Contents tagged with General Software Development
-
Microsoft Sandcastle
In working with my company's offshore developers, I was tasked with providing them documentation on a set of class libraries we use in our applications. In the .NET 1.0/1.1 time frame, we used NDoc, which, sadly, passed away last year, to turn the XML comments output by the C# compiler into CHM help files. After a bit of googling and a false start, I discovered Sandcastle, which Microsoft uses to build the .NET Framework documentation itself. I also discovered from the Sandcastle blog that it takes a whole mess of manual steps to use, which appeared daunting at first glance, and, being a programmer, I was looking for an easier (lazier) way.
-
Windows service setup projects - Unable to build custom action error
I ran into another under-documented snag upgrading my solution to Visual Studio 2005. It has a Windows service used for behind-the-scenes maintenance sorts of tasks that run on a regular basis, and a corresponding setup project. Now, it's also got setup projects for command-line apps and web apps, and all of those upgraded fairly well--it got confused on the output, so I had to delete and re-add the appropriate Primary Output to each project, but after that, all the setup projects built fine, except the Windows service one.
-
Do you need to turn off your PC at night?
I knew there was a reason I still subscribe to the Microsoft At Home and At Work Newsletter.
This morning's edition linked to an article analyzing your PC's power usage at various states--on, off, hibernate, and standby--both the computer and the monitor. Sure, I knew you save power by turning it off, but I hadn't realized (nor thought about it lately) that turning it off and on every day doesn't really hurt much like it used to when I first started using computers (don't make me say how long ago THAT was). Nor did I realize that CRT's use so much more power than flat panels. The bottom line of the article is that turning your PC off indeed saves more power than the other options, but setting it to hibernate overnight is nearly as good.
It also made a frank point that struck the bleeding-heart tree-hugging hippie in me (not to mention my frugal side)--is it worth wasting that energy (and money) to save a few minutes' startup time (to boot, log in, and restore state, such as opening mail, browser, and chat programs) every morning? And, using Windows' hibernate or standby, you don't even take THAT hit. I think Windows default settings have standby and/or hibernate on, but I always turn it off after I install Windows because of that annoyance, not thinking about the consequences.
Time to turn it back on on my computers.