Things I Learned Today

Natural Sorting: An algorithm in C++ for sorting strings that contain integers

2011-12-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

After looking high and low for a natural sort algorithm in unmanaged C++, without finding one that is "safe" and actually works, I wrote my own. This correctly sorts strings with numbers mixed in, where those numbers are not zero-prefixed. It doesn't work for negative numbers, though a minor change or two might fix that.

---------------- Start Code -------------------------
///Sorts two strings using natural sorting where integers inside the string
///are compared as numbers not alphabetically, becuase '101' < '11' if you
///ignore the entire number and just look at characters!
///
///
///-1 if S1 is less than S2, +1 if S1 greater S2, 0 if equal
///

int NaturalStringSort(const char *pS1, const char *pS2)
{
if( pS1 && pS2 ) {
int max_c = min( strlen(pS1), strlen(pS2) ); // prevent buffer overrun
int c = 0;
const char end = '\0';
// Compare characters until a difference is found
char a = *(pS1), b = *(pS2);
do {
if( isdigit(a) && isdigit(b) ) {
// Check "whole" numbers!
int i = atoi( pS1+c ); // (ignores 'extra' chars)
int j = atoi( pS2+c );
if( i < j ) return -1;
if( j < i ) return +1;
// Skip to first character after equal numbers!
// How many digits were there?
int n = int( ceil( log10( double(i) ) ) );
if( (i > 0) && (n > 0) ) { // log(0) causes problems!
c += n;
if( c > max_c ) return 0;
--c; // Because ++ below
}
}
else if( a < b ) return -1;
else if( b < a ) return +1;
// Equal so far, advance to next character...
c++;
a = *(pS1+c);
b = *(pS2+c);
}
while( (a != end) && (b != end) && (c <= max_c) );

// End Game: Is one string shorter?
if( (a == end) && (b == end) ) return 0;
else if( (a == end) ) return -1;
else return +1;
}
return 0; // or throw an exception?
}
---------------- End Code -------------------------

Code Contracts in Visual Studio 2010

2011-08-24T22:10:00.000-06:00

A Quick Introduction
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/contracts/

A more in-depth review of the code contracts features:
http://devjourney.com/blog/code-contracts-part-1-introduction/

Finally, the “Code Contracts User Manual.pdf”

The KEY benefits of using Contracts are:

Potential “Static” checking of source code. (Red squiggles if you CALL a method with bad parameters!) Requires the "Premium" edition of Visual Studio 2010
Potential enforcement of “Asserts” at run-time, in a shipping product.

We cannot get either of these, ever, with Debug.Assert(), which ONLY helps with debug builds.

The Main “problems” with Code Contracts:

They enforce some rules about when and what you can require or ensure.
They must be “turned on” in the project settings and “enabled” for run-time to get ANY benefit.

A Quick Review of Working with Photos in Windows

2011-07-28T07:41:00.005-06:00

Definitions

File: just like a piece of paper or printed photograph, but electronic. It may be moved
around or copied or thrown away.

Folder: a container for files, just like a file cabinet or shelf in your house. In a computer,
though, a folder may be copied, renamed, deleted, and moved around more easily!

Windows "Basics" (Use these commands anywhere!)

Right-click on just about anything to see the Context Menu
Left-click on menu items (commands) or anything to select
Double-click on something to choose the default command.
Ctrl+Click adds or removes an item from what is currently selected
Shift+Click the last item in a range to select a group of items.
Use Cut or Copy and then Paste to move or copy files from one place to another.
Drag files from one folder to another to move them.
(This copies rather than moves if you are dragging to a CD-R disc.)
Ctrl+Drag files to make a copy instead of moving them.

Getting Photos Off Your Camera Card

Insert the camera card while Windows is running for the options menu.
Use either the Import Pictures, or Open to View Files option.
Images are just files that can be moved, copied, renamed, or deleted.
It is better to keep your camera card "clean" so you don't have to remember
which images you have imported or not.

Working with Your Photos

You can create your own folders in "Windows Explorer" (Start | Computer or
Start | Pictures) by Right-Click, New | Folder, to be more organized.
You can rename photos by Right-Clicking on the Photo.
You can make a backup of any folder by inserting a blank CD-R and
choosing Burn Files to Disc. Then open another Explorer window and
Drag files and/or folders to the Disc's folder.
Find your current Photos under Start | Photos, then drill down into sub-folders
by double-clicking on the folder.
You can Drag photos to any memory stick or camera card to take them
somewhere to print.

Uncover Application Run-Time Problems with Missing DLLs: SxSTrace

2011-07-27T16:58:00.002-06:00

C:\>sxstrace

WinSxs Tracing Utility.

Usage: SxsTrace [Options]

Options:

Trace -logfile:FileName [-nostop]

Enabling tracing for sxs.

Tracing log is saved to FileName.

If -nostop is specified, will not prompt to stop tracing.

Parse -logfile:FileName -outfile:ParsedFile [-filter:AppName]

Translate the raw trace file into a human readable format and save the re

sult to ParsedFile.

Use -filter option to filter the output.

Stoptrace

Stop the trace if it is not stopped before.

Example: SxsTrace Trace -logfile:SxsTrace.etl

SxsTrace Parse -logfile:SxsTrace.etl -outfile:SxsTrace.txt

Notes: Must run as Administrator.

2010-08-26T13:31:00.000-06:00

Extract a Manifest from an Application

Using mt.exe:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0\Bin\mt.exe -inputresource:Application.exe -out:Application.manifest

2010-03-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

If Expression Web 3.0 is not publishing properly (wants to publish everything or can’t remember what was published) it may be due to the web-cache files it creates, or version 2.0 created. Clean out: C:\Users\<login>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Expression\WebsiteCache

Then it should work fine again.

New Software Feature Checklist

2010-02-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

(Learned from 15 error-filled-years in the trenches of software development)

Questions Before Coding

· What Problem are we trying to solve?

· How will this feature make the software better?

· How will it look to the customer?

· What terminology should it use?

· How does a customer USE it?

· When will the feature NOT apply?

· What other features will be disabled if this feature is used?

Coding Issues

· Where will the code be located?

· Can this feature be reused in some future product?

· What existing code needs to change and why?

· Does the file format need to change?

· Does the UI need to change?

· How will failure be dealt with?

Test Cases

· How many different ways can you access the feature?

· What are the 'boundary' cases?

· Can you break the feature? How many ways?

· Have you created some 'normal' test cases?

Code Review

· Is the code complete 100%?

· Does every function have parameter ASSERTS, return ASSERTS, logic ASSERTS?

· Has the code been Linted (or FxCop'd?)

· Has "trial" code been removed?

· Are the code comments correct?

Documentation

· What is the Feature? (Overview, capabilities, terminology)

· Where in the product do you access it?

· How do you use it (step-by-step)?

· What are the limitations?

· What theory or specification needs to be referenced?

· Is there an example project for it?

· Is there a tutorial to go with it?

Padding Upgrade Feature Lists

2010-02-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Learned from Microsoft with Windows 7: When advertising an upgrade, it is OK and good to advertise all the things you added in the last couple of versions. Some people won’t know about the 'older' new features. Some people will not have discovered those features even though they already ‘own’ them! It makes your feature list look really good even if you did not add much.

Using CComboBoxEx

2010-01-14T19:50:00.000-07:00

If you want to use CComboBoxEx (say with an image list), you must use the ‘Extended Combobox’ item in the Resource Editor Toolbox!

Programmer Tidbits

2009-12-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

Tidbit #1: When you have bugs in the release-build, but not the debug build, it might be uninitialized variables, but it also might be a buffer overrun. Not all buffer overruns crash, and may work fine in a release build running under Visual Studio (with a debugger).

Tidbit #2:

God is 99.999999999% of the Universe; God is Essentially 1.0

2009-10-14T23:53:00.001-06:00

The space between the particles in my brain is vast. If you can believe the conclusions of physics, the only matter in my head comprises a mere 0.0000000001% of the space it occupies. This might help explain the rest of this post...

This is also true for the earth itself. Yeah, it weighs quite a bit at about 130,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 lbs, but that weight only occupies a total of 0.0000000067 cubic inches: the rest of the earth is empty space.

It is easy to see the space between the stars and to understand that it is also this vast.

Science can tell us there is this great vacuum. But it cannot do more than provide the wrong name for the mysterious forces acting through and within the large vacuum, like gravity, or within the small vacuums, like the strong nuclear force. They exist, but we cannot see them, we cannot understand them, and we "believe", because we see their effects in the world.

So then you read this: "Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!" from Deuteronomy 6:4,
or as Jesus said: "The Father and Iare one.", from John 10:30.

My conclusion then is that God is indeed essentially 1.0, because our measurement might be off just a bit (our measuring tapes are rather short, are they not?). God is filling the universe and is the force holding it together. God is not matter, but God does matter. God is not distant, but acts within our hearts and our minds, gently holding, gently leading, patiently waiting for us to recognize just how dependent we really are.

Palm Centro Survives Gatorade Shower

2009-10-14T22:33:00.000-06:00

Fact: You can shower your Palm Centro with Gatorade to the point of death and resurrect it.
Details: The Verizon phone was dead, it would power on but none of the keys worked, after drying it out without the battery for a couple days. But with a small torx screwdriver from Ace Hardware, you can pop the thing apart fairly quickly (especially after watching the video on youtube.com) and clean out the remaining gunk (yes, that's the official term for what's left when Gatorade evaporates) that is shorting the contacts where the cable connects between the keyboard and the babyboard (sorry no link 'cause I just made it up and well, it's not a motherboard--too small) snap it back together. OK it took me three tries, but persistence paid off as it works like, well, like before: Juiced!

The Web is Screwed Up

2009-09-24T19:28:00.000-06:00

So here's the deal. I add a newsletter to my web site this morning. It's not a big deal, a simple html page, some images, its based on a nice dwt that brings in all my styles from css and some basic javascript to make it appear slightly less archaic than it really is. Along the way I add a small new "class" to one of my .css files, and tweak the right-margin on my h4 elements from 40% to 30% because I'm tired of the way they are wrapping. No big deal, looks great on my machine: publish!

An hour later my coworker says, "I don't really like the format of our newsletter, the old one was more professional" and he sends a screen shot from his machine. It's like the Newsletter Jigsaw puzzle, with black painted borders around every line of text, for good measure.

Why? Well it turns out that IE8 "decides" that it might as well use some style sheet cached from who knows when rather than updating the one I published today. A simple click on the "refresh" button fixes his problem. But are my customers going to know this? Probably not. They'll just say, those morons at IES don't know what they are doing?

So I go online to read about this web caching business. I know how to set the meta-tags to get HTML pages to refresh. But what is the mechanism for getting .css files to update? Oh, there is none. You can just rename your file and republish all the pages that link to it if you want it to update. Now why couldn't the web browser world just do something simple? You know, like look at the date on my file and say, oh look he's updated it, let's show the new one.

Perhaps that's Web 3.0?

Creating 404.html Pages

2009-08-05T09:57:00.001-06:00

Today I learned that 404.html pages need to have complete paths to resources like css or javascript files. Relative paths don't work!

HTML Form Post: Requires Name not id

2009-06-01T14:41:00.000-06:00

When posting data to a perl script from HTML you MUST use name="field" in the code, id="field" (which is useful for JavaScript) is simply not enough--there is no data actually posted if the names are not used.

Things to expect in Bozeman, Montana

2009-04-23T17:06:00.000-06:00

You can expect to cut the grass in the morning and shovel the sidewalk in the afternoon.

You can expect to see a horse or a bear downtown, and it is not a parade.

You can expect to drive five miles in a blizzard and then find the sun is shining in Belgrade.

You can expect snow in all seasons, but especially during spring soccer season.

Computational Geometry

2009-03-26T21:56:00.000-06:00

For large data sets, the difference between O(n*log n) and O(n^2) can be the difference between seconds and days of computation.

Linear vs. Cyclical Life

2009-01-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about technology and how it is one of those things that always seems to be moving, changing, both in exciting ways but also challenging, frustrating ways. Most of our lives are cyclical, seasonal, routines that repeat (eating, sleeping, etc.) but technology just keeps driving us relentlessly. Some people see it as their "salvation" others as their "doom"! As I get older, I find myself moving in the doom-direction attitude, which I suppose is inevitable. At the same time I still thoroughly enjoy learning new technologies and my job.

LTProf is Sweet for C++ Development

2009-01-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

I have discovered LTProf from lw-tech.com, which is an extremely lightweight tool for performance testing applications. The tool is light on installation and learning and price, but packs a huge whallop if you have never performance-tested your program. I was able to speed up VisualAnalysis reports by 4800%, and design checks by 850% in just a few hours.

Can Vista Sleep?

2008-12-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

If you have trouble getting your computer to go to sleep, there is a little command line program to help you understand and diagnose the issues: powercfg. Use -? to discover options. On my work machine, I had to disable the "wake" options on the USB mouse and keyboard to get it to sleep properly. These settings can be found in Device Manager, under the properties and power options for each.

Microsoft Is Too Big

2008-12-19T20:34:00.000-07:00

I tried to get a free-trial of Microsoft Live Meeting, and after an hour or so of filling out forms and signing license agreements and reading "middle management" blah-blah and watching their demo on how to use their online business services web site. I'm still completely clueless. There is little chance that I will go this route...

Miscellaneous Stuff

2008-11-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

1. You can Google this blog.

2. Working with MS Expression Web 2.0 is a real chore sometimes. The program's undo feature sometimes wants to undo the last 30 things I've done, not just the last style change. Fortunately there is a Redo that seems to work. Also selection and cursor movement can be extremely frustrating and erratic. Selection can be nearly impossible--good thing there are seven ways to do it. Finally, working with a Split screen, with a fairly small code window at the top works really well. You can watch what Expression is doing and fix things quickly without loosing the "Big Picture" of your layout.

3. I need to actually READ the emails that come my way before responding. I've been burned three times in the last week.

4. It is hard to keep up with myself, I've learned so much, but I forget to write it down.

Connecting to a LAN Printer from Vista

2008-11-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

When you want to connect to a LAN printer from Vista, you may get an Insufficient Privileges warning. The trick is to connect to the printer AS IF it were a LOCAL printer, and then set up a PORT to the printer using the shared LAN printer name.