Posted by jpluimers on 2011/08/16
More than a year ago, I wrote about .NET/C# – TEE filter that also runs on Windows (XP) Embedded.
Since then, I have made two changes to the code (which is below and in this CodePlex changeset):
Posted in .NET, C#, Development, Software Development | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/08/03
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Posted by jpluimers on 2011/08/02
Right now there are so many ways to display text, that – depending on your physical display (CRT, LCD, etc) – all behave differently.
Even Microsoft has released a patch (see the below quote from KB 2545698 that got released last month).
This issue occurs because of a design change to how Internet Explorer 9 renders text. By default, Internet Explorer 9 uses sub-pixel positioned ClearType to render text by using DirectWrite, whereas Internet Explorer 8 uses whole-pixel positioned ClearType to render text by using the Microsoft Windows graphics device interface (GDI).
I’m wondering if there is a way to make it work ‘right’ on every type of display combination.
Do you know any?
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, Delphi, Development, Font, Power User, Software Development | 5 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/07/28
When you generate Excel XML Spreadsheets, and you load it in Excel, it will report some errors in your Temporary Internet Files directory.
For instance, when you forget to fill the Data.Type attribute, then you get a log file with a message like this:
XML ERROR in Table REASON: Missing Tag FILE: V:\export.xml GROUP: Cell TAG: Data ATTRIB: Type
Note that some errors won’t be reported. For instance if you forget to put your Data in a Cell.Data (and put it in Cell); then Excel just show empty worksheet.
There seems to be no XSD for the XML Spreadsheet format, so you have to get yourself familiar with the XML in Excel and the Spreadsheet Component documentation on MSDN.
You can view where to put your stuff in the XML Spreadsheet Tag Hierarchy. That list doesn’t have individual links to the tags, you need the XML Spreadsheet Reference for that.
To make things more practical for myself, I perfomed these steps:
Even with that, you will need to accommodate for many peculiarities.
Hopefully I will find some time to write more those down soon.
The first is ss:Data:
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, Development, Software Development, XML, XML/XSD, XSD | 3 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/07/21
On my research list: WebSphere MQ and Delphi.
The funny thing is that this Delphi MQ Series question on StackOverflow that I answered actually helped me to get going :)
A few interesting links:
The research actually is focussed to replace a APPC/CPI-C session based solution that runs on top of SNA using LU 6.2 endpoints and has round-trip response times between 50 and 150 milliseconds with a WebSphere MQ based solution having similar performance characteristics. It binds multiple client applications to multiple function entries on the AS/400 systems at the client.
The current APPC/CPI-C part is written either both a DLL and EXE in Delphi (depending on how it is used), hence the Delphi part of the research.
In many organizations, WebSphere MQ (aka MQSeries) is part of their Enterprise Service Bus. In that regard, the SNA solution was far a ahead of its time.
BTW: Back then (almost 15 years ago), the SNA solution started out as solution using AS/400 Data Queues. Even after months of trying, that didn’t work well because the mixed environment of NetSoft Router, AS/400, SNA Server and Windows NT 4 in a pretty big WAN had huge problems.
Somehow, one of the layers forced sessions to always use 2 connections at a time, which was causing huge problems when those were routed through different SNA servers. That routing was unpredictable (and it was not possible to disable/force it to use stick to one SNA server). In addition, it was memory and CPU hungry on the PC side (when you were glad to have a Pentium MMX based CPU with 32 MB RAM, it ate 20+% of the CPU power, and 25+% of the memory per session, peaking to 100% CPU and 50% of RAM per session).
Specialists from all involved parties weren’t able to pinpoint the actual cause, so we went a few steps down on the OSI layer to the APPC leve.
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, Delphi, Development, Software Development | 5 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/07/20
This is from a long time ago, but still fun:
Sometimes simple things in life are hard do remember.
For instance, I always forgot if a file extension parameter should have a dot in it or not.
Normally it should!
But for clearing an extension, you should use a blank string.
Be aware though that empty extensions look differently depending where in the process you look at them:
C# example:
using System;
using System.IO;
public class Test
{
public static void Main()
{
string extensionLess = Path.ChangeExtension(@"C:\mydir\myfile.com.extension", "");
Console.WriteLine(extensionLess);
string extension = Path.GetExtension(extensionLess);
Console.WriteLine(extension);
}
}
Outputs:
C:\mydir\myfile.com.
Delphi example:
program Demo;
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
uses
SysUtils;
var
extensionLess: string;
extension: string;
begin
extensionLess := ChangeFileExt('C:\mydir\myfile.com.extension', '');
Writeln(extensionLess);
extension := ExtractFileExt(extensionLess);
Writeln(extension);
end.
Outputs:
C:\mydir\myfile.com .com
Don’t you love differences in your platforms :)
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, C#, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, Delphi, Development, Software Development | 4 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/07/13
Extracting MSI files can be a pain.
Some compression programs (like 7zip) can unpack them, but leave the unpacked filenames as gibberish.
Many people recommend using msiexec (link to technet docs) on the commandline using the /a parameter (which does an administrative install effectively unpacking it), but others prefer integration in Windows Explorer.
msiexec /a PathToMSIFile /qb TARGETDIR=DirectoryToExtractTo
There are many tools allowing to unpack, and the best seems to be LessMSIerables by Scott Willeke which used to be on the (now defunct) pingpoet blogs, but got resurrected as lessmsi at oogle code.
Note that LessMSI doesn’t always work when msiexec /a works; for instance, I once got this error message:
Error: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x00000003): Failed to close cab extract object, error: 3
Note that when you want to view MST files in addition to MSI files, then you need MSTVIEW from ORK XP or ORK 2003 (which you can get through the Office 2003 resource kit downloads page).
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, Development, Power User, Software Development | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/07/06
OSnews has an interesting view on code quality: the number of WTFs/minute.
I know it is from 2008, but it is so true, so I’m glad I re-found it.
–jeroen
via: wtfm.jpg (500×471).
Posted in .NET, Agile, Delphi, Development, Opinions, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/07/05
Recently, Jon Lennart Aasenden (of Surface Library fame) asked a nice winapi – Best way to do non-flickering, segmented graphics updates in Delphi question on StackOverflow.
Though the question is marked Delphi, the boundaries and solution very generic, and apply to any graphics library or GUI you develop: Windows, Mac, iOS, et cetera:
Posted in .NET, Delphi, Development, Software Development, xCode/Mac/iPad/iPhone/iOS/cocoa | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/06/28
Weaving extends your program adding new functionality.
It can be at different levels for difference purposes (AOP, Debugging, Automated Testing, etc).
This .net – What is IL Weaving? question on StackOverflow contains a few pointers to interesting reading material.
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, Debugging, Delphi, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 