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The Latest

Software to Create Web Pages

Question: What is the best software package available for the intermediate programmer to develop Web pages? I have never created a Web page before, but I have about 20 years

Improve Loop Performance

It’s often the case that you’ll use some derived value in the test section of a for loop. Many times this value will not be changed during the loop, such

Send Visitors to the Front Page

Many Web site managers prefer all site visitors to enter their site through the front page. The front page may contain site usage information that all users should see, or

One Package Fits All Clients

Your database is useless if your clients can’t connect to it. However, keeping all the DLLs necessary in sync with each other has always been a complicated task. Microsoft has

What’s in an Allocator?

Every STL container uses an allocator that encapsulates the memory model that the specific platform uses. Allocators hide the platform-dependent details such as the size of pointers, memory organization, reallocation

What are frames used for?

Question: What are frames used for? Answer: Frames came on the scene a few years ago as a way to display information from more than one HTML page at once.

ASP’s Advantages Over CGI

Question: As a Web designer, I’ve used HTML, JavaScript, and DHTML in my projects. But now I see the need for server-side programming/scripts for my near future projects. I did

Managing Your Links

Question: I have a Web site with a large number of links broken down into categories. This directory has become a nightmare to manage. Is there a way to automate

GIFs vs. JPEGs

Question: What is the difference between GIFs and JPEGs and when would you use either in Web development? Answer: GIFs are seen most often on Web sites. They are usually

Caution: Service Pack has Arrived

No product is perfect when it heads out the door. Sooner or later a service pack will be released. When using SQL Server, you should always be on the lookout

Cross-Platform Line Separators

When your application generates multiple lines of output and is responsible for manually separating those lines, you may be inclined to insert an instance of the linefeed character (usually represented

Detecting Browser Plug-Ins

Browser plug-ins, such as RealPlayer, Shockwave/Flash, Quicktime, and others, can add multimedia functionality to a Web site and help attract and retain visitors. If a particular visitor doesn’t have a

Specifying the Size of a Vector During Construction

It is possible to specify the requested storage size of a vector during construction like this: #include using namespace std;int main() { vector vi(1000); //initial storage for 1000 int’s //vi

Construct an Object on a Pre-Allocated char Array

The memory buffer returned by operator new is guaranteed to have the suitable alignment properties for any type object. This property enables you to construct objects on such a pre-allocated

Determine Font Properties With FontMetrics

The java.awt.FontMetrics class provides information on the properties of a font. For example, it can be used to determine how many horizontal pixels are required (i.e., the width) when a

Choose the Right Hardware for Your Server

Choosing the right hardware for your server can be a confusing task, especially given the frequency with which Intel and other manufacturers roll out new products. New CPUs, memory chips,

Enum constants that include spaces

If you’re writing an ActiveX control, you can create properties that return an enumerated value, as in: Public Enum SizeConstants SizSmall = 1 SizMedium SizLargeEnd EnumPublic Size As SizeConstants When

Never use the GetLastError API function

If you heavily use API calls and strictly follow the SDK documentation, you might be tempted to use the GetLastError API to retrieve the error returned by your last API

The status of mouse buttons

Visual Basic lets you test the state of mouse buttons only inside a MouseDown, MouseMove, or MouseUp event procedure. To determine the current state of mouse buttons you can use

Interpreted or Compiled?

It is highly unfortunate that Visual Basic doesn’t offer a way to execute a group of statements only when the program is interpreted in the environment or only when it

The number of dimensions of an array

Using “pure” VB, the only way to build a generic routine that returns the number of dimensions of an array passed as an argument is using a loop that repeatedly

Short-circuit evaluation with Select Case

Short-circuit evaluation is an optimization technique automatically adopted by most modern compilers, including all flavors of C++, Borland Delphi and many others. Unfortunately, the Visual Basic compiler is not in

Create a GUID

When you build your ActiveX controls and components, Visual Basic automatically creates all the GUIDs as necessary. The same also happens in other cases, without you even realizing it: for

The status of shift keys

Visual Basic lets you test the state of the Shift, Alt and Ctrl keys only within the KeyUp, KeyDown and all the mouse-related event procedures. If you want to test

ByVal with object references

When you write a procedure and you want to be sure that the procedure does not affect the value of any variable passed to it as an argument in the

Determine how a control got the focus

At times it might be convenient to know how a given control got the focus, namely by means of the Tab key, an associated hotkey or a click of the

Convert Hexadecimal numbers

While Visual Basic offers the Hex$ function that converts a decimal value into its hexadecimal equivalent number, it seems that the inverse function is missing. Not true. Try out this