constructive nonconformist

Help for the Visual Studio 2010 Help

With Visual Studio 2010 the Visual Studio documentation viewer has been completely redesigned. And apparently it is unfinished. The final viewer won’t ship until later, maybe VS 2010 SP1.

The interim solution is fairly awful.

Help and documentation is viewable in a browser window. For local help a ‘Help Library Agent’ must be started first. The agent creates an HTTP service at 127.0.0.1:47873. Each time that the agent is started the host and port remain the same but the URL path contains an ID that is different. So local help can not be bookmarked. I can think of some interesting reasons for creating a local server for the local help but with what the local help currently provides I see no evidence that the local server is needed. It seems to serve no purpose, except that it breaks bookmarks.

For local help a full table of contents and index are missing. If you are accustomed to browsing the TOC or using the index, you will be frustrated.

You can get a full table of contents with the online help. With the online help click the Preferences link in the upper right corner and choose ‘Classic’. The Classic view provides a full table of contents.

For local help there are the following two tools:

• H3Viewer.exe is a third party “traditional help viewer” with full TOC and index.
• HelpViewerKeywordIndex VS 2010 Extension is an extnesion for Visual Studio that provides help integration within the IDE.

Hacking SLN Files to Improve Visual Studio/Visual Source Safe Integration

There are some who think Microsoft Visual Source Safe (VSS) is great. There are some who think that it’s not great but it is pretty good. And there are some who think Source Safe is just good enough. I am not among any of those groups.

One pain point with Source Safe in a Microsoft tool chain is integration with Visual Studio. Historically Visual Studio has stored source control information directly in the solution and project files. This reveals itself to be a really terrible idea the first time a project or solution file is shared in Source Safe. Checkouts from within the IDE will use the the source control bindings in the solution or project. If the solution or project file has been shared and not changed the bindings will be pointing to the original location in Source Safe. Checking out through Visual Studio will checkout the wrong file.

Yes, the solution and project files can be branched and the bindings updated. That’s sub-optimal. It means branching just to fix a tool problem and not because of any actual divergence in the code base. Any non-divergent changes to the solution or project must then be manually propagated to all the branched versions. Ugh.

The problem has not gone unnoticed at Microsoft. Over time and new releases of VStudio and VSS, improvements have been made.

My current position of employment is not using the latest and greatest. We’re on Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Source Safe 2005. The code base is in C#. I worked out a way to have shared solution and project files for non-web projects. Web projects in 2005 are different beasts and don’t follow the same rules. If you are using different versions of Visual Studio or Visual Source Safe your mileage will vary.

When getting files from VSS into a working directory, Visual Source Safe 2005 will create or update a mssccprj.scc file if any of the files present include a solution (.sln) or project file (for C#, .csproj). The mssccprj.scc file is a text file and it will contain the VSS bindings for the solution and project files that are in the same directory as the mssccprj.scc file.

In Visual Studio 2005, project files by default use the special ‘SAK’ string in the project file settings for VSS bindings. SAK indicates to Visual Studio that the bindings in the mssccprj.scc file should be used. The mssccprj.scc bindings are based on the directory retrieved from Source Safe. This means that shared project files just work. Yay.

In 2005 the problem is with solution files.

More specifically the problem is with solution files that include project files that are not in the same directory as the solution file. Creating a MyHelloWorld project will create a MyHelloWorld.sln and a MyHelloWorld.csproj in a MyHelloWorld directory. The .sln will reference the .csproj by name only and both files will have bindings in the mssccprj.scc file in the same directory and that all works without issue. But create a blank solution and add multiple existing projects to it and Visual Studio 2005 reverts to storing specific VSS bindings for the projects in the solution file.

There’s a work-around but it doesn’t work for parenting paths. Any time a solution references a project where the path to the project file starts with ‘..’, Visual Studio will revert to storing a VSS binding in the solution file. Because of this limitation it becomes convenient to have a convention that solution files generally go in the root of the code base tree.

The goal is to get the VSS bindings out of the solution file and have Visual Studio rely on the mssccprj.scc file. I haven’t found a reliable way to do this from within the IDE with existing projects but the solution (.sln) files are just text files, so I hack them.

Here’s a snippet from a .sln file. In Source Safe, the solution file is in “$/CodeBase v1”. There are two projects: a class library and a windows application. The SccProjectName<N> values are bindings to specific locations in the source safe repository. These are the bindings that need to be removed.

Global
	GlobalSection(SourceCodeControl) = preSolution
		SccNumberOfProjects = 3
		SccLocalPath0 = .
		SccProjectUniqueName1 = ClassLibrary1\\ClassLibrary1.csproj
		SccProjectName1 = \u0022$/CodeBase\u0020v1/ClassLibrary1\u0022,\u0020TAAAAAAA
		SccLocalPath1 = ClassLibrary1
		SccProjectUniqueName2 = WindowsApplication1\\WindowsApplication1.csproj
		SccProjectName2 = \u0022$/CodeBase\u0020v1/WindowsApplication1\u0022,\u0020WAAAAAAA
		SccLocalPath2 = WindowsApplication1
	EndGlobalSection

The .sln file can be edited to remove the SccProjectName<N> values but the SccLocalPath<N> must be updated to ‘.’ and a new property, SccProjectFilePathRelativizedFromConnection<N>, must be added with the old local path value and an appended directory separator.

Global
	GlobalSection(SourceCodeControl) = preSolution
		SccNumberOfProjects = 3
		SccLocalPath0 = .
		SccProjectUniqueName1 = ClassLibrary1\\ClassLibrary1.csproj
		SccLocalPath1 = .
		SccProjectFilePathRelativizedFromConnection1 = ClassLibrary1\\
		SccProjectUniqueName2 = WindowsApplication1\\WindowsApplication1.csproj
		SccLocalPath2 = .
		SccProjectFilePathRelativizedFromConnection2 = WindowsApplication1\\
	EndGlobalSection

Reference: Alin Constantin’s blog: The SAK source control strings in Visual Studio’s project files

Installing Git

This is a ‘note to self’ about Git and how to build and install on Mac OS X and how to install on Windows.

Building and Installing Git on Mac OS X (specifically 10.5 Leopard)

I haven’t been won over by Fink or MacPorts. There is the git-osx-installer project on Google Code which provides a DMG. But I’m comfortable with Makefiles and I have the Developer tools installed, so I build and install from the source.

Here are the steps I follow:

1. Get the ‘latest stable GIT release’ from http://git-scm.com/. As of this post the latest stable Git release was v1.6.1. Get the tar.bz2¹ file, for example: git-1.6.1.tar.bz2.
2. Unpack the tar file. I have a ~/Projects directory. In the Finder I typically move the tar file to ~/Projects and then double-click the tar. The Mac OS X 10.5 Archive Utility will handle the file. git-1.6.1.tar.bz2 will be unpacked into a directory named git-1.6.1.
   
   From the command line the tar command would be something like:
   tar xjf git-1.6.1.tar.bz2
3. I want to install Git to /usr/local. I also want to be able to easily mange new Git installs and Git has lots of parts so I create a subdirectory for Git in /usr/local.
   1. Create a directory in /usr/local for the Git release, for example:
      sudo mkdir /usr/local/git-1.6.1
   2. Create a subdirectory for the Git release man pages, for example:
      sudo mkdir /usr/local/git-1.6.1/man
   3. If this is the first install of Git on the machine, create a symbolic link to the release directory:
      sudo ln -s /usr/local/git-1.6.1 /usr/local/git
      
      Going forward, /usr/local/git should always link to the release you currently want to use.
   4. Add /usr/local/git/bin to your PATH.
   5. Add /usr/local/git/man to your MANPATH.
   
   
4. Change directory into the unpacked source code, for example:
   cd ~/Project/git-1.6.1
5. Configure the build. Set the prefix to the directory the release should be installed into. For example:
   make configure
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/git-1.6.1
6. Build Git.
   make
7. Install Git.
   sudo make install
8. Don’t bother building the man pages. Get the matching man pages tar from http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/.
   

   For example: git-manpages-1.6.1.tar.bz2.
   

   From the command line, unpack the tar into the install location, for example:
   sudo tar xjf git-manpages-1.6.1.tar.bz2 -C /usr/local/git-1.6.1/man

9. If needed, update the /usr/local/git symbolic link.

Resources for Git on Mac OS X:

Hivelogic - Installing Git on Snow Leopard
Compiling and installing git on Mac OS X - Guides - GitHub
Compiling Git for Mac OS X Leopard (10.5)
A Funkaoshi Production :: Building Git on Mac OS X

Windows

I don’t build from scratch on Windows. I’m currently trying out the msysgit package from Google Code.

¹The bzip2 compression is more efficient than the older gzip compression.

Open a Command Shell from the Windows Explorer

It’s hugely convenient to be able to pop open a command shell (aka “Command Prompt”) in a given directory from the Windows Explorer. The Registry can be manually edited to add context menu commands and there is a Microsoft Knowledge Base article that describes one such approach but the PowerToys collection includes an “Open Command Window Here” item that’s a little more complete. The PowerToy adds shell commands for directories and drives.

Link: How to start a command prompt in a folder in Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.

Link: Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP.

Apparently Vista includes an “Open Command Window Here” command but only on a Shift-Right-Click in the Explorer’s right hand pane.

Incidentally I always need to change the factory defaults for the Command Prompt. I have no great sentiment for monochrome displays and can’t see any sense to using white characters on a black background. I also change the font from ‘Raster’ to ‘Lucida Console’, enable ‘Quick Edit Mode’, increase the command history, increase the height of the screen buffer, and increase the height of the window.

Internet Explorer Update Doesn't Update JavaScript

Installing Internet Explorer 6.0 apparently doesn't update the scripting engines. The JScript (JavaScript) and VBScript scripting engines are separate components from the Microsoft browser but unlike some other components that IE depends on, the scripting engines don't appear to be updated by the IE installer.

A while back, after a new release, some users started receiving script errors from a certain web application. The users who were having issues all had Internet Explorer 6.0 running on Windows 2000. Windows 2000 shipped with IE 5.01 and version 5.1 of the scripting engines. A service pack probably updated these installations to IE 6.0. It would seem reasonable to expect that the scripting engines would have been updated to v5.6 but they were not. The scripting engines remained at v5.1.

A few notable features added after JScript v5.1 include:

• Function object's apply() and call() methods.


• Array object's push() and pop(), and shift() and unshift() methods.


• undefined property.

Specifically the errors the users were seeing were caused by the use of push() and undefined.

To resolve the issues code like

vec.push(foo);

was rewritten as

vec[vec.length] = foo;

and code like

if (foo != undefined)

was rewritten as

if (typeof(foo) != 'undefined').

An installer for the v5.6 scripting engines can be downloaded from Microsoft's web site.

Link: Microsoft Windows Scripting Downloads.

Quickly Generating a Microsoft Connection String

From the backup brain department:

When I need a connection string or a DSN, a UDL file is a handy way to quickly and accurately generate it. But I can never remember the UDL file extension when I need it.

Link: Creating and Configuring Universal Data Link (.udl) Files.

ASP.NET QueryString Parse Gotcha

There are times when it’s useful to throw a token parameter on a URL and have the receiving page test for the existence of the parameter. For example:

/website/page.aspx?foo

What’s significant is whether the token exists or not. It doesn’t need to have a value.

When I tried to use this trick in an ASP.NET 2.0 based application I found an issue. I expected to be able to test something like:

if (Request.QueryString["foo"] != null)


Parameters have the form <name>=<value> and I expected “foo” to be taken as a name with no value. But “foo” wasn’t a key in the QueryString collection. “foo” was interpreted as a value and the key was null.

That’s not very useful.

And I don’t recall any other web development environment behaving that way. I quickly tested against JSP and ‘classic’ ASP. Sure enough. In JSP/ASP “foo” is interpreted as a name with a null or empty value.

So how to test for “foo” in ASP.NET? I didn’t want to iterate the whole QueryString collection. That would be wasteful. I didn’t want to depend on an index position. Depending on fixed positions is brittle and counter to the whole point of using name/value pairs.

My solution? I changed my URL to

/website/page.aspx?foo=

Trouble POSTing to an ASP page?

POSTing to an ASP? ASP’s Request.Form requires application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

If you’re writing a web client of some sort that is trying to push data at an ASP based page via a POST request, you need to set up your HTTP headers correctly. To get ASP to parse the request body into the Request.Form collection the content-type must be “application/x-www-form-urlencoded” and the content-length must be set.

“application/x-www-form-urlencoded” is the default value for the HTML <form> element’s enctype attribute.

Dual Boot? I Don't Need No Stinking Dual Boot.

Prior to WWDC 2005 I was incredulous. Apple switching the Mac to Intel chips? That couldn’t be true. I got over the shock quickly.

Now that Intel based Macs are available there’s a prize for the first person to find a way to dual boot Mac OS X and Windows XP. Yawn.

Link: Contest: Dual-booting WinXP and Mac OS X on Intel Mac - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).

Maybe there’s a market for Windows compatible machines built by Apple but not in my household. In 1999 I bought a dual processor Dell workstation and I expected that I had probably purchased my last Mac. Today I still have and use that Dell workstation but I suspect it is probably the last Windows machine I will ever buy.

Given a choice between Windows XP and Mac OS X, I prefer Mac OS X. I have met people who are dismissive of Mac users. I have also met people who seem to get incensed by the idea that there’s something that might be preferred over Windows. I don’t proselytize for Macintosh and I don’t abide extreme OS fanaticism. Mac OS X works better for me. Your mileage may vary.

I do have a need to run Windows. I need to be able to test under Windows and I need a machine where I can do native .Net development.

Right now .Net doesn’t pay the bills. There’s a good chance there will be a .Net project in my future but until then I can’t justify replacing my existing Windows machine.

It would be a better value if I could do everything on one machine. So why don’t I care about dual booting? Because dual booting is disruptive and inefficient. I want to extend the set of tools available to me, not create two separate sets of tools. Dual booting is like a modal user interface.

Microsoft is being coy about whether there will be a Mac OS X Intel version of Virtual PC but that’s the type of solution I’m looking for: a virtualized OS in a sandbox.

Maybe VMware will come through.

Link: Stefan Tilkov’s Random Stuff: Mail from VMware.

Getting Strings from ASP Collections with Server-Side JavaScript

Ever see or write JScript code in an ASP page like the following?
var str = Request.QueryString("param") + "";

Appending an empty string looks silly, doesn’t it?

What’s going on here is that the programmer needs the str variable to be a JavaScript String object. Appending an empty string forces a type coercion.

I like using JScript on the server but integration with COM objects is clearly rougher in JScript than in VBScript. One of the contributing factors to the disparity in supporting COM is that VBScript essentially uses COM’s type system while JScript has its own type system in addition to supporting COM types.

The ASP intrinsic objects (Server, Application, Session, Request, and Response) are all COM objects. Request.QueryString("param") returns a COM VARIANT containing a string. In VBScript the only way to represent a string is as a COM VARIANT string. In JScript, however, a COM VARIANT string is treated as a generic Object object not a String object. You need a String object though, if you want to call methods like split() or indexOf().

There are better ways to get a String than appending an empty string literal. You could, for example, use a cast:
var str = String(Request.QueryString("param"));

or use the item property:
var str = Request.QueryString("param").Item;

Request.QueryString is one of several collections provided by the ASP intrinsic objects. Weirdly the collections do not all behave the same way. Here’s a cheat sheet for the major collections:

Collection	To get a JavaScript String object	Return value if key doesn’t exist
Application.Contents	Application.Contents(key)	undefined
Session.Contents	Session.Contents(key)	undefined
Request.Cookies	Request.Cookies(key).Item	empty string
Request.Form	Request.Form(key).Item	undefined
Request.QueryString	Request.QueryString(key).Item	undefined
Request.ServerVariables	Request.ServerVariables(key).Item	undefined