Chris Szurgot's Blog

Lots of comments on SQL Server Express Beta 2. What nobody tells you is that there is a corresponding refresh of .NET Beta 1 (Only a few bytes, but necessary to install SQL Express) I wonder if they'll update the VS 2005 build that I ordered last week, or if it's outdated before I even get it.

While Microsoft works to unify the user interface inside of Windows, somebody needs to work on the User Interface on real world devices. Especially the now ubiquitous credit card scanner. They are so confusing, and inconsistent that salespeople tend to walk you through the process, even when it's self-explanetory (and especially when it's not... What's up with hitting CANCEL to use you Visa Check Card as a Credit Card) The people who make those things really need to get together and make them consistent to use.

And here's another gripe. All games should have a consistent pause button that will pause no matter where you are, even in cut scenes, and even allow you to skip cut scenes. I hate fighting a boss watching half of a cut-scene, only to have the phone ring. And then have the start button (which pauses the game according to the instructions) skip the cut scene. Argghhh!

Oops, quote from the wrong Will Smith movie....

Took a break from playing with .NET 2.0 to go see I, Robot. (I've read all of the Robot novels, and all of the Foundation novels up through Foundation and Earth, so I've got *some* idea of the Asimov concept of robots.)

I found it to be quite an enjoyable movie. While I can't say it's a classic, it stands up pretty well, was internally consisitent, and did pay homage to it's source material.(Without giving anything away, it follows the tenats of the 3 laws in the same way Asimov's robot's do, you just have to go to some of the later books) The special effects were pretty good, but the spinning car was kinda weird, oh, well. My biggest gripe would have to be Will Smith. He seemed kinda forced. A different actor might've brought something different to the role. All in all, though, a good time.

Note: it's the first time I've ever seen “Suggested by the book” in the credits, and it was really only a suggestion. <grin>

When Sam Gentile is having trouble with a product, you now that things aren't right in the world.

Even though SQL Server express doesn't come with a UI for managing it, one ships right alongside it in the Express development kits. Just pull up Server Explorer, and attach to the file name (Server name is .\SQLExpress, use the attach option) Unlike Server Explorer for VS Pro, it's actually a full featured server manager, allowing you to do all the database manipulation on the tables, and what not. Pretty cool.

I've already ported a small app to SQL Express and VC# Express, and it's working great!

My only real gripe at this point is that you can't drag a table from the Server Explorer to a form like you can with VS 2003. Guess I'll report it as a bug.

I've been working on some programs in my spare time to play around with new technologies, refine my skill set, etc... Even though I may never release them for public use, one of the things I've tried to incorporate is a pleasing and consistent visual style. This, in my opinion, has been harder than adding internal functionality. V1 of the framework is akin to the first version of Java as far as components go. (AWT must've sounded like a nice idea, but it was horrible in execution) While the programming model isn't quite as bad as AWT, the components are somewhat weak, particularly in regards to drawing and visual consisitency.

Right now, I'm looking at three different areas:

1) Core interface: menu bars, status bars, and to some degree, tool bars. As we all know, in Windows Forms, these components are very,well, flat. They are certainly fully functional, but look bland, and getting an owner draw progress bar in the status panels to draw without flicker didn't seem to work for me. This is obviously a concern for many because there are entire suites of products to address this.

2) Windows Forms components:  It should be easy to use default Windows Forms controls without flicker, even if they make things slightly slower. it's difficult when you can't get to any of the underlying controls to work with them, or massage the procedures.

3) Docking windows & Tabbed browsing: More docking windows, but these two seem to come toghether. I'm using Dockable Windows primarily because I have three monitors, and it's nice to be able to full screen part of the application, and tear off other portions to another monitor. There's been a lot of really good work in this space, leading me to wonder just what all the applications using Docking Windows are, cause I really can't think of but so much use for it.

At any rate, I've done a lot of playing around with this recently, so I hope to share some comments as I collate my opinions on the various products.

<rant target=”Microsoft”>I'm not saying that Windows Forms controls should solve all of the world's GUI ills, but what is there should be consistent, and easy to use. And not Flicker!!!!</rant>

Been playing around moving an application to VS 2005 VC# Express, and I wanted NUnit for my tests (since I don't have a Team Version)

Turns out it's pretty easy to do. Take the latest source, and load it up in VC#. Some of the “tests” won't load because they are samples in other languages, but of everything that did load, it compiled, and green tests on all but the Project tests (I assume the project format is different)

The only other change is to add the line “   <supportedRuntime version="v2.0.40607" />“ to the appropriate config files. It seems to be working ok on 1.1 assemblies as well, but I seem to have found a problem with FileInfo.Copy in 1.1 not working when called from a 2.0 assembly.

Use at your own risk.