devxlogo

The Latest

What’s in Name Mangling?

Name mangling, (the more politically correct term is name-decoration, although it is rarely used) is a method used by a C++ compiler to generate unique names for identifiers in a

Do You Know What Your Identity Is?

Everyone by now is familiar with how to create auto increment keys in SQL Server–just define an integer column with identity (start,increment) and you are set. To create a new

Primary Key Should Not be Clustered

By default, when you define a primary key in the create table statement, it uses a clustered index. However, a clustered key is best used to support queries that return

Debug Problems in Your GridBagLayout Code

The GridBagLayout is a flexible layout manager, but is also notoriously difficult to use. Some of the most common and difficult to debug problems occur when the amount of space

Use Full-Screen Mode in Visual InterDev 6

Giving yourself enough elbow room to design Web pages can be difficult inside the Visual InterDev environment. However, there’s a little-known feature that greatly expands your screen real estate. Full

Uses of Reverse Iterators

Reverse iterators are ordinary iterators except that they invert the semantic of the overloaded ++ and — operators. They are useful when the elements of a container are accessed in

JavaScript Include Files?

Question: I have JavaScript functions that I’m using in different pages. Is there a way to do a C/C++ type include so I don’t have to replicate the JavaScript code

Optimize SQL Using “Show Statistics”

The new and improved showplan in SQL 7 is certainly prettier and easier to understand than the previous version. However, a better method of focusing on trouble spots is using

Redirect System.out and System.err

A crude but common way of debugging Java programs is to use the public System.out and/or System.err instances of PrintStream to display information: System.out.println(“Entering section A of my code”); One

The Role of Sequence Adaptors

A sequence adaptor is a container built upon another container that modifies its interface. For example, the container stack is usually implemented as a deque, whose non-stack operations are hidden.

Provide Alternate Text for Images in FrontPage 98

The drag and drop convenience of Microsoft FrontPage 98 makes you more efficient but leaves some unprofessional touches to Web pages. For instance, when you drop an image into the

std::string and Reference Counting

The Standard’s specification of class std::string is formulated to allow a reference counted implementation. However, this is not a requirement. A reference counted implementation must have the same semantics as

Which Class is Returned by getClass()?

When a class is instantiated, the subsequent object is actually an instance of the most derived class in the class hierarchy. A point of confusion for some programmers is that

Dumping to a Remote Drive

For SQL Server to perform a dump to a remote drive (that is, another machine on the network), the ID that SQL Server runs under must have rights to the

Restore Visual InterDev 6 Environment With a Click

When you are working in Visual InterDev 6, it is sometimes handy to reposition the Project Explorer, Toolbox, and Properties windows as floating windows. However, docking the windows again can

Datawidowchild problems

Question: I have a datawindow d_case with a retrieval argument al_case_id. In this datawindow, I have two columns that are ddlbcolumn1 = judge with dddw_judge and column2 = contact with

VB – Scripting Host

Question: What am I missing? I can’t compile this: Private Sub Form_Load()Dim WshNetworkSet WshNetwork = Wscript.CreateObject(“Wscript.Network”)’ Local name mapped to remote share WshNetwork.MapNetworkDrive “Z:”, “\NTc$”end sub Answer: Just leave off

Active Partitions Under NT with VB6

Question: I have to tell you, you solved a problem for me (rebooting NT from VB), which I’ve been trying to figure out for months. Much thanks. Now I can

OpenUserobject on a tab control

Question: I am trying to use OpenUserObjectWithParm to dynamically open a datawindow on a tab page on a tab. All the objects are pfc descendents. I want to open one

Listing admins for remote computers

Question: Is there a way to pass in a local workstation’s host name and get a return of a list of the local administrators for that workstation? I have seen

Obtaining the List of Available Fonts

Some applications allow the user to select which font is used for displaying text. To do this, you need to be able to dynamically determine which fonts are available so

Useful Shortcut Keys in Visual InterDev 6

Visual InterDev 6 has many shortcuts to help navigate/write your code. Here is a summary of the ones that I’ve found most useful: Goto Line # CTRL-G Find CTRL-F Replace

Beware of RegClean With Visual InterDev 6

RegClean is a free utility from Microsoft that cleans up your system registry. However, some users have discovered that at least one version cleans too deeply and damages their Visual

Subtle Differences Between C and C++

There are a few semantic differences between C and C++ in the way they interpret certain language constructs. These differences may not result in a compiler diagnostic, so it is

Read the Serial Number of a Disk

The new Microsoft Scripting Runtime library includes a FileSystemObject hierarchy containing several objects that let you obtain information about your drives, folders, and files. For example, you can retrieve the

Check Inequality of Database Field Values

Conventional wisdom suggests this code works fine when checking a field in a database-or any Variant, for that matter-for inequality to some other value: If ![Name] “abc” Then Debug.Print “”Else

Choosing Colors for Custom Components

When creating a custom user interface component, you often face the problem of deciding what colors to use while drawing the component on the screen. However, to a large extent,

Don’t Use VarType to Test for Objects

To test whether an argument passed to a procedure is an object or something else, use the IsObject function in place of the VarType function. Consider this routine: Sub TestType(arg

Use TypeName Instead of TypeOf…Is

To write reusable routines that work with multiple types of controls, test the control type using the TypeName function in place of the TypeOf…Is statement. For example, take a look