.NET

Creating a .NET Sidebar Gadget - The Easy Way

Mark Schmidt — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:49:04 GMT

Take a look at my recent MSDN blog post to see how you can get around the common issues related to .NET development of Vista Sidebar gadgets. Don't want to write registry access code in javascript? Can't figure out how to uninstall your .NET based gadget? Read on...

http://blogs.msdn.com/markhsch/archive/2007/07/17/creating-net-sidebar-gadgets-the-easy-way.aspx

My Vista ScreenSaver Sidebar Gadget

Mark Schmidt — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:22:00 GMT

For some reason, I'm drawn to creating things that are just cool while not altogether useful (see my Animated Activity Designer post, though one could argue that it may in fact be useful). To that end, I decided to create a Vista Sidebar gadget that displays a screen saver of your choosing. Vista has some good screen savers that it shipped with and I've embedded screen savers before (in fact, I show how to do it in one of my books).

So go ahead and grab it from the Windows Live Gallery (link below). If enough people clamor and beg, I will post the source code. Here's a quick rundown of what I did:

1. Create a .NET User Control
2. Embed a screen saver in the user control whenever the ScreenSaverPath property is set (and the control is visible)
3. Create the HTML page for the sidebar (sidebar controls use Javascript and HTML in case you didn't know already)
4. Embed the UserControl in the HTML page (using COM interop naturally)
5. Create a settings page that also uses COM Interop. The settings page calls a .NET component that I wrote that simply returns a collection of screen saver paths on the local system.
6. Create the installation in Javascript. I had to get some help for this one. Basically, I do what regasm does by using the WSHShell object to set registry entries. I found some code on the Internet to help.

Here's a screenshot of it in action using the Ribbons screensaver:

Here's the link:

Screen Saver Vista Sidebar Gadget

Ask me about Windows Workflow Foundation

Mark Schmidt — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 14:05:00 GMT

For more information, check out my MSDN blog post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/markhsch/archive/2005/09/14/466209.aspx

Avalon and 3D Graphics

Mark Schmidt — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 17:27:00 GMT

I just posted a somewhat lengthy article on my MSDN blog covering Avalon and 3D graphics. I got a little bored yesterday and this is what happens. In a nutshell, I created a mesh exporter for MilkShape that will output the mesh in XAML format that you can then load using Avalon.

http://blogs.msdn.com/markhsch/archive/2005/08/24/455791.aspx

Windows CE, .NET and Remote Control Planes

Mark Schmidt — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 19:05:00 GMT

Posted on my MSDN page here: http://blogs.msdn.com/markhsch/archive/2005/03/03/384455.aspx

Regions Frustration 101

Mark Schmidt — Thu, 27 May 2004 20:16:00 GMT

Why oh why does it not work? I've said that so many times, but for the life of me cannot figure this one out.

I thought I'd just go and play a little with Region objects for controls. I basically use 3 images with a defined transparency color and generate Region objects from them. I thought it would be a simple matter of being able to set the Region on my custom control depending on the state of the mouse (MouseEnter, MouseLeave, etc...).

So, if the mouse enters the control, I do a good old

this.Region = mouseOverRegion;

That works. MouseLeave occurs so I do:

this.Region = mouseUpRegion;

That works. Mouse enters again, so the same code earlier is run:

this.Region = mouseOverRegion;

InvalidArgumentException with the call stack being:

System.ArgumentException: Invalid parameter used.
   at System.Drawing.Region.GetHrgn(Graphics g)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.GetHRgn(Region region)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.set_Region(Region value)
   at Schmidt6.SKButton.SKButton_MouseEnter(Object sender, EventArgs e)

What? Anyone have any clues on this? I've tried just about everything in the book (except for the one that works naturally) including disposing the current this.Region, setting it to null, calling this.Region.MakeEmpty() and probably a few other things. Nothing seems to get it to work.

Any help/insights appreciated. So much for just “playing around” since I can't quit now until I get it solved.

Syntax Wars

Mark Schmidt — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 18:28:00 GMT

I do far more work in unmanaged C++ (using ATL/COM) than I do in C#. My C# work is limited to either supporting tools, or the “extracurricular” stuff I do away from home (book writing, shareware, web sites). Lately, I've come to the realization that I'm mixing C# syntax with C++ syntax. However, it doesn't hold the other way around. I always catch myself writing C# code in an unmanaged C++ application (it's usually something like null instead of NULL, or the '.' operator instead of '->'). So what does this mean? It could be that C# syntax is more natural than that of C++ and hence I feel more comfortable using it. Either that or I have the attention span of a 4 year old and blindly start coding without realizing what language I'm supposed to be using.

What do you think? Is there some type of discipline that analyzes the natural feel of language syntax and compares it to others? In other words, a human factors engineer is to UI as ? is to programming language syntax. Someone must have done a study on why the '.' operator is more natural than say a ':' or '->'.

World record PowerPoint

Mark Schmidt — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 21:23:00 GMT

I just finished giving a presentation on Whidbey (VS.NET 2k5) and C# 2.0 to a group of engineers (both local and remote via Netmeeting) here at HP. Going into the class I was quite nervous. Why? Was it stage fright? Nope, I dig presenting and teaching so that wasn't it. The issue: I had 62 slides plus code demos to show...and 2 hours to do it in. Doing the math, thats about 2 minutes allowed per slide and not including the demos. Well, not only did I finish, but I finished with about 10 minutes to spare. Granted, some of the slides were a quick “this is what this means...next slide”. I'm working with the Portland Area .NET User's Group (PADNUG) to give this same presentation so if you're in the Portland area and not a member of PADNUG, go check em out at http://www.padnug.org.