Codeguru Update eNewsletter – October 3rd, 2006

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CodeGuru Newsletter
October 3, 2006

http://www.CodeGuru.com


This newsletter is part of the Developer.com, EarthWeb, and
internet.com networks.
Jupitermedia Corporation


___________________________ Sponsors
________________________________
Pegasus Imaging
Corporation
_____________________________________________________________________
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TOPICS:



–> Editorial –
–> Recently Published
Books


–> New on CodeGuru:
  
Articles
        ==>
Controls
               
– Managing Nested GridView
Controls
        ==>
Database
               
– Designing a SQL Service Broker Control
Bus
        ==> Error
Handling
               
– Redirecting Configuration with a Custom
Provider
        ==> Graphics /
Dialogs
               
– Animate a Modal Dialog
        ==>
Java
               
– In Search of a Perfect Singleton
       
==> Office
Development
               
– Report Solution Patterns and Recipes: Creating a Business
Scorecard
               
– Spreadsheets in ASP.NET
        ==>
Security
               
– .NET Tip: Creating a Password-Checking
Function
        ==>
System
               
– Thunking in Win32


–> Discussion Groups — HOT
Threads
        – Tab control –
Lparam (VC++)
        – Visual Basic Net,
what a mess. (VB.NET)
        – Database
Design


–> Highlighted new articles on
Developer.com 
        1. An
Introduction to Catastrophe
Disentanglement
        2. Propagating
Weblogic 8.x Portals
        3.
Understanding the 2D Discrete Cosine Transform in Java, Part 2


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Comments
from the
Editor
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When you first start working with Windows Vista, you will find that there are
a number of little things that have changed. You might initially think that it
is all cosmetic with a few new annoyances, such as the User Account Control
thrown in. The more you begin to use it, however, the more you will realize that
Microsoft has truly made some big changes and has done quite a bit of tweaking
to their operating system.


Over the coming months, I’ll talk about some of these features in the
newsletter. Additionally, I’m sure that the number of articles on Vista related
topics will increase on the site as well.


Vista will impact you as a developer — from the changes in some of the
common dialogs, to the way things look, to the changes in security and memory
usage, to the addition of .NET 3.0 support. These and many other things are
going to impact you as a developer.


With Vista’s planned release now being measured in weeks instead of years, it
is about time to start looking at it. Of course, it isn’t a released product
yet, so missing drivers and screen glitches still riddle the product.
Regardless, it is probably something you are going to want to start looking at
soon if you haven’t already.


There are a few things I found really cool in Vista. These don’t necessarily
impact your development, but if you take a look at Vista, then check out
these:


ReadyBoost:
Using a USB drive’s fast flash memory to
boost your computer’s RAM. This is simply a smart addition.


SuperFetch:
RAM is there, so why not use it? Instead of
letting RAM sit idle as in prior versions of Windows, Vista will guess at what
you are going to do next and try to preload things into memory. With access to
the hard drive being the factor that slows down your system the most, this
feature can save a lot of time if the guessing is good.


Icon Previews:
Chances are you have heard of the Aero
interface if you have looked into Windows Vista at all. This new interface
includes a lot of “eye candy.” One feature that is not just hype is icon
previews. Icons show you what they represent. For example, if you have a folder
that contains pictures, the icon is a folder containing images of the pictures
in the folder. Even more valuable are the previews you get when you hover over
task bar buttons. In this case, instead of just getting a pop-up tip box saying
what the button points to, you also get a small preview of the window. This
makes it much easier to find the right window. The same previews are presented
when you use Alt+Tab. This is eye candy that actually is helpful! The catch,
because there is always a catch, is that you have to be running the Aero
interface that requires a video card with at least 128 Bb of memory. If you have
less than that, you don’t get any of the eye candy or the cool previews.


Speech Recognition:
Speech has been weak in the past. It
still has a long way to go; however, it is a lot closer to prime time. Windows
Vista has included a built-in speech recognition program. By using the tutorial,
you can quickly learn to use your microphone to control windows as well as to do
dictation. I actually used the speech recognition in Vista to open Internet
Explorer, go to the Codeguru forums, and enter a post. No keyboard or mouse were
required. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked well enough to mention it here!


These are just a few features of Vista. In the near future, I’ll mention some
controls and other features that might impact what you are doing as a developer.
Like it or not, Vista is coming. While it might not seem ready now, there is a
good chance that it truly will be released by the end of the year — and that is
only a few months away!


Until next week…


Brad!
—————————
Bradley L.
Jones
www.CodeGuru.com
—————————


=========================================================
Recently
Published Books
=========================================================


For those of you keeping up by reading books. The following are just a few of
the new books that have been recently released.  If you’ve read any of
these, feel free to write a review to be posted on CodeGuru. See the
submission guidelines at: http://www.codeguru.com/review-guidelines.php


–> Fundamentals of Game Design

      By Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings
for Prentice Hall
      600 pages for
$77.33
      http://books.internet.com/books/0131687476


–> JavaScript(tm) Phrasebook: Essential Code and Commands

      By Christian Wenz for Sams
Publishing
      240 pages for
$14.99
      http://books.internet.com/books/0672328801


–> Professional Unix Shell Programming

      By Larry A. Walker for BookSurge
Publishing
      320 pages for
$23.99
      http://books.internet.com/books/1419637711


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New
& Updated Articles on
CodeGuru
==========================================================


Following are short descriptions of new articles on CodeGuru. If you are
interested in submitting your own article for inclusion on the site, then you
will find guidelines located at http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,fka1,909i,jorm,i5r0


This week’s CodeGuru posts:


================
====  Articles  ====
================


==> Controls


– Managing Nested GridView Controls
    By
Paul Kimmel
There’s an easy way to manage the complex ASP.NET presentations
that involve nested grids and controls. Learn a reliable approach that leverages
the observer pattern.



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,lbwr,iqnt,jorm,i5r0


==> Database


– Designing a SQL Service Broker Control
Bus
    By Jeffrey Juday
SQL Server Management
Studio just doesn’t cut it for complicated configuration and monitoring
implementations. Learn how to implement your own SQL Service Broker (SSB)
control bus solution to serve the needs of complex SQL Server-based messaging
solutions.



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,dp3o,a8zn,jorm,i5r0


==> Error Handling


– Redirecting Configuration with a Custom
Provider

    By Stefan Schackow
Explores this
helpful technique presented by Wrox author Stefan Schackow for working in
ASP.NET in multiple environments from testing, to staging, to live, to backup
servers.



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,3tt4,3809,jorm,i5r0


==> Graphics / Dialogs


– Animate a Modal Dialog
    By Marius
Bancila
Learn how to create a modal dialog with animations when shown or
hidden.



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,boeb,e6ar,jorm,i5r0


==> Java


– In Search of a Perfect Singleton
By The Saint
Learn
how one person tried to come up with the perfect singleton. The article explores
real-time experience and explains in the common developer’s perspective.



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,goe7,57hv,jorm,i5r0


==> Office Development


– Report Solution Patterns and Recipes: Creating a Business
Scorecard
    By Paul Turley
WROX author Paul
Turley shows us how to create a Business Scorecard that mimics the Microsoft
Office Business Scorecard Manager.



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,7s2m,2h10,jorm,i5r0


– Spreadsheets in ASP.NET
    By Uday
Kiran Maloth
Finally, a spreadsheet can look good.



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,3grk,ed8h,jorm,i5r0


==> Security


– .NET Tip: Creating a Password-Checking
Function
    By Eric Smith
Password security is an
easy way to tighten access to any application. Use this function to check a
password against a set of rules, as well as a set of previously used
passwords.



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,82fn,id05,jorm,i5r0


==> System


– Thunking in Win32
    By
einaros
Learn about an approach to creating thunks/trampolines to non-static
member functions in 32-bit VC++.



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,7qig,iniw,jorm,i5r0


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Discussion
Groups
==========================================================


Check out the CodeGuru discussion forums at:


http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,bcr8,cx5j,jorm,i5r0


Forums include Visual C++, General C++, Visual Basic, Java, General
Technology, C#, ASP.NET, XML, Help Wanted, and much, much, more!


… HOT THREADS …


Some of the current threads with the most activity are:


==> Tab control – Lparam
(VC++)
        http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,m2rs,kujf,jorm,i5r0


==> Visual Basic Net, what a mess.
(VB.NET)
        http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,ke7q,2r9f,jorm,i5r0


==> Database
Design
        http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,gsl8,ctw6,jorm,i5r0


==========================================================
New
Articles on
Developer.com
==========================================================


Below are some of the new articles that have been posted to Developer.com (http://www.developer.com).


1. An Introduction to Catastrophe
Disentanglement
    By E. M. Bennatan –
At what
point should we define a software project as a catastrophe? What are the
criteria for taking the drastic step of halting all activities, and how do we go
about reassessing the project? And, most importantly, how do we go about getting
the project moving again?



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,fptm,9rtg,jorm,i5r0


2. Propagating Weblogic 8.x Portals
    By
Scott Nelson –
The propagation tool is here to rescue you from late hours
and tedious tasks deploying your portal applications from staging to production
(not to mention from developemnt to integration and integration to staging).



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,ghfw,hz1c,jorm,i5r0


3. Understanding the 2D Discrete Cosine Transform in Java, Part
2
    By Richard G. Baldwin –
Learn how to
sub-divide an image before applying a forward and inverse 2D-Discrete Cosine
Transform similar to the way it is done in the JPEG image compression
algorithm.



http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2r91,1,afvv,fle2,jorm,i5r0


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