Posted by jpluimers on 2013/04/11
A small duh moment when I found this out myself the hard way: when repeatedly drawing anti-aliased text, it will alter the background on each draw.
So you cannot do that. Not in Delphi, not in .NET, not in Cocoa, nowhere (:
–jeroen
via: delphi – “Additive” text rendering on TCanvas? – Stack Overflow.
Posted in .NET, Delphi, Development, FireMonkey, Software Development, User Experience (ux), WinForms, WPF, XNA | 7 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/03/22
Als je een mail krijgt als onderstaande, dan weet je dat er iemand niet heeft opgelet bij het maken en controleren van de e-mail templates:
from: noreply@agentschapnl.nl
Geachte ${naam},
Uw mededeling WBSO/RDA 2012 voor is ontvangen op 22-03-2013 18:11.
Alleen als er sprake is van een correctie op de afgegeven WBSO verklaringen en/of RDA beschikkingen ontvangt u hiervan schriftelijk bericht.In uw ingediende mededeling kunt u zien of er sprake is van een correctie.
Met vriendelijke groet,
Agentschap NL(Deze e-mail is automatisch gegenereerd en kan niet worden beantwoord.)
–jeroen
via Bevestiging Mededeling WBSO RDA 2012 – jeroen.pluimers.com@gmail.com – Gmail.
Posted in User Experience (ux) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/03/20
Fijne foutmelding:
Uw formulier voldoet niet aan de volgende controles:
!
U heeft geen correct telefoonnummer ingevoerd. Een telefoonnummer moet beginnen met een 0 of + , bestaat uit minimaal 10 cijfers en mag geen leestekens bevatten
•
U heeft geen correct telefoonnummer ingevoerd. Een telefoonnummer moet beginnen met een 0 of + , bestaat uit minimaal 10 cijfers en mag geen leestekens bevatten
Inderdaad twee velden: telefoon en mobiel.
Noem ze dan niet beide “telefoonnummer!”.
En hou je gewoon aan de ITU-T E.123 standaard waar spaties, haakjes en plus gewoon zijn toegestaan.
Het vervolg is nog meer bizar:
Let op: een aantal gegevens kunt u niet meer wijzigen nadat ze zijn opgeslagen.
Zijn uw gegevens correct ingevuld?
Uiteraard staat nergens aangegeven WELKE gegevens niet meer te wijzigen zijn.
Stel je voor!
–jeroen
via: eLoket (Profiel).
Posted in Development, Software Development, Usability, User Experience (ux) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/01/19
I love Google:
Especially since there is still software like Garmin Training Center for Mac on Mac OS X with – in the System Preferences – the Measurement Units set as Metric, insists on entering weight as lb, and workout distance in miles.
The reason is that Garmin Training Center on Mac OS X has its own “Measurement Units” settings. Where Mac OS lets the system wide setting be either “Metric” or ” US”, Garmin choose between “Metric” and “Statute” (the latter is default, not the OS X setting).
The problem is twofold:
Garmin has head offices and most of their customers outside the USA, so why insist on US units being default, and why not link the setting to the Mac OS X Preference?
UX #fail.
Oh BTW: if you connect your Garmin device, and GTC still indicates “no fitness device was found”, then use a different USB Cable and don’t connect it through a hub: the device is very picky on talking over USB (charging over USB works with virtually any USB cable).
Garmin Training Center on Mac OS X insists in imperial units, even though the system is configured as metric.
Garmin Training Center on Mac OS X has its own “Measurement Units” settings. Where Mac OS lets the system wide setting be either “Metric” or ” US”, Garmin choose between “Metric” and “Statute” (the latter is default, not the OS X setting).
Even after setting the Garmin Training Center to “Metric”, it still lists “Miles” in your workouts.
–jeroen
Posted in Google, GoogleSearch, Opinions, Power User, User Experience (ux) | Tagged: gadgets, garmin, google, imperial units, kg, mac os x, measurement units, metric, os x, software, system preferences, technology, workout | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2012/08/22
In Generating a WordPress posting categories page – part 1, you learned how to
This episode, you will learn how the data read from the XHTML can be transformed to a simple tree in HTML suited for a posting categories page like mine.
In the final post, the same data will be transferred into a real category cloud with font sizes indicating the frequency of the category usage.
From there, you can go into other directions (for instance generating squarified treemaps from the data).
That’s the cool thing about data: there are many ways to visualize, and this series was meant – next to some groundwork on how to get the data – as inspiration into some forms of visualization.
Hope you had fun reading it!
StringBuilder outputHtml = new StringBuilder();
string rootUrl = args[1];
foreach (optionType item in select.option)
{
if (item.Level == optionType.RootLevel)
continue;
// <a style="font-size: 100.3986332574%; padding: 1px; margin: 1px;" title="XML/XSD (23)" href="https://wiert.me/category/development/xmlxsd/">XML/XSD</a>
string url = String.Format("{0}/category{1}", rootUrl, item.HtmlPath);
string prefix = new string('.', item.Level * 5);// optionType.NbspEscaped.Repeat(item.Level);
outputHtml.AppendFormat("{0}<a title="{2}" href="{1}">{2} ({3})</a>", prefix, url, item.Category, item.Count);
outputHtml.AppendLine();
}
One way of generating an HTML tree, is to prefix every node with a series of dots corresponding with the level of that node. Not the most pretty sight, but it will suffice for this episode.
Inside each node, I want to show the Category and Count.
Since the optionType as generated from the XSD only contains the below properties, a major portion on this posting is how to decode the Value so we can generate HTML like this:
...............<a href='https://wiert.me/category/development/software-development/net/c-' title='C#'>C# (118)</a> ....................<a href='https://wiert.me/category/development/software-development/net/c-/c--2-0' title='C# 2.0'>C# 2.0 (46)</a> ....................<a href='https://wiert.me/category/development/software-development/net/c-/c--3-0' title='C# 3.0'>C# 3.0 (33)</a> ....................<a href='https://wiert.me/category/development/software-development/net/c-/c--4-0' title='C# 4.0'>C# 4.0 (31)</a> ....................<a href='https://wiert.me/category/development/software-development/net/c-/c--5-0' title='C# 5.0'>C# 5.0 (2)</a>
optionType only contains the these properties:
Slug and Value without breaking the links between posts and categoriesThe extra properties needed for the HTML generation logic above are these:
Value undone from leading non breaking space character escapes, and the trailing count informationC# 5.0Value undone from leading non breaking space character escapes, Caption information, separator non breaking space character escapes, and surrounding parenthesis2class undone from the level- prefix4c--5-0 (it consists of lowercase letters and hyphens derived from the Category)/category in the category url/development/software-development/net/c-/c--5-0 that points to https://wiert.me/category/development/software-development/net/c-/c–5-0The really cool thing about XSD2Code is that it generated the optionType C# code as a partial class.
Which means we can extend the generated partial classes in a seperate C# file like the code fragments below (you can download it from the WordPressCategoriesDropDown.cs file at BeSharp.CodePlex.com)
partial class optionType
{
public const int RootLevel = -1;
private const string slash = "/";
private const char hyphen = '-';
public const string NbspEscaped = " ";
private const string emptyCountInParenthesis = "(-1)";
public optionType parent { get; set; }
public string Category
{
get
{
string result;
string countInParenthesis;
splitValue(out result, out countInParenthesis);
return result;
}
}
public int Count
{
get
{
string category;
string countInParenthesis;
splitValue(out category, out countInParenthesis);
string count = countInParenthesis.Substring(1, countInParenthesis.Length - 2);
int result = int.Parse(count);
return result;
}
}
public int Level
{
get
{
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(@class))
return RootLevel;
string[] split = @class.Split(hyphen);
string number = split[1];
int result = int.Parse(number);
return result;
}
}
/// <summary>
/// This is the HTML part that WordPress uses to reference a Category
/// </summary>
public string Slug
{
get
{
StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
foreach (char item in Category)
{
if (char.IsLetterOrDigit(item))
result.Append(item.ToString().ToLower());
else
if (result.Length > 0)
result.Append(hyphen);
}
return result.ToString();
}
}
public string HtmlPath
{
get
{
if (RootLevel == Level)
return string.Empty;
string result = Slug;
if (null != parent)
result = parent.HtmlPath + slash + result;
return result;
}
}
private void splitValue(out string category, out string countInParenthesis)
{
// might want to do this using RegEx, but that is a write-only language https://wiert.me/category/development/software-development/regex/
string result = Value;
int nbspCountToStripFromLeftOfValue = Level * 3; // strip 3 for each Level
for (int i = 0; i < nbspCountToStripFromLeftOfValue; i++)
{
int nbspEscapedLength = NbspEscaped.Length;
if (result.StartsWith(NbspEscaped))
result = result.Substring(nbspEscapedLength, result.Length - nbspEscapedLength);
}
string doubleNbspEscaped = NbspEscaped + NbspEscaped;
if (result.Contains(doubleNbspEscaped))
{
string[] separators = new string[] { doubleNbspEscaped };
string[] split = result.Split(separators, StringSplitOptions.None);
category = split[0];
countInParenthesis = split[1];
}
else
{
category = result;
countInParenthesis = emptyCountInParenthesis;
}
}
public override string ToString()
{
string result = string.Format("Level {0}, Count {1}, Slug {2}, HtmlPath {3}, Category '{4}'", Level, Count, Slug, HtmlPath, Category);
return result;
}
}
The bulk of the above code is in the splitValue method (that could have used RegEx, but I try to avoid RegEx when I can do without it).
Note that the HtmlPath propererty uses the parent property. Without it, the HtmlPath code would have been very complex. The value of the parent properties for all optionType instances is generated in the selectType.FixParents method below since the selectType instance contains all the optionType instances in its’ option property.
partial class selectType
{
public void FixParents()
{
Stack<optionType> itemStack = new Stack<optionType>();
optionType parent = null;
int previousLevel = optionType.RootLevel;
foreach (optionType item in option)
{
int itemLevel = item.Level;
if (itemLevel == previousLevel)
{
if (optionType.RootLevel != itemLevel)
{
itemStack.Pop();
item.parent = parent;
}
itemStack.Push(item);
}
else
{
if (itemLevel > previousLevel)
{
parent = itemStack.Peek();
}
else
{
do
{
itemStack.Pop();
parent = itemStack.Peek();
previousLevel = parent.Level;
}
while (previousLevel >= itemLevel);
}
itemStack.Push(item);
item.parent = parent;
previousLevel = itemLevel;
}
}
}
}
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, C#, C# 4.0, C# 5.0, Development, LINQ, Software Development, Usability, User Experience (ux), Web Development, WordPress, WordPress, XML, XML escapes, XML/XSD, XSD | 4 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2012/07/31
From the category cloud it is hard to see that the categories are organized as a hierarchy. The combobox on the right shows that, but does not have room to properly show the hierarchy. Since WordPress.com does not allow you to deploy your own code, I worked around it in this way using a small .NET C# console program:
Future posts will show more logic on how to handle the imported information, and generate nice category overviews. Preliminary source code is at the BeSharp.net source repository.
The HTML is not fully accurate (see my post on HTML and XML escapes from last week), but it is fairly easy to extract. Most web browsers allow you to view the source of your web page. Do that, then search for “All Categories”. Now you see HTML like this:
</pre> <h2 class="widgettitle">All categories</h2> <pre><select class="postform" name="cat"><option value="-1">Select Category</option></select><select class="postform" name="cat"><option class="level-0" value="256">About (66)</option></select><select class="postform" name="cat"><option class="level-1" value="64"> Personal (60)</option></select><select class="postform" name="cat"><option class="level-2" value="20254983"> Adest Musica (7)</option></select><select class="postform" name="cat"><option class="level-2" value="32122"> Certifications (2)</option></select><select class="postform" name="cat">...</select><select class="postform" name="cat"><option class="level-0" value="756">Comics (3)</option></select><select class="postform" name="cat"><option class="level-0" value="780">Development (473)</option></select><select class="postform" name="cat"><option class="level-1" value="872460"> Database Development (55)</option></select><select class="postform" name="cat">...</select><select class="postform" name="cat"><option class="level-0" value="9280">User Experience (3)</option></select>
I don’t need the H2 heading line, but the rest I do need to generate XML from. I saved the HTML into a text file for processing by the console app.
The HTML contains loads of , but XML does not allow for that entity. So the & ampersand needs to be escaped into &This also solves other uses of & in the HTML. The rest of the HTML is XHTML compliant, so does not require change, which results into this C# conversion method:
private static string toXml(string inputHtml)
{
string result = inputHtml.Replace("&", "&");
return result;
}
Given my comparison of tools for generating XSD from XML, so I used the XmlForAsp XML Schema generator, with the “Separate Complex Types” option.
(Note: I will link to the XSD before/after, as WordPress – yet again – screws the XSD sourcecode in the post; this should do for now). That gives me XSD like this (XML is also at pastebin):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <xsd:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" version="1.0" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <xsd:element name="select" type="selectType" /> <xsd:complexType name="selectType"> <xsd:sequence> <xsd:element maxOccurs="unbounded" name="option" type="optionType" /> </xsd:sequence> <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" /> <xsd:attribute name="id" type="xsd:string" /> <xsd:attribute name="class" type="xsd:string" /> </xsd:complexType> <xsd:complexType name="optionType"> <xsd:attribute name="value" type="xsd:int" /> </xsd:complexType> </xsd:schema>
Which is not complete, but gives a good start. The actual XSD it needs to be like this with a more elaborate optionType complex type that also defines it’s own content as deriving from xsd:string, and adds the class attribute (XML is also at pastebin):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <xsd:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" version="1.0" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <xsd:element name="select" type="selectType" /> <xsd:complexType name="selectType"> <xsd:sequence> <xsd:element maxOccurs="unbounded" name="option" type="optionType" /> </xsd:sequence> <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" /> <xsd:attribute name="id" type="xsd:string" /> <xsd:attribute name="class" type="xsd:string" /> </xsd:complexType> <xsd:complexType name="optionType"> <xsd:simpleContent> <xsd:extension base="xsd:string"> <xsd:attribute name="class" type="xsd:string" /> <xsd:attribute name="value" type="xsd:int" /> </xsd:extension> </xsd:simpleContent> </xsd:complexType> </xsd:schema>
You can generate C# wrapper classes using the XSD.exe tool that ships with Visual Studio, but XSD.exe is hard to use, is hard to integrate into Visual Studio (despite Microsoft Connect request for it), the XSD.exe generated code still needs work for deserializing, and XSD.exe has very limited generation options (heck, after it changed from .NET 1.x to 2.0, it hasn’t been updated for about a decade). XSD2Code has some great reviews, to I used that in stead. And indeed, very well integrates into Visual Studio 2010, and generates very nice C#, especially when you use the options (see also the screenshot on the right):
That way, loading the HTML, converting it to XML, then deserializing it into object instances is as simple as this:
string inputFileName = args[0];
string inputHtml = getHtml(inputFileName);
string xml = toXml(inputHtml);
selectType select = selectType.Deserialize(xml);
More on actually working with the loaded instances in the next episode, including the great benefit of XSD2Code: it generates C# code as partial classes.
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, C#, C# 4.0, C# 5.0, Development, SocialMedia, Software Development, Usability, User Experience (ux), Web Development, WordPress, WordPress, XML, XML escapes, XML/XSD, XSD | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2012/06/05
Scott’s blog posts usually contain a truckload of side information in between the main topic.
He was discussing the new ‘designed’ look of Visual Studio 11 (the mantra: just give it a shot, and then tell how you like it; I like the new look and feel very much).
And he also mentioned a site of monochrome Glyphs I hadn’t seen before:
Glyphs are apparently a designer term for icons that are not colorful. You can see a lot of glyphs at http://thenounproject.com
Those glyphs are awesome!
–jeroen
via: Change Considered Harmful? – The New Visual Studio Look and Feel – Scott Hanselman.
Posted in Development, Software Development, User Experience (ux), Visual Studio 11, Visual Studio and tools | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2012/04/16
Don’t post screen shots as low quality JPEG.
Use PNG, which results in smaller files and better looking images.
Not like ING did: no screen reader can help visually impaired, and it gives a very bad user experience to the rest of the world.
–jeroen
Posted in LifeHacker, Power User, Usability, User Experience (ux) | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2012/04/14
I’m experimenting with the Posting categories overview page as a prequel to a proper tag cloud (and a series of posts on how to get there).
Please let me know in the comments which of the below ones you like most:
(For comparison, you need a big screen; the most popular choice will survive on the Posting categories page).
–jeroen
via: Posting categories « The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of Wiert stuff. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in CSS, Development, HTML, Power User, SocialMedia, Software Development, Usability, User Experience (ux), Web Development, WordPress, WordPress | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/02
Kort geleden schreef ik over de #yellowbrick en #anwb #fail: Als de website nu ook nog nice was… (deal: ANWB – Ledenvoordeel – Yellowbrick – gratis registratie).
Inmiddels is er lichte voortgang:
Kortom: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Opinions, Power User, User Experience (ux) | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 