The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

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

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Archive for the ‘Software Development’ Category

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As true today as it was when the book was written. “The psychology of computer programming” by @JerryWeinberg, 1971.

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/07/02

@ingorammer on Twitter [WayBack] a while back:

As true today as it was when the book was written. “The psychology of computer programming” by @JerryWeinberg, 1971:

Specifications evolve together with programs and programmers. Writing a programis a process of learning – both for the programmer and the person who commissions the program. Morover, this learning takes place in the context of a particular machine, a particular programming language, a particular programmer or programming team in a particular working environment, and a particular set of historical events that determine not just the form of the code but also what the code does!

Links:

–jeroen

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Posted in Development, Fun, History, Quotes, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Windows: running a batch file during logon of a single or all users

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/07/01

You can automatically start processes during logon in a lot of ways (Trojans/Viruses find new ways all of the time).

The easiest way is to create a shortcut in one of the Startup folders. There are two of them: one for all the users, and one for the current user. Depending on your locale, Explorer can show a translated name, but the actual folder is named either of these:

  • "%AllUsersProfile%/Start Menu\Programs\Startup"
  • "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"

The folders do not exist at first, but are created when software starts putting shortcuts in them.

For a manual process, I created the two batch files below that create, then go to them (in both the console and explorer).

From there you can add shortcuts to things you want to run during logon.

They are based on:

I have successfully tested them in various Windows versions up until 10.

–jeroen

Batch files:

view raw

goto-startup-folder-allusers.bat

hosted with ❤ by GitHub


:: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16087694/auto-run-a-bat-script-in-windows-7-at-login
call :do "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"
goto :eof
:do
mkdir %*
pushd %*
explorer /e,.

view raw

goto-startup-folder-user.bat

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

 

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »

SequoiaView Homepage

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/07/01

I thought I had scheduled a blog post about the great tool on [WayBack] SequoiaView Homepage, but didn’t. In the mean time, Paolo Buffa posted an overview with a really nice historic perspective:

Is amazing from how many years I’m using this program, and how many operating systems it managed to go thru almost unscathed, without modification.

Paolo Buffa

Source: [Archive.is] SequoiaView: a piece of history. – Data Center IT – Spiceworks

I still use it, despite it being quite old: 2002 era, written in Delphi 5. It’s beautiful in part because of its anciency, but also because it is so simple and intuitive that I still use it regularly.

The age also shows in the web page (which when writing it was still on-line): The SequiaView home page link above is actually a classic frame inside [WayBack] The SequoiaView Homepage. Back then, it was already starting to be considered obsolete to write HTML using frameset [WayBack] Framing (World Wide Web) – Wikipedia.

The SequoiaView [WayBack] Download Page even points to non-existing ftp-download URLs via counter CGI scripts:

None of them have been archived by the WayBack machine: https://web.archive.org/web//ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/home/sequoia//

To verify alternative downloads, just check these hashes:

hash command filename hash output
$ md5 Sequoia1.3Install.zip MD5 (Sequoia1.3Install.zip) = 28d356f2bafe258805794257c284a075
$ md5 Sequoia1_3XPInstall.exe MD5 (Sequoia1_3XPInstall.exe) = 142586a5cc7a0139bde8c13e5cc4d301
$ shasum Sequoia1.3Install.zip 762ab30177a7f6a0d4f173fd2442ba7b61df4c2e Sequoia1.3Install.zip
$ shasum Sequoia1_3XPInstall.exe c1db10a0f7d36adbc14b5a7a3f08fc35db1bee8b Sequoia1_3XPInstall.exe

I’ve a copy in my archive that I just use in a portable way: just copy over SequoiaView directory with these files in it:

  • Archives.col
  • DEFAULT.COL
  • Images.col
  • License.txt
  • Movies.col
  • ReleaseNotes.txt
  • Sequoia.cnt
  • Sequoia.exe
  • SEQUOIA.HLP
  • Sound.col

You can download this from gist.github.com/jpluimers/b0df9c2dba49010454ca6df406bc5f3d (ef94f1875377f4054e3a434f8942e1749f0af74a.zip).

A few things that could be fixed (if ever hopefully MagnaView open sources it: [WayBack] @jpluimers More @magnaview did you ever consider to open source the Delphi code for http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/ or give someone NDA access to fix some bugs?):

  • Access violation when re-scanning a drive
  • Option to show multiple links to the same physical file
  • Indication of more rights  needed to index a file or directory
  • Better explorer integration (via context menu)

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Delphi, Delphi 5, Development, Power User, Software Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »

MMX Needs New Icons – Are You Willing To Help? – MMX

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/06/30

[WayBack] MMX Needs New Icons – Are You Willing To Help? – MMX:

I am pretty sure all of you already noticed: The current icons in MMX not only look a bit old, they also don’t look well on the Dark Theme. They are not alpha blended and are only available in 16 x 16 pixel size. This may become a problem when the IDE will support High DPI in the future.

Unfortunately the stock icons available in the market simply don’t fit the purpose of most of the individual icons needed, so custom designed icons seem to be mandatory.

…

I have been asked several times where people can donate to support the development of MMX. While I am still not planning to accept donations for the time I am going to invest in the development, donating for the icons is a good way to show your gratitude. If you are not a able or willing to donate – that’s OK. Anyway, please consider to spread the word about this.

Many thanks to all that already donated and those who are going to do so.

For those still looking for the link to the MoneyPool, here it is: https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/8e4alQxGzA

–jeroen

Posted in Delphi, Development, ModelMaker Code Explorer, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

The Delphi compiler has a hard time coping with circular unit references

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/06/27

In [WayBack] Anyone here with an “F2092 Program or unit ‘?’ recursively uses itself” error in Tokyo? I have this error in Tokyo but the same project compiles ok in Berlin… – Luis Madaleno – Google+, I commented this:

Large circular reference cycles can trip the compiler into emitting this error (next to out-of-memory errors, access violations and internal errors and “unitX.pas F2063 Could not compile used unit ‘unitY.pas'”).

Solution that usually works: quit Delphi, delete .DCU files, start Delphi, build all, then compile. Cumbersome, time consuming, but since the error is intermittent and involves large code bases, it’s was hard to get it to R&D back in the days.

–jeroen

Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Calculating CRC with a tiny (32 entry) lookup-table | Lentz family blog

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/06/27

For my archive:

I happened to notice that the Arduino OneWire library uses a 256 entry lookup table for its CRC calculations.

I did some research on this topic in 1992-1993, while working on Bulletin Board Systems, FidoNet code and file transfer protocols.

These days memory is not at a premium on most computers, however on Arduino and microcontroller environments it definitely is, and I happen to know that table-lookup CRC can be done using two 16-entry tables!

So I’ve dug up my documentation and code from the time, and applied it to the CRC-8 calculation for the Maxim (Dallas Semiconductor) OneWire bus protocol.

I think this provides a neat trade-off between code size and speed.

License For any of the below code, apply the following license (2-clause “simplified” BSD license), which should suffice for any use. If you do require another license, just ask.

Source: [WayBack/Archive.is] Calculating CRC with a tiny (32 entry) lookup-table | Lentz family blog

The example on the page is for the CRC-8 implementation used in the [WayBack] 1-Wire Communication protocol – Wikipedia.

The generator works for CRC-8, CRC-16 and CRC-32 polynomials and can be downloaded here:

–jeroen

 

Posted in Algorithms, C, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Binding git diff to Beyond Compare

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/06/26

This became a huge batch-file which I need to refactor into smaller bits.

:: based on bc.bat
:: needs to be refactored into find-bc.bat
:: assumes git is on the path

:begin
@echo off

:checkGit
:: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4781772/how-to-test-if-an-executable-exists-in-the-path-from-a-windows-batch-file/25696405#25696405
  where /q git || echo Cound not find git on the PATH %PATH%. && goto :eof
:: for now, the above is good enough as git installs itself on the path, but Beyond Compare does not.

:findBeyondCompare
  setlocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion
  IF /I [%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%] == [amd64] goto :x64
  IF /I [%PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432%] == [amd64] goto :x64
  goto :x86
:x64
  :: OS is 64bit
  set hkcuBaseKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Scooter Software\Beyond Compare
  set hklmBaseKey=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Scooter Software\Beyond Compare
  
  goto :findBC
:x86
  :: OS is 32bit
  set hkcuBaseKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Scooter Software\Beyond Compare
  set hklmBaseKey=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Scooter Software\Beyond Compare
  goto :findBC
:findBC
  :: https://gist.github.com/rojepp/634908
  :: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5369528/windows-batch-reg-query-key-value-to-a-variable-but-do-not-display-error-if-key
  set SupportedBeyondCompareVersions=3, 4
  for %%v in (%SupportedBeyondCompareVersions%) do (
    for /f "usebackq tokens=2* delims= " %%c in (`reg query "%hkcuBaseKey% %%v" /v ExePath 2^>NUL`) do (
      call :do set bcExe="%%d"
    )
  )
  if not [%bcExe%]==[] goto :foundBC
    for /f "usebackq tokens=2* delims= " %%c in (`reg query "%hkcuBaseKey%" /v ExePath 2^>NUL`) do (
      call :do set bcExe="%%d"
    )
  if not [%bcExe%]==[] goto :foundBC
  for %%v in (%SupportedBeyondCompareVersions%) do (
    for /f "usebackq tokens=2* delims= " %%c in (`reg query "%hklmBaseKey% %%v" /v ExePath 2^>NUL`) do (
      call :do set bcExe="%%d"
    )
  )
  if not [%bcExe%]==[] goto :foundBC
    for /f "usebackq tokens=2* delims= " %%c in (`reg query "%hklmBaseKey%" /v ExePath 2^>NUL`) do (
      call :do set bcExe="%%d"
    )
  :: note that FOR /R needs a wildcard!
  if not [%bcExe%]==[] goto :foundBC
    for /r . %%d in (bcompare*.exe) do (
      call :do set bcExe="%%d"
    )
:foundBC
:: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2772456/string-replacement-in-batch-file
:: note the BCompExe assignment requires at least https://ss64.com/nt/setlocal.html to have EnableDelayedExpansion and likely EnableExtensions 
:: see https://ss64.com/nt/delayedexpansion.html for ! expansion
  if [%bcExe%]==[] ( echo no bc.exe found in registry or relative to batch file) else (
    echo bcExe=%bcExe%
    if exist %bcExe% (
      call :do set bcCompExe=%bcExe:BCompare=BComp%
      :: echo bcCompExe=!bcCompExe!
      echo "Beyond Compare" %bcExe:\=/%
      echo "BComp" !bcCompExe:\=/!
      call :do git config --global diff.tool bc
      call :do git config --global difftool.bc.path !bcCompExe:\=/!
      call :do git config --global merge.tool bc
      call :do git config --global mergetool.bc.path !bcCompExe:\=/!
    )
    if not exist %bcExe% echo not found: [%bcExe%]
  )
:exit
  endlocal
:end
  goto :eof
:do
  echo %*
  call %*
  goto :eof

–jeroen

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Unicode ligatures: not all software does normalised search forgetting ffi 

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/06/26

Via a private share, I found out that some software forgets to perform a Unicode normalisation when doing a search.

That means that ligatures do not match the non-ligatures in for instance these words:

  • “ff” and “ff”, as in “difference” versus “difference”
  • “fi” and “fi” as in “notification” versus “notification”.

For more information, read [WayBack] Unicode equivalence – Wikipedia and make sure you know about these normal forms:

NFD
Normalization Form Canonical Decomposition		 Characters are decomposed by canonical equivalence, and multiple combining characters are arranged in a specific order.
NFC
Normalization Form Canonical Composition		 Characters are decomposed and then recomposed by canonical equivalence.
NFKD
Normalization Form Compatibility Decomposition		 Characters are decomposed by compatibility, and multiple combining characters are arranged in a specific order.
NFKC
Normalization Form Compatibility Composition		 Characters are decomposed by compatibility, then recomposed by canonical equivalence.

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Encoding, Software Development, Unicode | Leave a Comment »

Why Isn’t Agile Working? – Hacker Noon

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/06/26

Definitely worth reading when you think you’re being Agile, but you don’t. [WayBack] Why Isn’t Agile Working? – Hacker Noon.

Via:

–jeroen

 

Posted in Agile, Development, Software Development | 1 Comment »

Cool new Twitter account that warns about a free book when it appears: Packt Free Learning (@packtfreebook) | Twitter

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/06/25

Packt free books

Usually one free book each day, with some pauses when Packt Publishing runs other specials [WayBack] Packt Free Learning (@packtfreebook) | Twitter.

This account started on 20190621. Hopefully it lasts for a while, as it is a very easy reminder on when a new free book becomes available.

Maybe they will notify of other free specials as well; time will tell.

Hopefully, the WordPress Twitter binding will show the most recent one below by Packt – Wikipedia.

EU versus USA Packt prices

Note that since a month or two, the Packt site asks me on a daily base to switch to their European site instead of to their USA site.

Avoid switching, as that incurs a high currency conversion cost. For example:

So that is a EUR/USD conversion factor of between 0.9 and 0.86 right (eBook 9/10 and paper+eBook 38.99/44.99).

Actually that’s not true: at the time of writing, the conversion is 0.78 which leaves a ~15% profit for just eBooks (0.9/0.78-1) and ~10% (0.86/0.78) margin for the Packt conversion. A tad high for my likings.

[Archive.is] 10 usd in eur – Google Search

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Posted in Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

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