对话框来）“打开目录”这种操作，（向上面这样做）唯一的结果就是运行了程序 A:\SETUP.EXE。

Windows 95 was required to prefer the program over the folder in order that those instructions would remain valid (substituting the Start button for the File menu).

Windows 95 为了能让上面这样的操作指示仍然有效，（在遇到目录和程序同名的情况时）会优先选择运行程序而不是打开目录本身（当然还要将『文件菜单』替换为『开始菜单』）。

And each version of Windows that prefers the program over the folder creates an environment wherein people who write setup programs rely on that preference, thereby securing this behavior for the next version of Windows.

另外，每个版本的 Windows 这种优先运行程序而不是打开文件夹的环境，又进一步促使用户在设计安装程序时依赖这种设计，进一步保证了这种设计可以被延续到下一个版本的 Windows 中。

But what if you really want to open the folder?

不过，如果你真的想打开那个同名目录怎么办？

Append a backslash to force the path to be interpreted as a folder (A:\SETUP\).

在最后加一个反斜杠（\），使其强制被解释为文件夹（A:\SETUP\）就可以了。

原文链接：https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20041029-00/?p=37443

The taskbar created all sorts of interesting problems, since the work area was not equal to the entire screen dimensions. (Multiple monitors created similar problems.) “Why didn’t the gui return the usable workspace as the root window (excluding the taskbar)?”

任务栏制造了各种各样有趣的问题，由于它的存在，工作区域的尺寸与整个屏幕的分辨率并不是相等的。（多显示器环境同样制造了类似的问题。）『为什么GUI不将可用的工作区域作为顶层窗口（排除任务栏）返回呢？』

That would have made things even worse.

那样会让事情变得更糟糕。

Lots of programs want to cover the entire screen. Games, for example, are very keen on covering the entire screen. Slideshow programs also want to cover the entire screen. (This includes both slideshows for digital pictures as well as business presentations.) Screen savers of course must cover the entire screen.

很多程序都有遮挡整个屏幕的需求。例如游戏，在这方面的需求就很强烈。幻灯片应用程序也需要遮挡整个画面（这类程序同时包含了展示数码图片和商业幻灯的场合）。屏幕保护程序则必须遮挡住整个画面。

If the desktop window didn’t include the taskbar, then those programs would leave a taskbar visible while they did their thing. This is particularly dangerous for screen savers, since a user could just click on the taskbar to switch to another program without going through the screen saver’s password lock!

如果桌面窗口没有包含任务栏区域，那么这些程序在运行时任务栏就会可见。这种情形对屏幕保护程序尤为危险，因为这样一来用户就可以通过点击任务栏来切换到其它程序，从而绕过屏幕保护程序的密码保护了！

And if the taskbar were docked at the top or left edge of the screen, this would have resulted in the desktop window not beginning at coordinates (0,0), which would no doubt have caused widespread havoc. (Alternatively, one could have changed the coordinate system so that (0, 0) was no longer the top left corner of the screen, but that would have broken so many programs it wouldn’t have been funny.)

此外，如果任务栏停靠在屏幕的上方或边缘（译注：应当指的是左侧），会使得桌面窗口的左上角坐标不再是（0,0），而这样毫无疑问将会制造出大笔的麻烦。（换个思路想想的话，把坐标系统进行一点『小小的改动』，让左上角的坐标不再是（0,0）也是一种做法，但这样大概会搞炸一大堆程序，所以这一点也不好玩。）

原文链接：https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20041028-00/?p=37453

Before Explorer was introduced in Windows 95, the Windows desktop was a very different place.

在资源管理器被引入到 Windows 95 之前，桌面是完全大相径庭的另一个物种。

The icons on your desktop did not represent files; rather, when you minimized a program, it turned into an icon on the desktop. To open a minimized program, you had to hunt for its icon, possibly minimizing other programs to get them out of the way, and then double-click it. (You could also Alt+Tab to the program.)

桌面上的图标不是用来代表文件的，与这种印象不同，当你最小化一个程序时，程序就会变成桌面上的一个图标。要打开一个最小化的程序，你得先找到它的图标，或许还得先把其他挡住视线的程序最小化，然后再双击图标（来打开这个最小化的程序）。（你也可以用Alt+Tab切换过去。）

Explorer changed the desktop model so that icons on your desktop represent objects (files, folders) rather than programs. The job of managing programs fell to the new taskbar.

资源管理器改变了桌面的模型，此后桌面上的图标就变成了代表对象（文件、文件夹）而不是程序。管理程序的任务就落到了新生的任务栏上。

But where did the windows go when you minimized them?

不过当程序最小化的时候，它的窗口去哪了呢？

Under the old model, when a window was minimized, it displayed as an icon, the icon had a particular position on the screen, and the program drew the icon in response to paint messages. (Of course, most programs deferred to DefWindowProc which just drew the icon.) In other words, the window never went away; it just changed its appearance.

在旧的模型之下，当一个窗口最小化时，其表现为一个图标，这个图标在屏幕上有特定的位置，而程序在响应描画的窗体消息时，会对这个图标进行绘制。（当然，大多数程序推迟了绘制图标的 DefWindowProc 方法。）换句话说，程序的窗口从来都没有消失，只是换了个表现形式。

But with the taskbar, the window really does go away when you minimize it. Its only presence is in the taskbar. The subject of how to handle windows when they were minimized went through several iterations, because it seemed that no matter what we did, some program somewhere didn’t like it.

但自从有了任务栏以后，最小化的程序的窗口就真的消失了，其存在就仅仅表现在任务栏中而已。对于如何管控最小化的窗口的设计经历了几次迭代，原因是不管我们做什么，总有一些应用程序不喜欢。

The first try was very simple: When a window was minimized, the Windows 95 window manager set it to hidden. That didn’t play well with many applications, which cared about the distinction between minimized (and visible) and hidden (and not visible).

第一次的尝试很简单：当一个窗口最小化后，Windows 95 的窗口管理器就将其设置为隐藏。这样的设计与很多程序配合都不好，因为这些程序会严格区分最小化（同时可见）与隐藏（同时不可见）的区别。

Next, the Windows 95 window manager minimized the window just like the old days, but put the minimized window at coordinates (-32000, -32000), This didn’t work because some programs freaked out if they found their coordinates were negative.

后来，Windows 95 的窗口管理器用以往的方法将窗口最小化，但将最小化的窗口移动到坐标（-32000，-32000）。这样做的效果依然不彰，因为有些程序发现自己的坐标是负值时感觉非常不安。

So the Windows 95 window manager tried putting minimized windows at coordinates (32000, 32000), This still didn’t work because some programs freaked out if they found their coordinates were positive and too large!

所以Windows 95的窗口管理器又转而尝试将最小化的窗口放到坐标（32000，32000）上。这样做的效果仍旧不好，因为有些程序发现自己的坐标是很大的正值时吓坏了。

Finally the Windows 95 window manager tried coordinates (3000, 3000), This seemed to keep everybody happy. Not negative, not too large, but large enough that it wouldn’t show up on the screen (at least not at screen resolutions that were readily available in 1995).

最终，Windows 95 窗口管理器将移动的坐标换成了（3000，3000），这样大家似乎都很满意了。不是负值，不是很大的值，但又足够大使得不会显示在屏幕上（至少以1995年较常见的屏幕分辨率来说如此）。

If you have a triple-monitor Windows 98 machine lying around, you can try this: Set the resolution of each monitor to 1024×768 and place them corner-to-corner. At the bottom right corner of the third monitor, you will see all your minimized windows parked out in the boonies.

如果你有一台三显示器配置的 Windows 98 机器在手边，你可以尝试这样操作一下：将每台显示器的分辨率设置为1024×768，然后将三台显示器底角对顶角地排列起来。在右下角的第三台显示器上，你就能看到那些最小化的窗口们在屏幕的『郊区』安居乐业的样子了。

(Windows NT stuck with the -32000 coordinates and didn’t pick up the compatibility fixes for some reason. I guess they figured that by the time Windows NT became popular, all those broken programs would have been fixed. In other words: Let Windows 95 do your dirty work!)

（出于某些原因，Windows NT 则保留了移动到坐标-32000的做法，没有采用（移动到坐标3000的）那个兼容性补丁。我猜开发人员们大概在想等 Windows NT 普及了，那些不听话的应用程序大概都已经修复这个问题了。换句话说：让 Windows 95 去做那些苦活吧！）