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Far pointers in VC 5-6.0

Question: I was trying to do some direct memory stuff (writing to the DOS console buffer or a graphics screen) using my Visual C++ compiler. Unfortunately, the compiler is telling

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File Input/Output

Question: I would like to know what is the difference in C between opening a file opened in binary or text mode. Answer: The primary difference is in the handling

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Linking in a Resource File

Question: I am creating a Windows app using CC++. I have been using a shareware C compiler and a shareware resource compiler. I have compiled my .rc file into a

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Rename a file

Question: In VB, how do you rename a file (at runtime)? Answer: Use the FileSystem object (Microsoft Scripting Runtime, SCRRUN.dll) as follows: Dim fs As New FileSystemObjectDim f As FileSet

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Relocating Declarations Can Enhance Performance

On some occasions, the performance boost that can result from moving declarations is quite considerable. Consider this example: void use() { string s1; if (condition == false){ return; //s1 was

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Using Piped Streams in an Application

Java’s PipedInputStream and PipedOutputStream classes allow you to write data to an OutputStream object and to read this data from an InputStream object (see the tips “Pass Data Between Threads

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Display Tooltips on Your Hyperlinks

Web authors should be used to using the ALT tag to provide a textual label for an image. However, you can’t apply ALT text to a textual link, and most

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Prevent Fields From Being Serialized

Objects are made serializable by implementing the java.io.Serializable interface. In general, when you serialize an object instance, all of the instance’s fields are considered to be part of its state,

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Perform Safe Downcasts

A downcast is a cast from a base to a derived object. Before the introduction of RTTI to the language, downcasts were regarded as bad programming practice–they were unsafe and

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Unroll Loops to Optimize Your Code

A compiler can automatically optimize the code by unrolling loops. Consider this code: int *buff = new int[3]; for (int i =0; i

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Refresh Component Displays

When you create the visual components that make up a user interface, their size and position are usually constant. However, it’s sometimes necessary to change a component’s size or position

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Linking Radio Buttons to Objects

Question: I have a page with two drop-downs and two corresponding radio buttons. When I choose an item from one drop-down, I’d like the corresponding radio button to become checked.

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Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions

Question: I built a Web site for my company using FrontPage 98 and can not seem to upload it back to the Internet. I get error messages about server extensions.

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Testing COM Interfaces at Run Time

VB5 provides interface inheritance through the use of the Implements keyword. For example, CFullTimeEmployee can implement the IEmployee interface. This interface might include basic information such as name, social security

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Using Label Control as Splitter

Here’s a demo for using a Label control as a splitter between two controls, as well as sample code for employing the splitter in an Explorer-like application: Option ExplicitPrivate mbResizing

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Always Use Case Else With Select Case

Select Case statements can lead to errors when the test expression in the Select Case line doesn’t yield a true result for any of its individual Case expressions. Therefore, you

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Quicker Textbox Additions

Consider these two examples of code that add a string to a textbox. Example 1: Text1.text = Text1.text & MyString Text1.SelStart = Len(Text1.text) Example 2: Text1.SelStart = Len(Text1.text) Text1.SelText =

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Use Windowless Controls for Performance and Economy

VB6 comes with an ActiveX control named MSWLESS.ocx (“Microsoft Windowless Controls 6.0”), which contains lightweight equivalents for these standard controls: WLTextWLFrameWLCommandWLCheckWLOptionWLComboWLListWLHScrollWHVScroll The controls have lower resource consumption than their regular

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Using the Format Function With Strings

You’ll use the Format function most often with numbers, but it can be useful when applied to strings as well. For example, you can format a credit card number-which is

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What are Plain Old Data (POD) Objects?

A POD (plain old data) object has one of these data types–a fundamental type, pointer, union, struct, array, or class–with no constructor. Conversely, a non-POD object is one for which

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Add and Subtract Dates Using VBScript

VBScript has two functions for adding/subtracting dates or date values: DateAdd and DateDiff. For example: DateAdd(interval, number, date)DateDiff(interval, date1, date2 [,firstdayofweek[, firstweekofyear]]) Interval could be “yyyy” for Year, “q” for

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Clean Up Project File Paths Before Sharing Source Code

As you work with a VB project, the project file–VBP–can become littered with relative path references such as “……..myfoldermyform.frm”. The project loads, but only on your machine. If you send

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Avoid Unwanted Recursion From Event Cascades

Sometimes, an event might fire while it’s already executing from a prior invocation. To prevent this unwanted behavior, assign a static variable within the procedure, and test it before allowing

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How Many Characters Fit in an Alert Box?

Question: How many characters can fit in an alert box? Answer: There’s no way to tell how many characters can fit in an alert box. The size of the dialogs

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Modifying Enumeration Data Sources

Since the java.util.Enumeration class provides read-only access to the element list it represents, it may intuitively seem that the list of elements is immutable, or cannot be changed. However, the