Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with c

Help with a simple Visual C# coding problem?

kbanas — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:07:28 -0800

Oh God. Where to start? This is, at its heart, a programming question about C#. It's probably not a very hard programming question, either. Although it is against my nature, I will attempt to be brief. I recently built a Windows Media Center PC and hooked it up to my TV and I'm really loving the Windows 7 media center experience... except that all the music I've accumulated for the last 10 years or so is in iTunes. So, while I can watch movies and TV shows and browse my pictures and be a multimedia guru, if I want to listen to music I have to get up off the couch, close media center, launch iTunes and then pump up the volume.

On some level this really irritates me.

I explored exhaustively solutions that exist out in the wild. MCE Tunes looks like a great application that will basically allow you to access iTunes from inside WMC, but it doesn't work with Windows 7, and they have stopped supporting the product.

So, I set upon the idea of importing all my iTunes music into Media Player - thus making it accessible to my Media Center interface. Since Media Player can handle mp3 and m4a files (and thus, 99% of my collection), I figured it wouldn't be a really big deal. But the problem as I understand it is that Media Player can't read meta data from m4a files, and so this would cause a digital divide - I would then have two music programs pointed at the same library of music and I would have to update information in both libraries and make changes and corrections in both libraries and basically this felt like a major hassle. Plus, I would have to re-enter all the meta data for my m4a files!

There's another application called Sound Bridge that takes your iTunes library and dumps it into Media Player, but, again, this doesn't work with Windows 7 and an update does not appear to be on the horizon.

Great!

Well, I thought about it and, you know, hey, I have a CS degree - admittedly a little rusty, but I have one - so I was all like, "Hey, you know what, fuck it, I'll fire up Visual Studio 2008 and I'll just write my own program!"

So, I set out to write a C# program that would take my iTunes library file and collect all the track information and meta data and file info and then build a Media Player library out of it.

And, even though I was 99% sure I would fail miserably, I've actually made some progress.

I have, at this point, a console application that reads in my iTunes XML library, parses it, and then adds all the files and meta data to a Windows Media Player playlist. Except that, for some reason, on some files, while setting the meta data in Windows Media Player, I'll get a permission denied error, as if I do not have access rights to set a specific attribute (like, say, genre) for a specific track.

I've done some investigating and it looks like I may be able to resolve this issue by way of a function called requestMediaAccessRights() - apparently according to all the demos and code samples I can find, I should be able to do the following:

myMediaPlayerObject.settings.requestMediaAccessRights("full");

Except, for some reason, Visual Studio can't find that function. I can access a host of different functions for myMediaPlayerObject.settings, but requestMediaAccessRights just isn't one of them, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. I'm adding the Media Player COM object to my project, and I can do everything else with Media Player.... that specific function just seems to be missing.

Does anyone have any idea why that might be?

The other thing I'm toying with is transferring the album art. I see from the MSDN that a Media Player media object has a "WM\Picture" attribute, which references a piece of album art, and I can get the album art out of iTunes, but I can't seem to figure out how to set the WM\Picture attribute.

Any clues?

Learning C++ or Matlab from scratch

jsmith78 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:11:51 -0800

Is it possible to learn C++ or matlab for financial engineering without a strong background in math or previous experience in computer science or engineering? Any advice would be appreciated.

Help me filter my data!

geoff. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:59:16 -0800

I'm trying to get more comfortable with Linq and I'm having some trouble. I have a list myprojects that is initiated when a session is started (and discarded at the end). I have a projects entity and repository and have a form setup to add projects to myprojects. This works. I have a reports entity where there might be many reports to a single project. I'm trying to use myprojects to filter the reports and this does not work. I'm using ASP.NET MVC, C#. Here are my domain model entities:



 public class Report

  {

   public string Id { get; set; }

   public string Description { get; set; }

  }

----

public class myProjects

  {

   private List lines = new List();

   IList Lines { get { return lines.AsReadOnly(); }

  }

public class myProjectsLine

  {

   public Project Project { get; set;}

  }

----

public class Project

  {

   public string Id { get; set; }

   public string Description { get; set;}

  }

I've been trying to filter in my controller. It might be preferable to filter in the domain, but I was just trying to get it to work, so please correct me if need be. Here's I have for my ReportController:



public class ReportsController : Controller

  { 

   private IReportsRepository reportsRepository;

   private IProjectsRepository projectsRepository;



   public ReportsController(IProjectsRepository projectsRepository)

   {

    reportsRepository = new FakeyReportsRepository();

    this.projectsRepository = projectsRepository;

   }

  public ViewResult List(Report reports)

  {

   var x = reportsRepository.Reports.ToList();

   return View(x);

  }

The List ViewResult works fine, it shows all the reports. If I create another ViewResult like this:



public ViewResult MyReport(myProjects myprojects, Report reports)

 {

  var a = myprojects.Lines.ToList();

  var b = a.Count().ToString("d");

  ViewData["my"] = b;

  return View();

 }

Hey it correctly shows the number of myprojects I have, so it must be seeing the data. I'm 95% sure that it has to do with myprojects being in the IList, yet trying to make it AsQueryable or turning reports ToList() won't get me anywhere when I'm trying to use Where and a Lambda expression like "var x = reports.Where(x=>x.Id == myprojects.Id)" I've been working on this for two days now and I think I might have worked myself into a corner and can't see how to do this. It seems like it should be so easy and I could write an SQL statement that does this very quickly, I'm assuming with all this Linq fanciness this should be doable.

What does it mean when someone flashes you a "C" while driving?

Hollow — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:49:55 -0800

Tonight around midnight, in South City St. Louis, MO, my mom pulled up to a stoplight left of a pickup truck, and the thirty-something, white, crew-cut haired driver flashed her a hand sign that looked, from her perspective, like the letter "C." He did this several times over the next couple minutes whenever he pulled along side her, until she managed to lose him. Has anyone seen this before or know what it means?

What the *?

run"monty — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:09:55 -0800

int *ptr=(int*)2; ...could someone explain the use of the second asterisk? So I'm trying to wrap my head around 'C' (...or is that 'C' around my head?)

I've been reading a pointer tutorial. I understand that I can declare a pointer by saying:

int *skybird;

...or declare it and assign an address of a variable to it by saying:

int *skybird=&dropkick;

...but if I declare the pointer and then assign the address to it in seperate statements, like thus:

int *skybird;
*skybird=&dropkick;

...Xcode warns me that my assignment makes integer from pointer without a cast. I take this to mean that the address of dropkick has no predetermined cast. So, I fix this by saying:

...

*skybird=(int)&dropkick;

...although this:

int *skybird=&dropkick;

...without having to using the integer operator on &dropkick, is fine. (I'm not sure why that is.)

I could declare a pointer and assign it a value right there and then, like:

int *crystal_palace=2;

...but I get the same cast warning as before. So I change it to:

int *crystal_palace=(int)2;

Makes sense to me. But, same warning. So I do as I've seen in my text books and type in an extra asterisk:

int *crystal_palace=(int*)2;

...and all is well. Thing is, I don't understand why. In short. Why the *?

This works:

int *skybird;

*skybird=(int)&dropkick;

But this doesn't:

int *skybird=(int)&dropkick;

My brain is casserole.

I've scoured my books but cannot find an explanation for the asterisk in the rvalue cast operator. (Am I speaking the correct jargon?) I understand the asterisk used before the pointer when declaring the pointer tells the compiler that I'm declaring a pointer. I understand that the asterisk is used before the pointer name when referencing the value stored at the location pointed to. I understand the no operator is used when the address pointed to needs to be referenced. I also understand that to reference the address of the pointer itself, the ampersand operator is used. I've looked and looked and looked, and I'm stuck. Bonus points if you could tell me why (int)*bo=(int*)2; is wrong.

Calling all algorithm lovers!

niwnfyc — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:36:22 -0800

I need help solving an interesting algorithm using 'C'! Say for example, I have a daisy chain laid out like this which snakes from 0 to 15:

15 14 13 12
08 09 10 11
07 06 05 04
00 01 02 03

I know the height and width ahead of time (4x4), but I want to know what index of the daisy chain corresponds to a certain (x,y) coordinate.

If I want the index of coordinate (1,2), I would get 9.
If I want the index of coordinate (3,1), I would get 4.
If I want the index of coordinate (3,3), I would get 12.
etc...

Using 'C' I envision it something like this:

#define WIDTH 4
#define HEIGHT 4

Index = CalculateIndex(WIDTH, HEIGHT, 1, 2);
//Index should be equal to 9.

What's inside CalculateIndex?

How do you traverse a really large library like .NET?

geoff. — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:30:19 -0800

I'm working a project that requires some custom programming. This is outside of my usual domain, I'm feeling overwhelmed by the amount of objects and libraries available to me. I find most of my time is spent looking up what to include and how to do simple things that are easy once I find what I'm looking for. What's the best way to go about learning the libraries? Should I just sit down with a big reference book? I find myself actually comfortable with the programming and grasped the object oriented programming concepts fairly quickly (it was sort of an a-ha moment).

However, the .NET library is so big and has so many different things to use, I often spend a lot of time dicking around trying to figure out the best way to accomplish what I want. MSDN and other documentation is abundant, but sort of obtuse. I spend a lot of time googling to find what I need. I'm thinking of sitting down and going through the entire library methodically and try to memorize or familiarize myself with as much as possible. Is this a crazy thing to do or a good way to go about it?

Are there any good guides besides MSDN that sort of distill things down in a more accessible way? Any advice?

Any Storm In A Port?

DWRoelands — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:10:24 -0800

Can I port an open-source project to another language without violating its BSD License? I'm writing a Twitter client and using a great open source library that's hosted at Google Code. Problem is that it's written in c#.

I'd like to port it to VB.Net, both for my own benefit and so that other VB developers who don't have C# chops can use it. m I also plan to host at Google Code under the BSD license.

I've contacted the project's founder but I have heard no reply.

Questions:
1. With his code released under BSD, can I port it without his express permission? I would, of course, credit his original work.

2. Does the BSD license give him the ability to "pull the plug" on my project since it's based on his work?

3. Does this sort of thing constitute a "fork"?

4. Am I asking for legal trouble or just plain drama if I proceed without his permission?

Thanks for your input.

Help me escape the quotes!

sepsis — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 04:26:54 -0800

Visual Studio 2008 IDE Question I'm hoping this will just be a simple answer (and that it exists). I do a lot of C# coding in Visual Studio 2008. Intellisense makes me life a whole lot easier, however I can't seem to figure out how to do something that should, I feel, be obvious.

Say I'm trying to set the value of an attribute. If I type "Col" I get a drop-down list and I can choose "Color" and press tab and it will auto complete to Color="" with my cursor inside the quotes where I can start typing. Now this attribute happens to have predefined values, so that when I start typing, I'll get another drop-down list, and I can highlight say "Green" and hit tab. It will auto complete to Color="Green" and my cursor will be outside of the quotes and I can continue on my merry way.

If, however, the attribute I'm writing doesn't have predefined values, I run into a problem. I'll type something like "Prop" and then highlight Property and hit tab. It will auto complete to Property="" with my cursor inside the quotes. I'll type whatever, say FontWeight, and now my cursor is still inside the quotes. The only way I can manage to continue is to hit the right arrow key, or click to the right of the quote with my mouse. Both actions move my hand away from homerow and significantly interrupt work flow. So I'm wondering if, once I'm at the point of finishing typing FontWeight (or whatever situation I don't have a drop-down list), is there a shortcut keypress to jump to the right of the quote?

I realize that's a little nit-picky, but pressing something like ctrl+enter is infinitely more preferable than trying to press the right cursor arrow.

For what it's worth, I've been trying to play around with shortcuts. ctrl+shift+enter escapes the quotes, but also jumps down to the next line, leaving to press backspace a lot :-\

Thanks for any help, how the question is clear.

How much is "some" in C programming?

joshrholloway — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:45:51 -0800

How much of C do I need to learn before moving on to Cocoa, and what's the best resource for learning it? I'm very interested in programming for the Mac and iPhone, but I have no real prior programming experience. On the recommendation of an AskMeFi answer, I bought the latest edition of the Hillegass book. However, it states something like "this book was written for those who already know some C programming and something about objects." So how much is "some"? What resources will best help me learn the parts of C I need to know before moving on to Cocoa? I want to hit the ground running, so if there is a good crash course out there, what is it?Are there any video resources?

How to turn processes into clickable links

TimeTravelSpeed — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:19:11 -0800

I would like to write a program which transforms the Windows task manager's process list into clickable links. Where do I start? I often find myself googling the obscure process names in my task manager to see what program uses it, and/or if it's safe. I'd love to be able to just click on the process and have it open a browser and run the google search.

I tried to get the "App A Day" guy to do it years ago, but he instead made a more generic version that googled any highlighted text, which, although very useful, is a bit buggy and not quite what I need.

Can I use something like C# and the Windows API to change the behavior of the Task Manager, or is this program was completely locked off from tweaks? I'm a fairly experienced coder but have never delved into the Windows API.

Thank you for any suggestions you might have!

Help me absorb my vitamins & prevent my cold!!

Black_Umbrella — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:52:39 -0800

How fast do vitamins & Minerals absorb into the body? Alright, i am coming down with a cold, it is setting on fast and bad. I don't want it! My question is, does it help to take more vitamins then the recommended daily value?

I take Emergen-C as a supplement.

The first number is the amount, % is percent daily value

Emergen-C (super orange)
The first number is the amount, % is percent daily value

Vitamin C (as Mineral Ascorbates)
1000 mg 1111 %

Vitamin B1 (THiamine HCI)
.38 mg 25 %

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
.43 mg 25 %

Special Niacin Complexes
10 mg 50 %

Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine HCI)
10 mg 500 %

Folic Acid
12.5 mcg 3.1 %

Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin)
25 mcg 416 %

Pantothenic Acid
2.5 mg 25 %

Potassium
200 mg 5.7 %

Magnesium
60 mg 15 %

Calcium
50 mg 5.0 %

Zinc
2 mg 13 %

Manganese
1 mg 50 %

Chromium
10 mcg 8.3 %

Quercetin (Bioflavonoid)
10 mg *

Alpha-lipoic acid
2 mg *

So i guess my question is how long should i wait until i take another? If i take two at the same time do they build up and take two times as long to be used or does one just get passed on? If they do not stack how long should i wait until i take another?

How to fix C++ static linking problems?

duoshao — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:33:33 -0800

I need some help diagnosing a problem static linking a C++ program using g++. It compiles and runs just fine without "-static", but I get all sorts of "undefined references" errors when I use "-static". I'm a C++ novice and am at a loss. Can anyone throw me a bone? I'm using g++ v4.32 running on Debian Lenny.

As I said, it compiles, links, and runs with no problem using dynamic linking. It just breaks with "-static". This is also why I didn't post the source code, though I can if it would be helpful.

Aside from the standard C++ stuff (iostream, ifstream), I'm only using the vmime library and two libraries that it requires (gsasl and gnutls). I installed gsasl and gnutls using apt-get, but I built libvmime from source with no errors. Libvmime's ./configure defaults to building both static and dynamic versions of the library, and I've confirmed that both libvmime.a and libvmime.o exist. I also confirmed that .a files exist for both gsasl and gnutls.

Here's my compile command line:
g++ `pkg-config --cflags --libs vmime` -static -o mimetest mimetest.cpp

The pkg-config bit expands to:
-I/usr/local/include/ -L/usr/local/lib -lvmime -lgnutls -lgsasl

I've confirmed that libvmime exists under /usr/local/lib, and gnutls and gsasl exist under /usr/lib.

I've posted the errors below. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
M
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/tmp/ccioHkjN.o: In function `loadX509CertificateFromFile(std::basic_string, std::allocator > const&)':
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x140): undefined reference to `vmime::utility::inputStreamAdapter::inputStreamAdapter(std::basic_istream >&
)'
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x15d): undefined reference to `vmime::security::cert::X509Certificate::import(vmime::utility::inputStream&)'
/tmp/ccioHkjN.o: In function `main':
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x2681): undefined reference to `vmime::security::cert::defaultCertificateVerifier::setX509RootCAs(std::vector, std::allocator > > const&)'
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x2703): undefined reference to `vmime::net::session::getProperties()'
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x27f5): undefined reference to `vmime::net::session::getProperties()'
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x28dd): undefined reference to `vmime::net::session::getProperties()'
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x29c8): undefined reference to `vmime::net::session::getProperties()'
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x2ab2): undefined reference to `vmime::utility::url::url(std::basic_string, std::allocator > const&)'
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x2b5c): undefined reference to `vmime::net::session::getStore(vmime::utility::url const&, vmime::utility::ref)'
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x2c0b): undefined reference to `vmime::net::service::setCertificateVerifier(vmime::utility::ref)'
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x2d60): undefined reference to `vmime::charsets::UTF_8'
mimetest.cpp:(.text+0x2d72): undefined reference to `vmime::charset::charset(char const*)'

----------------------------------------------------------------
Cut out some...
----------------------------------------------------------------

/tmp/ccioHkjN.o: In function `vmime::header::Date() const':
mimetest.cpp:(.text._ZNK5vmime6header4DateEv[vmime::header::Date() const]+0x1b): undefined reference to `vmime::fields::DATE'
mimetest.cpp:(.text._ZNK5vmime6header4DateEv[vmime::header::Date() const]+0x4a): undefined reference to `vmime::header::findField(std::basic_string, std::allocator > const&) const'
/tmp/ccioHkjN.o: In function `vmime::header::From() const':
mimetest.cpp:(.text._ZNK5vmime6header4FromEv[vmime::header::From() const]+0x1b): undefined reference to `vmime::fields::FROM'
mimetest.cpp:(.text._ZNK5vmime6header4FromEv[vmime::header::From() const]+0x4a): undefined reference to `vmime::header::findField(std::basic_string, std::allocator > const&) const'
/tmp/ccioHkjN.o: In function `vmime::header::Subject() const':
mimetest.cpp:(.text._ZNK5vmime6header7SubjectEv[vmime::header::Subject() const]+0x1b): undefined reference to `vmime::fields::SUBJECT'
mimetest.cpp:(.text._ZNK5vmime6header7SubjectEv[vmime::header::Subject() const]+0x4a): undefined reference to `vmime::header::findField(std::basic_string, std::allocator > const&) const'
/tmp/ccioHkjN.o: In function `vmime::charset::~charset()':
mimetest.cpp:(.text._ZN5vmime7charsetD1Ev[vmime::charset::~charset()]+0xd): undefined reference to `vtable for vmime::charset'
mimetest.cpp:(.text._ZN5vmime7charsetD1Ev[vmime::charset::~charset()]+0x2c): undefined reference to `vmime::component::~component()'
mimetest.cpp:(.text._ZN5vmime7charsetD1Ev[vmime::charset::~charset()]+0x50): undefined reference to `vmime::component::~component()'
/tmp/ccioHkjN.o: In function `vmime::utility::url::~url()':
mimetest.cpp:(.text._ZN5vmime7utility3urlD1Ev[vmime::utility::url::~url()]+0x12): undefined reference to `vmime::propertySet::~propertySet()'
/tmp/ccioHkjN.o:(.rodata._ZTVN5vmime7utility11inputStreamE[vtable for vmime::utility::inputStream]+0x10): undefined reference to `vmime::utility::stream::get
BlockSize() const'
/tmp/ccioHkjN.o:(.rodata._ZTIN5vmime7utility11inputStreamE[typeinfo for vmime::utility::inputStream]+0x8): undefined reference to `typeinfo for vmime::utilit
y::stream'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

C++ and rand()

Ziggy Zaga — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:55:51 -0800

C++ and the rand() function. Please explain why this piece of code works the way it does: cout << rand() % 20 << endl; srand(time(0));
cout << rand() % 20 << endl;

This returns a random number between 0 and 20, as promised by the book I'm reading as well as internet tutorials.

If I remove "% 20" from the code and am left with

srand(time(0));
cout << rand() << endl;

This returns a really big number like 1847292034.

Looking at the code, I would think that adding "% 20" should do nothing more than divide a random number like 1847292034 by 20 and return the integer portion (92364601). But instead the compiler parses it in a different way that says not to generate a random number larger than 20.

Am I interpreting this wrong? Why does the compiler interpret this as something other than a mathematical operation? Is this type of thing common in C++?

Thanks!

(I'm using g++ to compile on a Ubuntu system.)

C programming question

sailormouth — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 08:19:17 -0800

Seeking some direction in learning C for a project. I have an project I want to work up to, and I am planning on writing it in C.
I have written simple command line programs in C. I have experience in simple shell and perl scripts.
I'll be writing and running this program on an old box running Kubuntu 7.10.
The ultimate project would be similar to an 8bit sprite/tile editor for bin dumps from toys.
I did write a perl script which read in my dump and generated html files as 480 byte snapshots to look for the fullscreen graphics of the toy. This functionally worked, but took time to generate, used alot of space, and was slow to go through results.
I downloaded several actual tile editors and tried my bin dump just to try. I found it of course much better than my method - loaded imediately with a scroll window to scan through quickly. What did not work was they were 8x8, 16x16, not a custom size.
My end goal is to have an ajustable size scroll window which will allow me to identify offset by mouseover/click.
My intial goal is just to write a gui app that renders the bits as pixels in a window.
I am looking for recommendations of online tutorials or books with projects that will build in the gui direction. What I have found seems to just be command line with output going to terminal or file.

Books on C

gkhewitt — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:09:39 -0800

What books would you recommend for embedded C programming? I'm involved in new group project (University) that will eventually evolve into an autonomous path-finding robot. FYI, it will probably use a PIC32 processor.

I have a background in programming, and a good (practical) understanding of Java and C# having used them a lot over the last four years. However, pure C is not my strongest point, and I'm needing a good brush-up! I've done a bit as part of a module a while back, but certainly not enough to dive into detailed algorithms.

What good books (or online resources) would you recommend to someone who has a reasonable set of experience with programming in general but needs a bit more to read on pure C?

Learning real-time sound event synchronization C++ programming?

dubitable — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:37:40 -0800

What are the libraries/techniques that are available for event synchronization in C++? More specifically, how would I go about learning the best strategies for synchronizing events (say, a graphical event with an sound, or one sound with another)? I'm looking to learn about the techniques that are used by complex games as well as audio software, like Ableton Live or Logic. I've programmed in a number of languages and frameworks but most of the time I haven't had to think about this aspect of making (rudimentary) sound software. I guess I don't care too much about a response being C++ specific if it helps me understand the general concepts well, but I figure that's a good place to start, since that's the language I want to use.

I see that there are some libraries out there that may be appropriate, but I'm a relative n00b at C++ and real-time programming, and I'm not sure how to proceed. Do game/audio programmers use complex systems for syncing events, or is it "not that hard?" Do they roll their own usually, or are there standard libs out there that I just don't know about? Are there good open source projects out there that implement this sort of thing that I could look at? Am I even asking the right questions?

Many thanks!

Reward for Information!

levijk — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:46:33 -0800

Can you identify this 1950s robotic dog? Daniel C. Dennet of Tufts University has pics (for some reason this page seems to load better in explorer than firefox, at least for me) on his webpage of a robotic dog he named Tati after filmmaker Jacques Tati.

C#: capture data, display to user, save to disk, upload to database: BEST approach

jdlugo — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:45:59 -0800

I have a program that captures live data from a piece of hardware on a set interval. The data is returned as XML. There are several things I would like to do with this data (in order): -display it to user -save it to disk -eventually, upload it to database My current approach is to take the XML, parse it into a hashtable so I can display the correct values to the user.

Next, I want to save the XML to a file on disk. For each data capture session I am planning on creating a unique XML file and I will dump all the data into it.

Finally, I would like to reparse the XML and upload it to a MySQL database. The data cannot be immediately uploaded to the database.

This seems really inefficient method of solving this problem and I would love some advice.

Is it a waste of hd space to save the data as XML?

Is it THAT inefficient to have to reparse the XML in order to write it to a database?

Thank you!

To clarify: a typical XML response will be ~1kb and are captured at a rate of about 1 response every 15-60 seconds.

I think I do want to store the XML as XML on the disk because the data is very valuable and a pain to reproduce (if it is even possible). Thank you!

Experienced programmer, novice designer. Please help!

yarrr — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:05:34 -0800

Tips / resources for designing / implementing and application from the ground up? I am a fairly seasoned C# programmer from a systems admin perspective - I started with python and moved to C# for scripting purposes primarily, and lightweight development.

What this leaves me lacking is ANY experience with design, forethought, and really truly planning out any application.

And now a coworker and myself have something we'd like to put together, but I'm looking for resources, tips, advice, etc on how a novice should go about designing the application from the ground floor.

What should I be looking into? Are there any worthwhile web resources? If not (I did not find much), are there any particularly good books out there?

Redisassembleunobfuscate?

tmcw — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:56:52 -0800

Why aren't there assembly -> C or pseudocode tools? So, for my last lap in college, I'm doing the dreaded binary bomb project, which is actually kind of cool. I'm almost done (5/6), and hopefully should be able to finish soon.

But anyway, looking all this GAS, I'm wondering why there isn't a tool that generates equivalent C or C++ code... it seems absurdly simple in some respects to simply generate one of the many possibilities of C that can yield a given assembly procedure, but I must be missing something?

Live graphing in .NET, for free

matthewr — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:05:53 -0800

What's the best way of adding a "live" graph to my .NET WinForms application, similar in behaviour to the scrolling CPU usage and pagefile graphs found in Task Manager? Must be free, not too ugly, and not too processor-intensive.

C++

londontomasbird — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:04:48 -0800

How can a program output a variable number of files in C++? For example, if a user enters 3, then 3 files would be created:

file1.txt
file2.txt
file3.txt

Can I do this without just having a bunch of if statements for each option the user could enter?

Where can I find an honest, intelligent, organized community of folks looking for freelance .NET programmers?

Glendale — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:38:56 -0800

Where can I find an honest, intelligent, organized community of folks looking for freelance .NET programmers? I'm looking to supplement my day job with freelance C# programming. I have about 15 hours per week free, so I'm looking for smallish projects (perhaps 45-90 hours per project..) to fill in my spare time.

I'm a clean, efficient and thorough programmer, with excellent references looking to work for honest, intelligent, organized people. Can you point me in the direction of a quality freelance software development community?

0xUNDERSTAND

tmcw — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 11:42:15 -0800

Are there any scripting / cli-compatible languages which decently provide or at least pretend to provide bit-math? So, I'm in one of my last CS courses in college, and it involves a whole lot of bit-mangling. Writing, testing C code is all right, but I kind of want to tinker in my free time to get a deeper understanding, and I'd love some language that lets me use something like irb/python/hugs/etc to quickly test bit expressions (your usual ^, |, &, !, etc)

Is there anything? I kind of remember a C++ CLI a while ago, but I can't figure out where it is.

Thanks!