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May 2005 Entries
Visual Studios 2005 - trouble debugging xslt

Well, I finally installed Visual Studios 2005 beta 2.  I have been very excited about what I have heard about the debugging capabilities with XSLT.  To date, I’ve always used XSelerator , and I have been hoping to see similar functionality in VS.  For some reason, it’s not working.  It feels like a user error, but it just doesn’t make sense.  I’ve loaded an XSLT file and an XML file, and I’ve pointed the properties of the xslt to the input and output files, but the debugger buttons are all disabled.  I found an MSDN article showing exactly what I am doing.  It there a known issue, or have I not had enough coffee?  

 

I know this isn’t a forum, so I will post this to a forum to hopefully find an answer, but I took this time to vent my frustrations here.  Thanks for listening. :)

posted @ Thursday, May 26, 2005 9:21 AM | Feedback (3)
inherent flaw with IEEE's representation of decimals

I've told this story in the past, but since I'm new to this blog, it's worth repeating.

There is an inherent flaw with IEEE's representation of decimals. This problem effects many languages, not just Visual Basic.  Most people are astonished when they learn of this.  First, I will show you the problem, then I will show you how to work around this problem, followed by an explanation for why this happens.

In VB, open the Immediate window. Type the following:

  ? 2.07 * 100
  207
  ? int (2.07 * 100)
  206

Now type the following:

  ? int (2.07*100+.00001) 
  207

Often times I convert decimal numbers to "implied decimal" integers.  Now that I've learned of this issue, I always add .00001 before converting to an integer.

I know what your next question is. HOW and WHY does this happen???

The problem stems from computers using base 2 and number using base 10. Any number that is not a base 2 will have some rounding when you convert types. Your choices are to except some rounding errors or using 16 bit representation (which waste 6 bits).

posted @ Friday, May 13, 2005 12:28 AM | Feedback (0)
Nice list of SQL Performance Articles

SQL performance has been a big focus of mine lately.  Too often you find sql that someone tested in a lab and shipped it, without ever running it against production data and checking the query plan and read count.  Once it starts running against millions of rows, it times out.  Then it often ends up on my desk to rewrite.   A friend of mine, Dave Roberts, is one of those I rely on when I get stuck.  He shared with me the following list of articles, mostly from msdn, which will aid you on your quest for faster running queries.  This is a good list to keep handy.  They are the kind of articles you run across, but can never find them again when you really need them.  If nothing else, they will help you out if you are having trouble falling to sleep one night. 

nQuery Analysis
lhttp://www.sql-server-performance.com/statistics_io_time.asp 
lhttp://www.sql-server-performance.com/query_analysis_tuning.asp
lhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/optimsql/odp_tun_1_536v.asp
lhttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;167610
nTroubleshooting
lhttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;224587
nStatistics
lhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/q195565/
lhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnsql2k/html/statquery.asp
nBlocking
lhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/acdata/ac_8_con_7a_5ovi.asp
lhttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;224453
lhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/acdata/ac_8_con_7a_7xde.asp
nFragmentation
lhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/tsqlref/ts_dbcc_46cn.asp
nTable Variables
lhttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305977
nQuery Recompilation
lhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnsql2k/html/sql_queryrecompilation.asp
posted @ Wednesday, May 11, 2005 10:17 PM | Feedback (1)
Introduction

Hello.  I thought I would start out by welcoming you to my blog, giving you a little background on myself, and letting you know what to expect from me. 

So.... Welcome.  I know it's not much in the way of appearance.  I will work on that in the near future.  My name is John Workman.  I'm a Senior Product Engineer (fancy title for developer/tech consultant/solution architect/etc.) for BlueCube Software (formerly part of Radiant Systems).  We are located in the suburbs of Atlanta.  We are a Microsoft shop developing a web based Enterprise software package.  My focus is on imports and exports to above-store systems (ERP systems, Payroll, etc). 

My mainly focus, or passion,  from a technical viewpoint is XML (xslt, xpath, DOM).  I live and breath XML.  Although I haven't been very actively lately, I've spent quite a bit of time over the past year moderating the forum on http://topxml.com.  There are some great folks over there.  You should check it out.  Along with XML, I focus quite heavily on SQL.  After all, there is no reason to use XML for interfaces if you can't pull the data from the database or put it back in.  SQL is interesting because you are never quite done.  No matter how great your query is, it could alway get better.  

What you can expect.... The reason I started this blog, and others prior to this one, is because I often come across things that I feel others would benefit from.  Sometimes it's a problem that I search forever before I finally find the answer.  Once I find it, I want to tell the world.  The other thing is I want someplace to document it so that when I see the problem again, I know where to go looking.  Even if no one else reads it, it's a good reference for me.  My focus on this blog will be XML and SQL, but I will through in other things if I thing you might be interested.    I do not promise to write every day, but I will try to keep posting when I information of value.

If you made it this far in my intro, I'm impressed.  I probably would have gotten bored by now and moved on.  I'll try not to ramble so much for most of my posting.

Cheers!

posted @ Tuesday, May 10, 2005 11:04 PM | Feedback (2)
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