“You've asked for it” series

Analyzing Google query strings that brought visitors to my blog (StatCounter is an excellent free tool to do this job), I usually find interesting (oft repeating) queries that are not yet answered in my blog. Obviously there are not too many good answers on other web sites, otherwise Google users would probably not click on a hit on the second or third page (where my blog usually appears for more generic queries).

So, to help my fellow programmers, I've started a series of “You've asked for it” posts answering the questions that brought many of you to my site in the first place (and, don't forget, you can always send me an interesting question with the Send a message link on my bio page.