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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for March, 2011

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Visual Studio 2010 Ux #fail: finding the Macro Recorder and Context Menus toolbars #VS2010 #Ux

Posted by jpluimers on 2011/03/16

When you want to enable (or disable) a toolbar in Visual Studio 2010, there are three options to go, of which the last two are equivalent:

  1. Right click in the toolbar area to get a Context Menu, then check/unckeck the toolbar
  2. Right click in the toolbar area to get a Context Menu, choose Customize and check/uncheck the toolbar(s) in the dialog.
  3. In the Tools Menu, choose Customize and check/uncheck the toolbar(s) in the dialog.

The first one is the easiest; you can see the resulting Context Menu in the left picture (click on it to enlarge).
The last two require an extra step; you can see the resulting dialog in the right most picture (click on it to enlarge).

Given the size of those lists, you’d think all toolbars are in both.

Wrong!

These are missing from the Context Menu:

  • Context Menus
  • Recorder

I consider this a serious Ux problem; if the Context Menu was much shorter (like 10 entries or so), it would be pretty obvious they are not.

It took me more than 10 minutes to find the Recorder toolbar which would have been vastly shorter if both lists were the same.

(Another Ux failure that caused my search to be this long is that I was looking for ‘Macro Recorder’ since all entries in the menu contain the word ‘Macro’; Recorder could as well point to a Toolbar for screen, video or audio recording).

–jeroen

Posted in .NET, Development, Software Development, Usability, User Experience (ux), Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio and tools | Leave a Comment »

Why does Recording the TemporaryMacro sometimes fail in Visual Studio 2010? #durftevragen #dtv #daretoask

Posted by jpluimers on 2011/03/16

Every now and then, while recording a TemporaryMacro in Visual Studio 2010, I get this error message:


---------------------------
Microsoft Visual Studio
---------------------------
No TemporaryMacro in designated Recording Project
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

The Recording a macro topic on MSDN suggest this solution:

Sounds like your macros directory is messed up.  Open Macro Explorer (View\Other Windows\Macro Explorer) and make sure you get the MyMacros element.

However, that works.

And if I check that, the next time I record a TemporaryMacro it just works.

I never had this in Visual Studio 2008, 2005 or older.

Anyone seen this behaviour too?

Anyone who knows why this happens?

–jeroen

via: Recording a macro.

Posted in .NET, Development, Software Development, Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio and tools | Leave a Comment »

“Try to avoid foreach/for loops”–Over my Dead Body! | Visual Studio Feeds

Posted by jpluimers on 2011/03/16

Zack Owens wrote a nice article comparing various loop constructs.

Summary:
If the semantics are the same, it does not matter if you use foreach, for, while or do while: they all  have equal speed.

So: choose the loop construct that best fits the problem you are trying to solve.

–jeroen

via: “Try to avoid foreach/for loops”–Over my Dead Body! | Visual Studio Feeds.

Posted in .NET, C#, Delphi, Prism, Software Development | 12 Comments »

SvnBridge – Fiddler2 debug the TortoiseSVN traphic to Team Foundation Server

Posted by jpluimers on 2011/03/15

The link below shows you how to use Fiddler2 to trace how TortoiseSVN communicates with SVN Bridge.

TortoiseSVN is a well known SVN client that nicely integrates with the Windows Explorer shell.

SvnBridge sits on top of TFS so that you can use Subversion clients against Team Foundation System.

The settings are so that only the TortoiseSVN requests are captures.

Basically the trick is to start Fiddler2, have it stop capturing WinINET traffic, then modify the TortoiseSVN uses Fiddler2 as HTTP proxy.

Here are the details: SvnBridge – Use TortoiseSVN with Team Foundation Server.

Hope this helps a few of you debugging the TortoiseSVN path to SvnBridge.

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Source Code Management, Subversion/SVN, TFS (Team Foundation System) | Leave a Comment »

The True Cost of SMS Messages – Slashdot

Posted by jpluimers on 2011/03/15

Via The True Cost of SMS Messages – Slashdot.

Spoiler: very close to one over infinity.

–jeroen

Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »

Is Linux Ready for the Desktop?

Posted by jpluimers on 2011/03/14

Larry Hengen recently posted the question Is Linux Ready for the Desktop on his TPersistent.com blog.

Though I like Linux (most of my incoming mail and web traffic is handled by a few SuSE Linux boxes), and have done so for a really long time.

I started with Linux about 15 years ago, after having uses SunOS and Minix in the early nineties, so I’d love Linux getting momentum in the desktop world.

But I don’t think it will; here is what I commented on the blog post:

Jeroen Pluimers Says:
March 7th, 2011 at 9:05 am
It won’t, and likely never will. Whereas the Linux server side is quite consistent in what you have and can use, the UI side still has way too many parties struggling to get their ‘way of doing UI’ (be it framework, theming, app suite, etc) accepted, so it is heavily fragmented.

In order to gain acceptance in the Desktop market, you need momentum, not fragmentation.

Apple recognizes that (in a very stringent way), Microsoft recognizes that (in a firm, but less stringent way), the Linux community at large doesn’t.

15 years ago, on one of my first Linux presentations, when you had only few flavours of UI on Linux, I was hopeful. Now I just use a Mac, or Windows.

Do you have a different opinion on this? let me know!

-–jeroen

Is Linux Ready for the Desktop? – DelphiFeeds.com.

Posted in Opinions | 1 Comment »

Convert Microsoft Access JET SQL to SQL Server T-SQL Cheatsheet and Access JOIN parenthesis

Posted by jpluimers on 2011/03/14

There are truckloads of differences in SQL between Microsoft Access and SQL Server.

This Convert Microsoft Access JET SQL to SQL Server T-SQL Cheatsheet helps you convert between the two.

It doesn’t cover the parenthesis thing that Access needs on joins, but you can read on that here, here and here.

–jeroen

Posted in Access, Database Development, Development, SQL, SQL Server | Leave a Comment »

Duh: iPad safari search inside is easy!

Posted by jpluimers on 2011/03/14

The old iOS version of safari had no way of searching inside a page so I never took the time to find out (pun intended) if it was added in the new iOS.

But: I still missed this obvious feature, and – after finding out how – was amazed it is so easy.

As GilsMethod points out, just use the search box: in addition with a list of search suggestions, it comes up with a list of matches for the current page too.

–jeroen

Posted in iOS, iPad, iPhone, Power User | Leave a Comment »

ISO CD/DVD image mounting tools for Windows

Posted by jpluimers on 2011/03/11

A few tools for mounting ISO CD/DVD images:

–jeroen

Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP | 2 Comments »

Routes.TomTom.Com #fail Sassenheim and Aankomstpassage Schiphol

Posted by jpluimers on 2011/03/11

Routes.TomTom.com is having Alzheimer.

It used to understand these addresses fine (in fact I copied them from my history):

  • Aankomstpassage Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, NL
  • Gouverneurlaan 1, Sassenheim

Even though both addreses are clearly visible on their maps, currently it makes this out of them:

  • Multi-Vlaai Schiphol, Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, NL
    Airtrade Holland Schiphol, Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, NL
    Per Tutti Schiphol, Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, NL
    Rabobank Luchthaven Schiphol, Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, NL
    Rabobank Luchthaven Schiphol, Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, NL
  • Sanem, Luxemburg

The latter is a silent one: it keeps the address info, but routes you about 350 kilometers in the wrong direction.

You have to work around it by manually including the country:

  • Gouverneurlaan 1, Sassenheim, Nederland

Regression testing, anyone?

–jeroen

Posted in Opinions | 1 Comment »

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