September 2003 Entries

here September, 2003(16)


there September, 2003(14)


and the internal one, September, 2003(34)


hehe, you can't see how big of a dope I am on the internal oneSmiley

Working with windows forms sucks.


Especially if you're coming from the much more approachable asp.net side. I have state, but simple things like pre-selecting an item in a datagrid are not easy - and they should be. You should make me feel comfortable in your environment. Give me a reason to use Windows Forms other than 'it runs on Windows'.


I'm about halfway thru my first Windows Forms project. If I were doing this in asp.net, I would be done by now.


That is all.

For anyone else who might have run into Intellisense weirdness, I found that just 'touching' the file that was generated by vs.net for the dataset and recompiling gave intellisense its needed kick in the rear.


All I did was go to the file, hit enter, hit backspace, shift+ctrl+b, and intellisense was ready again to do my bidding. Weird, but it worked for meSmiley

So I'm doing some work with typed datasets right now that is really souring my experience with VS.NET 2003.


I'm using the same technique that I used months ago with VS.NET 2002 that worked pretty smoothly - wait, first let me say that it is working, it's the Intellisense that's jacked up. Unfortunately, it looks like it doesn't pick up everything that is included within the generated DataSet, including the public DataTable and DataRow classes generated. So, the code compiles and works fine during runtime, but intellisense is shot down at the first level. Is this what it was like before intellisense? So maybe the problem is that I'm spoiled now thanks to the technology - then it craps out on me after working before.


Technology is like crack. First you get a taste of the good stuff, then you really pay.

In response to a post I made about VS.NET 2002 failing to open connections with Sql Server, Roman says:



I have just found solvation. Installing MDAC 2.8 helps


Tony, who had been having a similar problem, found the post and thanks Roman. So, if you're having problems connecting to Sql Server, try installing MDAC 2.8.

The Puppet Masters
You belong in the Puppet Masters. Your world is
filled with hidden foes. You trust no one, and
you know that someday you'll find and destroy
the bad guys hideout.

Which Heinlein Book Should You Have Been A Character In?
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9/11. I was at home that day, my son wasn't born yet, and I saw the whole thing televised after my (ex) girlfriend's crazy best friend told us that America was under attack over the phone.

Me: Hey, Tina - you wanna see what I did today?Smiley


Tina: No, I looked at a computer screen for too long today. It was 4 hours.Perplexed

perhaps I should take a little more time to fix the emoticonsEmbarassed

I've recently added emoticonsSmileyto my .Text blog. If you could see the code, it might look familiar. Heh, that was pretty easy. I did make a change or two to the source of .Text and also added a key to the web.config's appsettings node.




The magic happens in a method called StripFTB (for free textbox, the editor used for this app) All I did was add a call to the new Transform class, added the appropriate text file, and we're in business.




If you haven't checked it out yet, .Text is a real good app - it's been real easy to make changes to it to 'fit my needs'.

blah!!Smiley


edit moreMad

I just added geoUrl to my blog. I don't know why I didn't thing to do this before! I just have it pointing to my personal blog that has the correct tags, so when you click on the link it queries the database based on the url here not there.

Nice. There's also this site which has a world map on it and shows up where you are if you make a post.

Looks like Marc is having trouble with sealed ImageLists.

I've been working on my first Windows Forms project and I'm using the same ImageList throughout the application, even tho there are yet only a few forms in it. I adapted an example by Lutz Roeder that uses a static class (well, ya know static members, whatever) to load a bitmapstrip into an internal ImageList. The class has a bunch of static properties that return the correct index of the image based on the loaded ImageList. (Like Images.Forward or Images.Undo)

I also added a static property to return the internal ImageList incase I want to use it in one of my Forms without calling the individual properties.

The trick is to load the bitmap strip in a static constructor - it's always  called first. If I want to add an individual image to a form, I can either create a local ImageList and set it to Images.ImageList or simply set the image of the control I'm targeting to say Images.Back. I have to admit, I usually add the image in (gasp) the InitializeComponent() call - but here's the nice part: since I'm calling a completely static class, the designer can get to the images and loads it not only to the designer surface but also (usually) replaces my Images.Back call with an appropriate call to the ResourceManager to grab the image from its new home - my Form's .resx file.

Good luck, Marc.

I want to say thanks to those who have given me feedback on a previous post. It's given me a little bit more insight into this beast called SqlServer. Anyways, I think perhaps I should ask this particular question on a listeserv of some sort, or maybe stick with just dynamically creating the sql text - given the fact that this particular endeavor is a windows forms project that shouldn't go outside of my company...

I couldn't figure out why the remote posting thing wasn't working like I wanted it to. Well, the examples that I looked at last nite failed to outline the need to generate a proxy to use a webservice with the soap protocol. I had to dig up some old code and inevitably smak myself on the head. But here goes...

Update: I think I got it to work.

Oh boy. Another “Object Reference” exception. I tried to create a proxy to this here webservice and insert an entry from a simple command line program. No dice. Thing is, tomorrow I'm going to try it from asp.net and it's gonna work. eh, I hope :)

I intend to use this blog engine more and more, but I've run into a snag that has held me back a bit - I don't know what the ParentID is supposed to be used for, and I don't want to go forward until I do.

I'm working on cross-posting right now so that I can use this blog full-time. I'm pretty sure I have 0 subscribers on /phoenix, but I'll make sure to include the proper redirects if I get an aggregator for the user-agent. Should be fun!