Billy's Coding Blog

New Blog - http://www.inmessment.com/

2010-08-05T09:12:00.000-04:00

I have started a new Blog: http://www.inmessment.com/. Please follow me there.

Saying good bye to an old friend

2007-03-30T22:38:00.000-04:00

Here is a quote from an eWeek articles titled, Microsoft Puts FoxPro Out to Pasture

Microsoft has announced that it will not be releasing any new versions of its Visual FoxPro development software past Version 9.0, but the company will continue to support the technology through 2015.

Instead of releasing new versions of FoxPro, Microsoft will release core portions of the FoxPro software to its CodePlex community development site, said Alan Griver, a group manager within the Microsoft Visual Studio team, which leads the FoxPro team.

FoxPro has been a very good friend to me over the last ten years. My first job out of college I learned to program in FoxPro 2.5 for DOS. That experience got me a great job with a big Telecom company where I made the jump to Visual FoxPro 3 and I have used it ever since. FoxPro is what got me in the door with my current employer and we are now using version 9.

Over the last several years I have been doing more and more development in .NET, mainly C#. Whenever I have to go back and do work in FoxPro I find myself wishing they would add this or that to FoxPro, like they have it in .NET. I guess that is probably a big reason they are giving it up.

I think us FoxPro developers knew the end was coming but we kept hoping Microsoft would keep it going. I am interested to see what will come from the "release [of] core portions of the FoxPro software." Maybe some of the things that are better in FoxPro will make their way into the .NET tools.

Good bye old friend. It has been really good working with you.

Useful sites

2007-03-26T13:57:00.000-04:00

Use this site to ping your server from outside your network:
http://www.fifi.org/services/ping

Use this site to see if a port is open:
http://www.canyouseeme.org/

Outlook 2003 - Warn if subject line is empty

2006-05-03T10:30:00.000-04:00

This is my adaptation of the code found at: http://notepadexe.blogspot.com/2005/07/outlook-2003-warn-if-subject-line-is.html

Go to the menu Tools → Macro → Visual Basic Editor.
Now in the Visual Basic Editor, you should see Project1 in the tree menu on the left. Drill down the tree to Project1 → Microsoft Office Outlook → ThisOutlookSession.
In the code area (the big text area on the right) paste in the following code:

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
  If TypeName(Item) <> "MailItem" Then
    Exit Sub
  End If
  'CHECK FOR BLANK SUBJECT LINE
  If Item.Subject = "" Then
    Cancel = MsgBox("This message has no subject." & vbNewLine & _
                      "Do you wish to send anyway?", _
                      vbMsgBoxSetForeground + vbYesNo + vbExclamation, _
                      "No Subject") = vbNo
    If Cancel Then
      Dim myInspector As Outlook.Inspector
      Set myInspector = Item.GetInspector
      myInspector.Activate
    End If
  End If
End Sub

Notepad . exe: Outlook 2003 - Warn if subject line is empty

2006-05-03T10:28:00.000-04:00

Notepad . exe: Outlook 2003 - Warn if subject line is empty

Getting and Displaying Images from SQL Server with C#

2005-12-29T13:12:00.000-05:00

Here is a great article:

Getting and Displaying Images from SQL Server with C#

CopySourceAsHtml (CSAH)

2005-11-18T16:36:00.000-05:00

CopySourceAsHtml (CSAH): "CopySourceAsHtml is a Visual Studio .NET add-in that allows you to copy source as HTML suitable for pasting into blogs. CSAH uses VS.NET's syntax highlighting and VS.NET's font and color settings automatically. If VS.NET can highlight it, CSAH can copy it, and your source should look the same in your browser as it does in your editor."

IDesign: WinFX Design and Process Solutions

2005-10-28T11:14:00.000-04:00

In my continuing search for ways to make programming easier I came across the IDesign web site. IDesign is run by Juval Löwy who is Microsoft’s Regional Director for the Silicon Valley working on .NET and WinFx. They have a download section that has a bunch of .NET sample code and helper classes for a lot of common tasks. And it’s all free!

Here is a link to the downloads: IDesign: WinFX Design and Process Solutions

Web Developemt - Nifty Corners

2005-10-05T10:58:00.000-04:00

This page has code to round the corners on divisions and other HTML elements:

More Nifty Corners | Web Design | PRO.HTML.IT: "Nifty Corners"

Excel Reader/Writer Tools

2005-09-27T09:13:00.000-04:00

CarlosAg Excel Xml Writer Library

GemBox Software Products: ExcelLite Free

The Code Project - Generator-less! SQL Stored Procedure C# Wrapper - C# Database

2005-09-06T08:37:00.000-04:00

This is an interesting article to researh further:

The Code Project - Generator-less! SQL Stored Procedure C# Wrapper - C# Database

Concurrency: What Every Dev Must Know About Multithreaded Apps -- MSDN Magazine, August 2005

2005-09-06T08:10:00.000-04:00

This is a good ariticle on multi-thread concurrency:

Concurrency: What Every Dev Must Know About Multithreaded Apps -- MSDN Magazine, August 2005

Threding Pattern Template

2005-08-25T15:46:00.000-04:00

Below is the code listing I use as a template when I want to handle basic multi-threading.
The Template uses the following Pattern:

BeginProcess
Process
EndProcess

using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Threading;

/// <summary>
/// Represents a threading template class.
/// </summary>
public class ThreadProcessor : System.Windows.Forms.Form
{
    private System.Threading.Thread processingThread;
    
    // 
    // Note: Windows Form Designer generated code has been removed 
    // to simplify this example.
    // 
    
    /// <summary>
    /// Begins the Thread process.
    /// </summary>
    private void BeginProcess()
    {
        // Check if the thread is currently processiing.
        if (this.IsBusy)
        {
            // You could display a message here.
            this.CancelProcessing();
        }
        
        // Execute CopyColumns().
        this.processingThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(this.Process));
        this.processingThread.IsBackground = true;
        this.processingThread.Start();
        
    }
    
    /// <summary>
    /// The method that does the work.
    /// </summary>
    private void Process()
    {
        try
        {
            // TODO: Add processing logic here.
        }
        catch (ThreadAbortException)
        {
            // This catch allows EndProcess() to be 
            // called even if the thread is aborted.
            // TODO: Optionally add cancel logic here.
        }
        finally
        {
            // TODO: Optionally add cleanup logic here.
            
            // Invoke EndProcess() on the Form's thread.
            Delegate endDelegate = new EndProcessDelegate(this.EndProcess);
            this.BeginInvoke(endDelegate);
        }
    }
    
    /// <summary>
    /// Aborts the processing thread.
    /// </summary>
    private void CancelProcess()
    {
        if (this.IsBusy)
        {
            this.processingThread.Abort();
        }
    }
    
    /// <summary>
    /// Completes the Thread process.
    /// </summary>
    private void EndProcess()
    {
        // TODO: Add end process logic here.
    }
        
    /// <summary>
    /// Returns true if the processingThread is active.
    /// </summary>
    public bool IsBusy
    {
        get {return (this.processingThread != null && this.processingThread.IsAlive);}
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Represents the EndProcess method.
/// </summary>
public delegate void EndProcessDelegate();

c# code format

2005-08-25T14:12:00.000-04:00

c# code format

The docking Panel is my friend

2005-08-24T08:40:00.000-04:00

For formatting in .Net Windows Forms I have found the System.Windows.Forms.Panel to be especially helpful. Users expect to be able to resize their forms however they want. Panels and the docking of Controls in Windows.Forms make this task simple.

Usually my first step when creating a new Form is to add docked Panels to frame the separate areas of the form. Then I dock each Control within each Panel and Windows.Forms handles all the resizing for me.

In the example below I use a Panel docked at the top of the form to make it seem like the Client ComboBox is part of the ToolBar. In fact the Client Label and ComboBox are docked to the left in the top Panel and then the ToolBar is docked to the left of the ComboBox (because there is not a ComboBox ToolBar control yet).

Also in the Edit TabPage I use Panels to frame the expanding TextBox Controls and their Labels. Each Label is docked to the left of the panel and each TextBox is docked to Fill the remaining space. As the Form sizes or the text in the TextBox changes I resize the Panel and the TextBox automatically expands to Fill the space.

Opening

2005-08-18T13:15:00.000-04:00

This is my first blog. I have wanted to share my thoughts on coding and hey! Google is going to make it easy for me. I plan for this blog to be where I share what I learn as I live the life of a full time programmer working with mainly with .Net, C# and SQL Server.