EzhNotes

moving to wordpress

2009-10-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

Moving to new location on wordpress
. They seems to provide much better functionality for editing and statistics

convert jscript to html

2009-10-04T14:12:00.001-07:00

Very simple yet good jscript to html code formatting tool

disable venkman output to console

2009-10-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

Venkman produces a lot of output to console which makes it hard to see the output from your extensions. To disable output from venkman, you can update venkman_utils.js in venkman.jar by replacing dd function with an empty function dd = function (){};

debug output from firefox extension

2009-10-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

Start firefox with -console flag

Call dumpln function from your code (copy of code from venkman)

var dumpln;

if (typeof document == "undefined") /* in xpcshell */
{
    dumpln = print;
}
else
{
    if (typeof dump == "function") {
        dumpln = function (str) {dump (str + "\n");}
    } else if (jsenv.HAS_RHINO) {
        dumpln = function (str) {
                     var out = java.lang.System.out;
                     out.println(str); out.flush();
                 }
    }
    else {
        dumpln = function () {} /* no suitable function */
    }
}

Firefox vs Chrome #2

2009-09-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

Made another attempt to use Chrome 2.x and 3.x. Layout issues seems to be fixed. However there are still problems like
- Navigation back from 404 does not always work (never hit such problems in FF)
- Adding RSS to google reader is not supported

Back to FF.

Windows7. Disable hiding windows during Alt-Tab

2009-08-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Win7 alt-tab hides windows after few seconds timeout. To disable this behavior uncheck “Enable Aero Peek” in the performance dialog.

FireFox vs Chrome

2009-05-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

After trying Chrome for a week I got back to FireFox. Main problems with Chrome are
- Increased battery usage. Battery time decreases ~30% when Chrome is running. Does not happen for FF on the same sites
- Chrome renders some sites (like google reader) differently than IE / FF
- Address bar shows prompt for visited sites instead of typed sides like FF.
- In the default configuration does not allow to subscribe to RSS feeds. Shows XML dump in a window

myDock 0.9.1051 is released

2009-02-28T18:35:00.000-08:00

New version is available on alexezh.googlepages.com. Update includes minor fixes.

Subsclass UserControl in SilverLight

2009-02-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

By default Expression creates custom controls derived from UserControls

partial class MyControl : UserControl
{
}

In order to derive from a different class you will have to change code in several places

Define new base class with required virtual methods. Do not make class abstract

public class MyUserControl : UserControl
{
public virtual void Foo() {;}
}

Change MyControl to use MyUserControl

partial class MyControl : UserControl
{
public override void Foo() {;}
}

Change XAML for MyControl to use

<MyUserControl x:Class="MyControl">
</MyUserControl>

To make Blend happy, add following lines to AssemblyInfo.cs

// Make blend happy
using System.Windows.Markup;
[assembly: XmlnsDefinition("http://schemas.microsoft.com/client/2007", "YourNamespace")]

Better version of VS windows hiding tool

2009-02-15T08:59:00.001-08:00

Remembers which windows were shown the last time. Source is available at http://alexezh.googlepages.com/MyMacros.txt

Optimize VS workspace by hiding tool windows

2009-01-25T14:16:00.001-08:00

Simple macro toggles all tool windows

Dim showToolWindows As Integer

Public Sub MyToggleToolWindows()

If (showToolWindows = 1) Then

showToolWindows = 0

Else

showToolWindows = 1

End If

For Each window As Window In DTE.Windows

' Check that this is a tool window and not a document window.

If (window.Document Is Nothing) Then

' hide window.

Try

window.Visible = showToolWindows

Catch exception As Exception

End Try

End If

End Sub

SL unmanaged helpers on codeplex

2009-01-11T14:00:00.000-08:00

I posted updated version of unmanaged helpers for accessing SL object model. With helpers you can write code in C++ which matches C# or jscript.

For example here is how to add an event handler to an object

vObj.addEventListener(L"MouseEnter",
CXcpDelegateT(CObject)::create(this, &CObject::OnMouseEnter));

Source code is available on http://www.codeplex.com/mydock

Back to basics

2009-01-11T13:32:00.000-08:00

I spent last few month designing new UI for myDock. Test version of UI did not work very well, so I am returning back to original code.

On the good side, I mastered a process of hosting SL2.0 including managed code from unmanaged applications. See details on http://www.codeplex.com/mydock

1051 version will be available in few days

myDock 0.9.1035 is released

2008-09-23T10:33:00.000-07:00

New version of myDock is available on http://alexezh.googlepages.com/

Change MSI to run under custom actions under user account

2008-09-20T14:09:00.000-07:00

MSI package generated by VS2008 will run custom actions under SYSTEM account. This "feature" was implemented to work around Vista's UAC.

There is no way to change this behavior from VS2008, but you can adjust MSI package using ORCA tool (available in SDK).

Start ORCA tool, open MSI package, navigate to custom actions. Select action which you would like to run under user account and subtract 0x800 from Type. In my case, value generated by VS2008 is 3090, new value should be 1042.

Save MSI back. Done

Problem with 0.9.1031 and Silverlight1.0

2008-09-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

0.9.1031 crashes when running with SL1.0. SL2.0 Beta2 works fine. If you run into this problem, you can either install SL1.0 or use MyDock0.9.1027

myDock 0.9.1031

2008-09-09T09:26:00.001-07:00

New version of myDock is available on http://alexezh.googlepages.com

SL path mini language to geometry converter

2008-09-01T23:04:00.000-07:00

Added utility to http://alexezh.googlepages.com/developlemtinsilverlight to convert Silverlight path mini language to geometry

pathgeometry vs mini language

2008-08-31T09:55:00.001-07:00

http://www.farseergames.com/blog/post/Workaround-for-Accessing-PathGeometry-Data-in-Code.aspx

using selectSingleNode for XAML

2008-08-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

When using selectSingleNode to search XAML, it is required to set SelectionNamespace property with fake prefix. Here is an example

spDoc2->setProperty(CComBSTR(L"SelectionLanguage"), CComVariant(L"XPath"));
spDoc2->setProperty(CComBSTR(L"SelectionNamespaces"),
CComVariant("xmlns:d=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation\" xmlns:x=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml\""));

m_spDoc->selectSingleNode(CComBSTR(L"./d:Canvas"), &m_spRoot);

MyDock has moved

2008-07-24T22:02:00.000-07:00

MyDock download has moved from codeplex to http://alexezh.googlepages.com

MyDock 0.9.1027

2008-07-22T13:17:00.001-07:00

New Features

* Added multimonitor support (first version, no configuration UI yet)
o To switch to the second monitor, add 1 to dock.xml and restart the dock.

Fixes

* Fixed refresh problem after screen resolution change
* Fixed memory leak (time will tell if this is the last one)
* Added delay for showing dock when new window is activated
* Fixed problem with context menus showing behind dock
* Updated visual for window manager dock
* Add hover indicator to tray menu

WebGadgets

2008-07-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

After playing with Google desktop gadgets for a while, I decided to implement support for Web gadgets first. Much easier to do plus covers 90% of interesting functionality.

Yesterday got the first result; google clock is running on dashboard. Well, almost running, gadget size is wrong.

MyDock 0.9.1025

2008-07-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

Lot's of updates and bug fixes.

Lately I am spending most of the time on implementing OSX style dashboard and support for google gadgets. Google or Vista sidebars take too much space on screen and provide constant distraction. Old style windows active desktop provides similar functionality, but it requires hiding all apps (which seems like a destructive action).

Last week mydock dashboard displayed the first picture. To be continued.

MyDock 0.9.1009

2008-05-11T19:43:00.001-07:00

Just posted the latest version of mydock to www.codeplex.com/mydock. The main new feature is limited support for system tray.

open explorer at My Computer folder

2008-04-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

ShellExecute(NULL,
L"explore",
L"::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}",
NULL,
NULL,
SW_SHOW);

MyDock 0.9.1001

2008-04-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

New release is available here. Main changes are

* Added quit button
* Use high-quality icons if available
* Bug fixes

Migrating dev related items to codeplex

2008-04-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

Created a project for tracking items and releases on CodePlex. See MyDock On CodePlex for more details

XMLDOM tricks

2008-04-05T11:11:00.000-07:00

Add \r\n to the document when saving. Original info from Line breaks and IXMLDOMDocument

static LPCWSTR s_szFormatConfig = L""\
L" edit window is not XML friendly, see original post for details";

static HRESULT FormatConfig(IXMLDOMDocument * pInDoc, CComPtr & spOutDoc)
{
HRESULT hr = S_OK;
CComPtr spSS;
VARIANT_BOOL vbSuccess;

IFC(CoCreateInstance(__uuidof(DOMDocument60),
NULL,
CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
__uuidof(IXMLDOMDocument),
(void**)&spSS));

IFC(CoCreateInstance(__uuidof(DOMDocument60),
NULL,
CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
__uuidof(IXMLDOMDocument),
(void**)&spOutDoc));

spSS->put_resolveExternals(VARIANT_FALSE);
spSS->put_preserveWhiteSpace(VARIANT_TRUE);

spOutDoc->put_resolveExternals(VARIANT_FALSE);
spOutDoc->put_preserveWhiteSpace(VARIANT_TRUE);

//
// load SS from string
//
IFC(spSS->loadXML(CComBSTR(s_szFormatConfig), &vbSuccess));
if(vbSuccess != VARIANT_TRUE)
{
hr = E_FAIL;
goto Cleanup;
}

//
// convert
//
IFC(pInDoc->transformNodeToObject(spSS, CComVariant(spOutDoc)));

Cleanup:

return hr;
}

Convert document to UTF8

static HRESULT ForceUTF8(IXMLDOMDocument * pDoc)
{
HRESULT hr = S_OK;
CComPtr spPI;
CComPtr spOldPI;
CComPtr spOutOldPI;
CComPtr spChildren;

IFC(pDoc->createProcessingInstruction(L"xml", L"version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"", &spPI));

IFC(pDoc->get_childNodes(&spChildren));

IFC(spChildren->get_item(0, &spOldPI));

IFC(pDoc->replaceChild( spPI, spOldPI, &spOutOldPI));

Cleanup:

return hr;
}

MyDock, 04-03-2007

2008-04-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

Added window manager docklet. Window manager allow you to perform common operations on active window such as resize to half of screen, move to different monitor etc

MyDock home page

2008-04-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

Just created a home page for MyDock.

TODO list

2008-04-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

Some ideas for todo list

- OSX type Dashboard with SL2.0 applets
- Windows manager similar to vMax (in progress)
- Search box (similar to search in the start menu on Vista)
- Run docklet
- Hide windows taskbar
- Tray docklet
- Run as admin option

MyDock, bug fixes

2008-03-31T22:25:00.000-07:00

Minor bug fixes
- fix AV when closing application
- fix duplicated icons when starting mydock

Download from MyDock032107_1.zip

2008-03-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

Last version of MyDock does not look very stable. Icons disappear from the dock from time to time

2008-03-31T08:43:00.000-07:00

Number of updates
- Added initial version of drag&drop support both from shell and inside the dock. Now you can re-arrange docklets by dragging them
- Added configuration file for basic properties like docklet size. See dock_mini.xml for details. To use configuration, rename dock_mini.xml to dock.xml and copy it to either application directory or appdata directory
- Added key to hide / show the dock. Configurable through global config

As usual, download from
MyDock033107

mydock, 032607

2008-03-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

New version. Changes
- Added tooltips
- Added mirror effect

MyDock032607

mydock, 03-25-2007

2008-03-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

My clone of OS X dock. Requires SilverLight runtime to run.

I've been using ObjectDock for a while, but was always disappointed by lack of functionality compared to OS X dock.

Main difference is in the way how applications are handled by the dock. In OS X, same icon can be used to started pinned application or switch to it. If application is not pinned, clicking on icon activates the application. In ObjectDock, there are two types of icons; one for running windows and second for pinned apps. As a result, you might see two instances of the same icon.

To try mydock,
- download MyDock.zip unzip it to an empty folder
- run "mydock.exe".
- md5 hash for zip file is 3e57f216ce78920952207b34502d236e

Code is under active development. To be continued....

extract icon from exe

2008-03-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

Code based on http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms997538.aspx.

class CIconExtractor
{
public:
CIconExtractor()
: m_pImage(NULL)
{
}

HRESULT LoadIconFromApp(LPCWSTR pszFileName, CPngImage ** ppImage);

private:
CPngImage * m_pImage;

private:
static BOOL CALLBACK EnumIconProcInit(
HMODULE hModule,
LPCTSTR lpszType,
LPTSTR lpszName,
LONG_PTR lParam);

BOOL EnumIconProc(
HMODULE hModule,
LPCTSTR lpszType,
LPTSTR lpszName);

HRESULT GetResourceBytes(HMODULE hModule, LPCTSTR lpszType, LPTSTR lpszName, CAtlArray & arRes);
HRESULT LoadIconFromGroup(HMODULE hModule, CAtlArray & arRes);
};

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
HRESULT CIconExtractor::LoadIconFromApp(LPCWSTR pszFileName, CPngImage ** ppImage)
{
HRESULT hr = S_OK;
HMODULE hExe; // handle to existing .EXE file
BOOL bRet;

// Load the .EXE file that contains an icon.
hExe = LoadLibraryEx(pszFileName, NULL, LOAD_LIBRARY_AS_DATAFILE);
if (hExe == NULL)
{
hr = HRESULT_FROM_WIN32(GetLastError());
goto Cleanup;
}

bRet = EnumResourceNames(hExe, RT_GROUP_ICON, EnumIconProcInit, (LONG_PTR)(void*)this);

if(!m_pImage)
{
if(!bRet)
{

hr = HRESULT_FROM_WIN32(GetLastError());
}
else
{
hr = E_FAIL;
}

goto Cleanup;
}

*ppImage = m_pImage;
m_pImage = NULL;

Cleanup:

// Clean up.
if(hExe)
{
FreeLibrary(hExe);
}

if(m_pImage)
{
delete m_pImage;
m_pImage = NULL;
}

return hr;
}

BOOL CALLBACK CIconExtractor::EnumIconProcInit(
HMODULE hModule,
LPCTSTR lpszType,
LPTSTR lpszName,
LONG_PTR lParam)
{
CIconExtractor * pThis = (CIconExtractor*)lParam;
return pThis->EnumIconProc(hModule, lpszType, lpszName);
}

BOOL CIconExtractor::EnumIconProc(
HMODULE hModule,
LPCTSTR lpszType,
LPTSTR lpszName)
{
HRESULT hr = S_OK;
CAtlArray arResGroup;

IFC(GetResourceBytes(hModule, lpszType, lpszName, arResGroup));

IFC(LoadIconFromGroup(hModule, arResGroup));

Cleanup:

SetLastError(NO_ERROR);

return FALSE;
}

HRESULT CIconExtractor::GetResourceBytes(HMODULE hModule, LPCTSTR lpszType, LPTSTR lpszName, CAtlArray & arRes)
{
HRESULT hr = S_OK;
HGLOBAL hResLoad; // handle to loaded resource
HRSRC hRes; // handle/ptr. to res. info. in hExe
HANDLE hUpdateRes; // update resource handle
void *pbRes; // pointer to resource data
DWORD cbRes;

// Locate the icon resource in the .EXE file.
hRes = FindResource(hModule, lpszName, lpszType);
if (hRes == NULL)
{
hr = HRESULT_FROM_WIN32(GetLastError());
goto Cleanup;
}

// Load the icon
hResLoad = LoadResource(hModule, hRes);
if (hResLoad == NULL)
{
hr = HRESULT_FROM_WIN32(GetLastError());
goto Cleanup;
}

cbRes = SizeofResource(hModule, hRes);

// Lock the dialog box into global memory.
pbRes = LockResource(hResLoad);
if (pbRes == NULL)
{
hr = HRESULT_FROM_WIN32(GetLastError());
goto Cleanup;
}

arRes.SetCount(cbRes);
CopyMemory(arRes.GetData(), pbRes, cbRes);

Cleanup:

return hr;
}

// descriptor for the icon group
#pragma pack( push )
#pragma pack( 2 )

typedef struct
{
BYTE bWidth; // Width, in pixels, of the image
BYTE bHeight; // Height, in pixels, of the image
BYTE bColorCount; // Number of colors in image (0 if >=8bpp)
BYTE bReserved; // Reserved
WORD wPlanes; // Color Planes
WORD wBitCount; // Bits per pixel
DWORD dwBytesInRes; // how many bytes in this resource?
WORD nID; // the ID
} GRPICONDIRENTRY, *LPGRPICONDIRENTRY;

typedef struct
{
WORD idReserved; // Reserved (must be 0)
WORD idType; // Resource type (1 for icons)
WORD idCount; // How many images?
GRPICONDIRENTRY idEntries[1]; // The entries for each image
} GRPICONDIR, *LPGRPICONDIR;

typedef struct
{
BYTE bWidth; // Width, in pixels, of the image
BYTE bHeight; // Height, in pixels, of the image
BYTE bColorCount; // Number of colors in image (0 if >=8bpp)
BYTE bReserved; // Reserved
WORD wPlanes; // Color Planes
WORD wBitCount; // Bits per pixel
DWORD dwBytesInRes; // how many bytes in this resource?
DWORD dwBytesOffset; // the ID
} ICONHEADER, *LPICONHEADER;

#pragma pack( pop )

HRESULT CIconExtractor::LoadIconFromGroup(HMODULE hModule, CAtlArray & arRes)
{
HRESULT hr = S_OK;
GRPICONDIR * pDir;
WORD i;
GRPICONDIRENTRY * pCur = NULL;
GRPICONDIRENTRY * pBest = NULL;
CAtlArray arIcon;
HICON hIcon = NULL;

if(arRes.GetCount() < sizeof(GRPICONDIR))
{
hr = E_FAIL;
goto Cleanup;
}

pDir = (GRPICONDIR *)(void*)arRes.GetData();
if(pDir->idCount < 1 || arRes.GetCount() < sizeof(GRPICONDIR) + (pDir->idCount - 1) * sizeof(GRPICONDIRENTRY))
{
hr = E_FAIL;
goto Cleanup;
}

//
// find best icon
//
pCur = pBest = &pDir->idEntries[0];
for(i = 0; i < pDir->idCount; i++)
{
pCur = &pDir->idEntries[i];

if(pCur->wBitCount > pBest->wBitCount)
{
pBest = pCur;
}
else if(pCur->bWidth > pBest->bWidth)
{
pBest = pCur;
}
}

//
// load best icon
//
IFC(GetResourceBytes(hModule, RT_ICON, MAKEINTRESOURCE(pBest->nID), arIcon));

hIcon = CreateIconFromResource(arIcon.GetData(), arIcon.GetCount(), TRUE, 0x00030000);
if(!hIcon)
{
hr = HRESULT_FROM_WIN32(GetLastError());
goto Cleanup;
}

{
CMyImage WndImage;

if(pBest->wBitCount == 0x20)
{
CMyIcon::Load(arIcon.GetData(), arIcon.GetCount(), WndImage);
}
else
{
CIconToImageConverter cnv;

IFC(cnv.GetImage(hIcon, WndImage));

goto Cleanup;
}

m_pImage = new CPngImage;
if(m_pImage == NULL)
{
goto Cleanup;
}

m_pImage->Encode(WndImage);
}

Cleanup:

if(hIcon)
{
DestroyIcon(hIcon);
}

return hr;
}

find location of installed application by app name

2008-03-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

HRESULT hr = S_OK;
CComPtr spDocklet;
CRegKey rkAppPaths;
CRegKey rkApp;
WCHAR szPath[MAX_PATH];
ULONG cchPath;
CAtlString szAppPath;
LONG lRes;

lRes = rkAppPaths.Open(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, L"SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\App Paths", KEY_READ);
if(lRes != ERROR_SUCCESS)
{
goto Cleanup;
}

lRes = rkApp.Open(rkAppPaths, pszApp);
if(lRes != ERROR_SUCCESS)
{
goto Cleanup;
}

cchPath = sizeof(szPath) / sizeof(WCHAR);
lRes = rkApp.QueryStringValue(L"Path", szPath, &cchPath);
if(lRes != ERROR_SUCCESS)
{
goto Cleanup;
}

szAppPath.Format(L"%s%s", szPath, pszApp);

Test

2008-03-18T11:05:00.001-07:00

FooBar