Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day: 08/19/2007

Friday, August 24, 2007

Genghis 0.8 Released

"URL: http://www.codeplex.com/genghis

I've been helping Chris Sells and the Genghis Group for a couple of years. I am proud to announce the newest build of Genghis (version 0.8) that includes all the features of version 0.5 ported to .NET 2.0. ..."

Genghis is a project I've been following for about a thousand years or so now (well since 9/2003 anyway).

New in 0.8 is

"...

CustomStateTreeView
FileSearchEngine
FindReplaceDialog
HeaderGroupBox
HtmlLinklLabel
ImageIndexEditor
InitialInstanceActivator
ListViewSorter
MappedDrives
MultiSdiApplicationContext
PathResolver
ScreenSaver
ScrollablePictureBox
SpashScreen
StatusBarExtender
SystemShares
TraceEx
UserResizablePanel
WebCommandLineHelper
XPThemedControls

..."

If you're doing WinForm 2.0 development then you should check out this project...

The license is very reasonable;

"...This license based on the open source zlib/libpng license. The idea was to keep the license as simple as possible to encourage use of Genghis in free and commercial applications and libraries, but to keep the source code together and to give credit to the Genghis contributors for their efforts..."

Looking for XAML Clip Art? Then make sure you look for SVG files as well...

Daniel Cazzulino's Blog - How to get a gazillion XAML clipart for free

"You surely know XAML subsumes pretty much all of SVG, right?

SVG has been around for quite more time than XAML, and even if hasn't taken off as fast as many expected, at least I could find a huge collection of freely available clipart.
Now all I needed was a way to convert all that stuff that you can get in a single gigantic download if you want to XAML.
I wish it was always this simple: go download ViewerSvg :).
Not only does the tool work great, it also comes with a library you can use too :). So instead of using the UI, I used the library to create a very simple console application (Svg2Xaml project) that will convert one or more files (or every file it finds recursively in one or more folders) to XAML.
..."

I don't know nearly enough about XAML (i.e. I know next to nothing) so I found it pretty cool to see that it looks to be pretty simple to convert SVG into XAML...

Given my artistic skills, or lack there of, clip art is a must for me. ;)

Related Past Post XRef:
Open Clip Art Library

It's that time... Scott's Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for 2007

Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman's 2007 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows

"Everyone collects utilities, and most folks have a list of a few that they feel are indispensable. Here's mine. Each has a distinct purpose, and I probably touch each at least a few times a week. For me, util means utilitarian and it means don't clutter my tray. If it saves me time, and seamlessly integrates with my life, it's the bomb. Many/most are free some aren't. Those that aren't free are very likely worth your 30-day trial, and perhaps your money.

...

This is the Updated for 2007 Version of my Original List and 2005 and 2006 List, and currently subsumes all my other lists. Link to http://www.hanselman.com/tools when referencing the latest Hanselman Ultimate Tools List. Feel free to get involved here in the comments, post corrections, or suggestions for future submissions in the HanselForums. I very likely made mistakes, and probably forgot a few utilities that I use often.

New Entries to the 2007 Ultimate Tools are in Red. There are dozens of additions and many updated and corrected entries and fixed links.

..."

Click through to http://www.hanselman.com/tools to see his outstanding and must read list...

Also this year we can all help him fight diabetes with a tax deductible donation to the American Diabetes Association via his Welcome to My Step Out to Fight Diabetes Web Page!

Scott's blog and this list has been on the top of my reading list for many years... He asked, I gave...

Paint.Net 3.1 Released

Paint.NET - Paint.NET v3.10 – Final release is now available!

"Well, it’s finally here! You can get it from the website, http://www.getpaint.net/ , or via Paint.NET’s built-in updater (Help -> Check for Updates). This release adds two new effects originally written by David Issel (”BoltBait”), support for the DDS file type originally written by Dean Ashton, as well as numerous small bug fixes and some visual fit and finish.

..."

A couple new features, some improvements and lots o' fixes...

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Marshall Fixed Length TCHAR Strings between Managed and Unmanaged Code

Neil Cowburn - HOWTO: Marshal fixed-length strings

"On Monday I got an internal question about marshaling fixed-length strings between managed and native code. The scenario is you have a native struct with a member defined something like this:
typedef struct SOME_STRUCT {
    DWORD size;
    TCHAR entryName[20];
}
How can you marshal the TCHAR string in managed code? You marshal it as a UnmanagedType.ByValTStr and specify the size like this:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct SomeStruct
{
    public int Size;
    [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 20)]
    public string EntryName;
}
...
On the other hand, if the native struct is defined like this:
typedef struct SOME_STRUCT {
    DWORD size;
    TCHAR *entryName;
}
You would marshal the TCHAR pointer as a UnmanagedType.LPTStr like this:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct SomeStruct
{
    public int Size;
    [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)]
    public string EntryName;
}" [Leached about 98% of the post, just in case and so I can find it again in the future... ]

I so needed this a few years ago. Had some unmanaged DLL's with struct's/TCHAR's that I needed to call with managed code. Caching here because I just KNOW I'll need this again sometime...

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Moving TempDB on SQL Server 2005

Gregg Stark on SQL Server - Move TempDB Sql Server 2005

"I recently needed to move the TempDB on my Sql Server so I looked in Books Online and my initial thought based on what it said was that there is no way that will work. Basically it says to find where the files are, and then move them to the new location followed by an alter statement to point the database at the new location. Well of course this didn't work because the tempdb files are in use. After thinking about it I just decided to try to alter the master database and point it at where I wanted the tempdb files to be and then just restart since Sql Server creates the tempdb again when you restart it. Sure enough it worked. Here are the steps I took.

..."

I seem to remember I had this issue/question, where I needed to move the SQL2k5 TempDB. I can't remember now if I ended up doing it this way, another way or gave up... Linking it here for future reference.

Monday, August 20, 2007

WinXP IE6 and WinXP IE7 VPC Images Refreshed

Microsoft Downloads - Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image

"...

A VPC hard disk image containing a pre-activated Windows XP SP2, and either IE6 or IE7 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit.
This VPC image will expire on December 7, 2007.

..."

Two VPC/VHD's, one with IE6 and the other with IE7

Sunday, August 19, 2007

URL File Downloader Project - Download Files, including HTML, Asynchronously

Scott Dorman - URL File Downloader for .NET Updates

"It's been a while since I wrote the first version of my FileDownloader article and class. Since that time, there have been a lot of positive comments about the article and a handful of feature requests. I finally made the time to update the classes and the article and resubmit it to The Code Project. This update has the following new methods and properties:

...

DownloadHtml
Gets or sets a value indicating if HTML pages should be allowed to be downloaded.

...

DownloadAsync
Begin downloading the file at the specified URL, and save it to the current folder.

..."

The Code Project - An easy-to-use URL file downloader class for .NET

"For one of my projects at work, I needed the ability to download a file from a given URL. Unfortunately, the methods provided by the WebClient class don't do anything more than download the data. I needed something that gave the ability to provide progress feedback and that was resumable.

As I started my searches on the web for any existing code, I came across two articles on CodeProject that helped get me very close to what I needed. The first article was by John Batte, while the second article by Phil Crosby was a derivation of his work. Using both of these articles as a starting point, I was able to make another derivation that accomplished my goals.
..."

This is a cool project that I am looking at using in my Blogger Backup utility... Both for the image backup feature and the "As it looks like on the blog" HTML backup option.