Blogs

Section: Blogs

Apr 1, 2003 2 min.

There have been a few VB vs C# debates flying around… I’ll refrain from linking to them all, as they aren’t really saying anything new. One comment in particular caught my eye though, and I have to respond./o:p /o:p Jesse Ezell’s post includes a quote that says “Microsoft is standardizing on C#” and then goes on to use that quote as a reason to suggest you shouldn’t use VB.NET… well, I work for Microsoft and I am in discussions with the .

One Step Closer to Releasing MusicXP Source

Mar 31, 2003 1 min.

I have a home music system, that I have dubbed [ MusicXP ](http://www.duncanmackenzie.net/musicxp) (mostly because that is the name of the machine it is on, the actual app that runs is called “Shell.exe”)… and I’ve been meaning to upload the full source for some time. I’ve covered bits and pieces of it in [ various ](http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dncodefun/html/code4fun01242003.asp) [ articles ](http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnwinforms/html/custcntrlsamp4.asp) but now I’ve decided to create a [ GotDotNet Workspace ](http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/Workspaces/workspace.aspx?id=cd71ce33-9238-4ba0-a1e6-294413f743b9)

First hint of what I’ve been working on for the last few months…

Mar 28, 2003 1 min.

We’ve posted a little “first look” at the new Developer Centers at [ http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/firstlook/ ](http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/firstlook/) . These sites, well the vbasic one in particular are my world and we’ve been working hard at them for quite awhile. As the article at the end of that link says, they will be going up April 24th, and I really hope you like what you see. Oh, just fyi: there will also be ones for the .

This isn’t exactly useful, but I find it cool

Mar 27, 2003 1 min.

I’ve been working on code to pull the currently playing item out of Windows Media Player and in my quest I ran into [ this ](http://www.wmplugins.com/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemID=245) , a plug-in that pulls that value out and writes it to a ftp site of your choosing for display on the web ( [ here is mine ](http://www.duncanmackenzie.net/songxml.asp) )… so everyone can know what you are currently listening to. I’m still working on my .

My column went up early…

Mar 27, 2003 1 min.

It wasn’t really supposed to be up until Friday, and I doubt you’ll find any links to it anywhere on MSDN until next week, but you lucky readers of my blog can check out the next installment of Coding4Fun on MSDN now… Checking My E-Mail Duncan MackenzieMicrosoft Developer Network March 26, 2003 Summary: Duncan Mackenzie describes how to build a tool that uses the System.Net namespace of the Microsoft .

First day and he has figured it out already….

Mar 25, 2003 1 min.

Kent’s first day with my group (to avoid confusion: “my group” means the group I belong to, I don’t manage anyone…) and he has already realized the truth about us. “Day 1 – spent most of it in the cafeteria, as it was a move day. Two meetings (much lower than my day would have been). Yes, my new team is/are lunatics 😉 (They know that already, and yes, I know they all read this)” – Kent Sharkey’s Blog

Macros in VS.NET

Mar 22, 2003 3 min.

I have to admit I haven’t taken advantage of enough of VS.NET’s capabilities… the ability to write macros alone should have resulted in a ton of useful little routines, but I have only written a few. One of the ones I use most often converts between a list of my internal member variables in a class… Dim m_fred As String Dim m_counter As Integer to the bare-bones properties <pre class="code"> Public Property fred() As String Get Return m_fred End Get Set(ByVal Value As String) m_fred = Value End Set End Property Public Property counter() As Integer Get Return m_counter End Get Set(ByVal Value As Integer) m_counter = Value End Set End Property It is dependent on my particular hungarian-ish (m_) naming style for internal variables and it doesn’t deal well with arrays or variables that get instantiated in their declarations… but I find it a real timesaver to spit out that initial pass at the properties before I go in and add any validation or whatever else I was going to do… On the off chance that you might find it useful as well, or that you want to “finish it up”, here is the source of the macro:

Indicating Infinite Progress, or lack thereof

Mar 20, 2003 2 min.

clovett [ posted this sample ](http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=d2bd8858-97c7-4a77-96eb-5d86d3b022d4) of a progress bar that does not progress to GDN at some point in the past and I had occasion to use it today. Using irrational coder logic, I decided that converting it to VB, so I could place it directly in my application, was faster than modifying his sample into a component… Anyway, explanations aside; here is the code in VB Imports System Imports System.

I have to get one of these, and code against it!

Mar 19, 2003 1 min.

[ Ambient Devices ](http://www.ambientdevices.com/cat/index.html) I can’t even describe this, you have to check it out on your own. I’m making up a list of possible geeky applications in my head right now!

And speaking of Mike Harsh…

Mar 19, 2003 1 min.

It seems he managed to get his cool shaped control library [ finished and uploaded ](http://windowsforms.net/ControlGallery/ControlDetail.aspx?Control=219&tabindex=9) ! Very cool stuff, especially if shaped apps like Windows Media Player, WinAmp, etc. have always appealed to you!