green muffins - Page 93

Axis value changes in barchart while swapping the phone using Achartengine

- by Vasu

Hi I have included the Barchart using AchartEngine API .When I swap the orientation of the screen the yaxis value is altered as same values. For eg. initially it is (0,10) , (10,25) but after swapping its changes to (0,10), (10,10) i could not understand why it is happening . And I have place string in x axis instead of numbers , I used addtextlabel method but the string is overlapped on the number . I need to display only the names. could you help on this. I have included my code here. public class Analytics extends Activity implements OnClickListener { private Button settings_btn; private RelativeLayout relativeLayout3; private boolean isClicked = false; private static final int SERIES_NR = 1; static int multiple_of_five; private GraphicalView mChartView; XYMultipleSeriesRenderer renderer; static int value=20; @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.analytics); settings_btn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.settings_btn); relativeLayout3 = (RelativeLayout) findViewById(R.id.relativeLayout3); settings_btn.setOnClickListener(this); if (SharedValues.isClicked) { relativeLayout3.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); } else { relativeLayout3.setVisibility(View.GONE); } renderer = getBarDemoRenderer(); setChartSettings(renderer); if (mChartView == null) { RelativeLayout layout = (RelativeLayout) findViewById(R.id.relativeLayout5); // mChartView= ChartFactory.getLineChartView(this, getDemoDataset(), getDemoRenderer()); mChartView = ChartFactory.getBarChartView(getApplicationContext(),getBarDemoDataset(),renderer,Type.DEFAULT); layout.addView(mChartView,new LayoutParams(LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, 280)); } else { mChartView.repaint(); } // Intent intent = ChartFactory.getLineChartIntent(this, getDemoDataset(), getDemoRenderer()); // intent = ChartFactory.getBarChartIntent(this, getBarDemoDataset(), renderer, Type.DEFAULT); // startActivity(intent); } @Override protected void onResume() { super.onResume(); } public XYMultipleSeriesRenderer getBarDemoRenderer() { XYMultipleSeriesRenderer renderer = new XYMultipleSeriesRenderer(); renderer.setAxisTitleTextSize(16); renderer.setChartTitleTextSize(20); renderer.setLabelsTextSize(15); renderer.setLegendTextSize(15); // renderer.setApplyBackgroundColor(true); // renderer.setBackgroundColor(R.color.chart_bg); // renderer.setMarginsColor(R.color.settings_bg_color); // renderer.setBackgroundColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.background)); renderer.setPanEnabled(false, false); renderer.setZoomEnabled(false, false); renderer.setMargins(new int[] {0, 10, 0, 0}); SimpleSeriesRenderer r = new SimpleSeriesRenderer(); // r.setColor(Color.MAGENTA); // renderer.addSeriesRenderer(r); r = new SimpleSeriesRenderer(); r.setColor(Color.CYAN); renderer.addSeriesRenderer(r); return renderer; } private void setChartSettings(XYMultipleSeriesRenderer renderer) { // renderer.setChartTitle("Chart demo"); // renderer.setXTitle("x values"); // renderer.setYTitle("y values"); renderer.setXAxisMin(2); renderer.setMarginsColor(Color.parseColor("#00F5DA81")); renderer.addXTextLabel(1.0, "Q1"); renderer.addXTextLabel(3.0, "Q2"); renderer.addXTextLabel(5.0, "Q3"); renderer.addXTextLabel(7.0, "Q4"); renderer.addXTextLabel(9.0, "Q5"); renderer.setXAxisMax(20); renderer.setYAxisMin(0); renderer.setYAxisMax(100); renderer.setZoomEnabled(false, false); // renderer.setApplyBackgroundColor(true); // renderer.setMarginsColor(R.color.settings_bg_color); renderer.setBackgroundColor(Color.TRANSPARENT); // renderer.setBackgroundColor(R.color.chart_bg); } private XYMultipleSeriesDataset getDemoDataset() { XYMultipleSeriesDataset dataset = new XYMultipleSeriesDataset(); final int nr = 10; Random r = new Random(); for (int i = 0; i < SERIES_NR; i++) { XYSeries series = new XYSeries(""); for (int k = 0; k < nr; k++) { if(k%2==1) { series.add(0, 0); } else { series.add(k, 20); } } dataset.addSeries(series); } return dataset; } private XYMultipleSeriesRenderer getDemoRenderer() { XYMultipleSeriesRenderer renderer = new XYMultipleSeriesRenderer(); renderer.setAxisTitleTextSize(6); renderer.setChartTitleTextSize(10); renderer.setLabelsTextSize(5); renderer.setLegendTextSize(5); renderer.setPointSize(5f); // renderer.setMarginsColor(R.color.settings_bg_color); // renderer.setApplyBackgroundColor(true); // renderer.setBackgroundColor(R.color.chart_bg); renderer.setMargins(new int[] {20, 30, 15, 0}); XYSeriesRenderer r = new XYSeriesRenderer(); r.setColor(Color.BLUE); r.setPointStyle(PointStyle.SQUARE); r.setFillBelowLine(true); r.setFillBelowLineColor(Color.WHITE); r.setFillPoints(true); renderer.addSeriesRenderer(r); r = new XYSeriesRenderer(); r.setPointStyle(PointStyle.CIRCLE); r.setColor(Color.GREEN); r.setFillPoints(true); renderer.addSeriesRenderer(r); renderer.setAxesColor(Color.DKGRAY); renderer.setLabelsColor(Color.LTGRAY); return renderer; } private XYMultipleSeriesDataset getBarDemoDataset() { XYMultipleSeriesDataset dataset = new XYMultipleSeriesDataset(); final int nr = 10; Random r = new Random(); for (int i = 0; i < SERIES_NR; i++) { CategorySeries series = new CategorySeries("Quadrant"); for (int k = 0; k < nr; k++) { value=value+5; // multiple_of_five=k+5; // Log.i("multiple_of_five", ""+multiple_of_five); // series.add(20 +multiple_of_five ); if(k%2==1){ series.add(value ); } else { series.add(0); } } dataset.addSeries(series.toXYSeries()); } return dataset; } @Override public void onClick(View v) { if (v == settings_btn) { if (SharedValues.isClicked) { relativeLayout3.setVisibility(View.GONE); SharedValues.isClicked = false; } else { relativeLayout3.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); SharedValues.isClicked = true; } } } }

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IOException: Unable To Delete Images Due To File Lock

- by Arslan Pervaiz

I am Unable To Delete Image File From My Server Path It Gaves Error That The Process Cannot Access The File "FileName" Because it is being Used By Another Process. I Tried Many Methods But Still All In Vain. Please Help me Out in This Issue. Here is My Code Snippet. using System; using System.Data; using System.Web; using System.Data.SqlClient; using System.Web.UI; using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls; using System.Globalization; using System.Web.Security; using System.Text; using System.DirectoryServices; using System.Collections; using System.IO; using System.Drawing; using System.Drawing.Imaging; using System.Drawing.Drawing2D; //============ Main Block ================= byte[] data = (byte[])ds.Tables[0].Rows[0][0]; MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(data); Image returnImage = Image.FromStream(ms); returnImage.Save(Server.MapPath(".\\TmpImages\\SavedImage.jpg"), System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg); returnImage.Dispose(); \\ I Tried this Dispose Method To Unlock The File But Nothing Done. ms.Close(); \\ I Tried The Memory Stream Close Method Also But Its Also Not Worked For Me. watermark(); \\ Here is My Water Mark Method That Print Water Mark Image on My Saved Image (Image That is Converted From Byte Array) DeleteImages(); \\ Here is My Delete Method That I Call To Delete The Images //===== ==== My Delete Method To Delete Files================== public void DeleteImages() { try { File.Delete(Server.MapPath(".\\TmpImages\\WaterMark.jpg")); \\This Image Deleted Fine. File.Delete(Server.MapPath(".\\TmpImages\\SavedImage.jpg")); \\ Exception Thrown On Deleting of This Image. } catch (Exception ex) { LogManager.LogException(ex, "Error in Deleting Images."); Master.ShowMessage(ex.Message, true); } } \ ==== Method Declartion That Make Watermark of One Image On Another Image.======= public void watermark() { //create a image object containing the photograph to watermark Image imgPhoto = Image.FromFile(Server.MapPath(".\\TmpImages\\SavedImage.jpg")); int phWidth = imgPhoto.Width; int phHeight = imgPhoto.Height; //create a Bitmap the Size of the original photograph Bitmap bmPhoto = new Bitmap(phWidth, phHeight, PixelFormat.Format24bppRgb); bmPhoto.SetResolution(imgPhoto.HorizontalResolution, imgPhoto.VerticalResolution); //load the Bitmap into a Graphics object Graphics grPhoto = Graphics.FromImage(bmPhoto); //create a image object containing the watermark Image imgWatermark = new Bitmap(Server.MapPath(".\\TmpImages\\PrintasWatermark.jpg")); int wmWidth = imgWatermark.Width; int wmHeight = imgWatermark.Height; //Set the rendering quality for this Graphics object grPhoto.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.AntiAlias; //Draws the photo Image object at original size to the graphics object. grPhoto.DrawImage( imgPhoto, // Photo Image object new Rectangle(0, 0, phWidth, phHeight), // Rectangle structure 0, // x-coordinate of the portion of the source image to draw. 0, // y-coordinate of the portion of the source image to draw. phWidth, // Width of the portion of the source image to draw. phHeight, // Height of the portion of the source image to draw. GraphicsUnit.Pixel); // Units of measure //------------------------------------------------------- //to maximize the size of the Copyright message we will //test multiple Font sizes to determine the largest posible //font we can use for the width of the Photograph //define an array of point sizes you would like to consider as possiblities //------------------------------------------------------- //Define the text layout by setting the text alignment to centered StringFormat StrFormat = new StringFormat(); StrFormat.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center; //define a Brush which is semi trasparent black (Alpha set to 153) SolidBrush semiTransBrush2 = new SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(153, 0, 0, 0)); //define a Brush which is semi trasparent white (Alpha set to 153) SolidBrush semiTransBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(153, 255, 255, 255)); //------------------------------------------------------------ //Step #2 - Insert Watermark image //------------------------------------------------------------ //Create a Bitmap based on the previously modified photograph Bitmap Bitmap bmWatermark = new Bitmap(bmPhoto); bmWatermark.SetResolution(imgPhoto.HorizontalResolution, imgPhoto.VerticalResolution); //Load this Bitmap into a new Graphic Object Graphics grWatermark = Graphics.FromImage(bmWatermark); //To achieve a transulcent watermark we will apply (2) color //manipulations by defineing a ImageAttributes object and //seting (2) of its properties. ImageAttributes imageAttributes = new ImageAttributes(); //The first step in manipulating the watermark image is to replace //the background color with one that is trasparent (Alpha=0, R=0, G=0, B=0) //to do this we will use a Colormap and use this to define a RemapTable ColorMap colorMap = new ColorMap(); //My watermark was defined with a background of 100% Green this will //be the color we search for and replace with transparency colorMap.OldColor = Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 255, 0); colorMap.NewColor = Color.FromArgb(0, 0, 0, 0); ColorMap[] remapTable = { colorMap }; imageAttributes.SetRemapTable(remapTable, ColorAdjustType.Bitmap); //The second color manipulation is used to change the opacity of the //watermark. This is done by applying a 5x5 matrix that contains the //coordinates for the RGBA space. By setting the 3rd row and 3rd column //to 0.3f we achive a level of opacity float[][] colorMatrixElements = { new float[] {1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f}, new float[] {0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f}, new float[] {0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f}, new float[] {0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.3f, 0.0f}, new float[] {0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f}}; ColorMatrix wmColorMatrix = new ColorMatrix(colorMatrixElements); imageAttributes.SetColorMatrix(wmColorMatrix, ColorMatrixFlag.Default, ColorAdjustType.Bitmap); //For this example we will place the watermark in the upper right //hand corner of the photograph. offset down 10 pixels and to the //left 10 pixles int xPosOfWm = ((phWidth - wmWidth) - 10); int yPosOfWm = 10; grWatermark.DrawImage(imgWatermark, new Rectangle(xPosOfWm, yPosOfWm, wmWidth, wmHeight), //Set the detination Position 0, // x-coordinate of the portion of the source image to draw. 0, // y-coordinate of the portion of the source image to draw. wmWidth, // Watermark Width wmHeight, // Watermark Height GraphicsUnit.Pixel, // Unit of measurment imageAttributes); //ImageAttributes Object //Replace the original photgraphs bitmap with the new Bitmap imgPhoto = bmWatermark; grPhoto.Dispose(); grWatermark.Dispose(); //save new image to file system. imgPhoto.Save(Server.MapPath(".\\TmpImages\\WaterMark.jpg"), ImageFormat.Jpeg); imgPhoto.Dispose(); imgWatermark.Dispose(); }

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java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException

- by thefonso

Here is the code. import java.applet.Applet; import java.awt.Button; import java.awt.Color; import java.awt.Graphics; import java.awt.event.ActionEvent; import java.awt.event.ActionListener; public class GuessingGame extends Applet{ /** * */ private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L; private final int START_X = 20; private final int START_Y = 40; private final int ROWS = 4; private final int COLS = 4; private final int BOX_WIDTH = 20; private final int BOX_HEIGHT = 20; //this is used to keep track of boxes that have been matched. private boolean matchedBoxes[][]; //this is used to keep track of two boxes that have been clicked. private MaskableBox chosenBoxes[]; private MaskableBox boxes[][]; private Color boxColors[][]; private Button resetButton; public void init() { boxes = new MaskableBox[ROWS][COLS]; boxColors = new Color[ROWS][COLS]; resetButton = new Button("Reset Colors"); resetButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() { public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { randomizeColors(); buildBoxes(); repaint(); } }); add(resetButton); //separate building colors so we can add a button later //to re-randomize them. randomizeColors(); buildBoxes(); } public void paint(Graphics g) { for (int row =0; row < boxes.length; row ++) { for (int col = 0; col < boxes[row].length; col++) { if(boxes[row][col].isClicked()) { //boxes[row][col].setMaskColor(Color.black); //boxes[row][col].setMask(!boxes[row][col].isMask()); //boxes[row][col].setClicked(false); //} if (!matchedBoxes[row][col]) { gameLogic(boxes[row][col]); //boxes[row][col].draw(g); } } } } //loop through the boxes and draw them. for (int row = 0; row < boxes.length; row++) { for (int col = 0; col < boxes[row].length; col++) { boxes[row][col].draw(g); } } } public void gameLogic(MaskableBox box) { if ((chosenBoxes[0] != null)&&(chosenBoxes[1] != null)) { if(chosenBoxes[0].getBackColor() == chosenBoxes[1].getBackColor()) { for (int i=0; 0 <= chosenBoxes.length; ++i ) { for(int row = 0; row < boxes.length; row++) { for(int col = 0; col < boxes[row].length; col++) { if( boxes[row][col] == chosenBoxes[i] ) { System.out.println("boxes [row][col] == chosenBoxes[] at index: " + i ); matchedBoxes[row][col] = true; break; } } } } }else { chosenBoxes[0].setMask(true); chosenBoxes[1].setMask(true); } chosenBoxes = new MaskableBox[2]; }else { if (chosenBoxes[0] == null) { chosenBoxes[0] = box; chosenBoxes[0].setMask(false); return; }else{ if (chosenBoxes[1] == null) { chosenBoxes[1] = box; chosenBoxes[1].setMask(false); } } } } private void removeMouseListeners() { for(int row = 0; row < boxes.length; row ++) { for(int col = 0; col < boxes[row].length; col++) { removeMouseListener(boxes[row][col]); } } } private void buildBoxes() { // need to clear any chosen boxes when building new array. chosenBoxes = new MaskableBox[2]; // create a new matchedBoxes array matchedBoxes = new boolean [ROWS][COLS]; removeMouseListeners(); for(int row = 0; row < boxes.length; row++) { for(int col = 0; col < boxes[row].length; col++) { boxes[row][col] = new MaskableBox(START_X + col * BOX_WIDTH, START_Y + row * BOX_HEIGHT, BOX_WIDTH, BOX_HEIGHT, Color.gray, boxColors[row][col], true, true, this); addMouseListener(boxes[row][col]); } } } private void randomizeColors() { int[] chosenColors = {0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0}; Color[] availableColors = {Color.red, Color.blue, Color.green, Color.yellow, Color.cyan, Color.magenta, Color.pink, Color.orange }; for(int row = 0; row < boxes.length; row++) { for (int col = 0; col < boxes[row].length; col++) { for (;;) { int rnd = (int) (Math.random() * 8); if (chosenColors[rnd]< 2) { chosenColors[rnd]++; boxColors[row][col] = availableColors[rnd]; break; } } } } } } here is the second batch of code containing maskablebox import java.awt.Color; import java.awt.Container; import java.awt.Graphics; public class MaskableBox extends ClickableBox { private boolean mask; private Color maskColor; Container parent; public MaskableBox(int x, int y, int width, int height, Color borderColor, Color backColor, boolean drawBorder, boolean mask, Container parent ) { super(x, y, width, height, borderColor, backColor, drawBorder, parent); this.parent = parent; this.mask = mask; } public void draw(Graphics g) { if(mask=false) { super.draw(g); // setOldColor(g.getColor()); // g.setColor(maskColor); // g.fillRect(getX(),getY(),getWidth(), getHeight()); // if(isDrawBorder()) { // g.setColor(getBorderColor()); // g.drawRect(getX(),getY(),getWidth(),getHeight()); // } // g.setColor(getOldColor()); }else { if(mask=true) { //super.draw(g); setOldColor(g.getColor()); g.setColor(maskColor); g.fillRect(getX(),getY(),getWidth(), getHeight()); if(isDrawBorder()) { g.setColor(getBorderColor()); g.drawRect(getX(),getY(),getWidth(),getHeight()); } g.setColor(getOldColor()); } } } public boolean isMask() { return mask; } public void setMask(boolean mask) { this.mask = mask; } public Color getMaskColor() { return maskColor; } public void setMaskColor(Color maskColor) { this.maskColor = maskColor; } } I keep getting these error messages. I'm going nuts trying to figure this out. can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? boxes [row][col] == chosenBoxes[] at index: 0 boxes [row][col] == chosenBoxes[] at index: 1 Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-1" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 2 at GuessingGame.gameLogic(GuessingGame.java:77) at GuessingGame.paint(GuessingGame.java:55) at java.awt.Container.update(Container.java:1801) at sun.awt.RepaintArea.updateComponent(RepaintArea.java:239) at sun.awt.RepaintArea.paint(RepaintArea.java:216) at sun.awt.windows.WComponentPeer.handleEvent(WComponentPeer.java:306) at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4706) at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2099) at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4460) at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:599) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:269) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:184) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:174) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:169) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:161) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)

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Bizarre Son of Suckerfish ie6/ie7 problem - 2 letters from right-most dropdown menu also appearing o

- by Kevin Burke

I'm interning for an NGO in India and trying to fix their website, including updating their menu so it's not the last item on the page to load, and it's centered on the screen. Everything works well enough but when I try out my new menu in IE6, I get this weird error where the content below the menu is padded an extra 30px or so and the material in the right-most drop down appears on the far left of the screen, always visible. When I drop down the rightmost link ("Publications") the content appears both in the correct location and in the same spot on the far left of the screen, and changes color when I hover as well. It's tough to describe, so it would probably be best if you took a look: visit http://sevamandir.org/a30/aboutus.htm in your IE6/IE7 browser to see for yourself. I really appreciate your help. Also I'm using a 1000px wide monitor, if there's more hijinks going on outside that space I'd like to know about that too. I took a look at the problem again and it's even weirder than I thought. Only two letters of the bottom-most drop down menu item are shown, no matter how many items are in the left-most drop down menu. When I delete the left-most drop down menu, the bottom item from the next left-most item shows up in the same space. The padding between the menu and the content is always the same. When I hover over the real menu item, the two letters on the left hand side change color to match the hover color. Unfortunately many people that visit our website are using old browsers so IE6 support is pretty crucial, this problem is really weird though, and I would appreciate some help. I uploaded a file with the entire style.css sheet in the and HTML code below, at http://sevamandir.org/a30/aboutus.htm. Here's the relevant code: in the html head: <script> sfHover = function() { var sfEls = document.getElementById("nav").getElementsByTagName("LI"); for (var i=0; i<sfEls.length; i++) { sfEls[i].onmouseover=function() { this.className+=" sfhover"; } sfEls[i].onmouseout=function() { this.className=this.className.replace(new RegExp(" sfhover\\b"), ""); } } } if (window.attachEvent) window.attachEvent("onload", sfHover); </script> text surrounding the menu - the menu is simply <ul id="nav"><li></li></ul> etc.  <div style="float:left; height:27px; width:520px; margin:0px; font:16px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight:bold; color:#769841;"> Transforming lives through democratic & participatory development </div> <?php include("menu.php"); ?> </div>  <div id="maincontent"> Relevant menu CSS: #nav, #nav ul { font:bold 11px Verdana, sans-serif; float: left; width: 980px; list-style: none; line-height: 1; background: white; font-weight: bold; padding: 0; border: solid #769841; border-width: 0; margin: 0 0 1em 0; } #nav a { display: block; width: 140px; /*this is the total width of the upper menu*/ w\idth: 120px; /*this is the width less horizontal padding */ padding: 5px 10px 5px 10px; /*horiz padding is the 2nd & 4th items here - goes Top Right Bottom Left */ color: #ffffff; background:#b6791e; text-decoration: none; } #nav a.daddy { background: url(rightarrow2.gif) center right no-repeat; } #nav li { float: left; padding: 0; width: 140px; /*this needs to be updated to match top #nav a */ background:#b6791e; } #nav li:hover, #nav li a:hover, #nav li:hover a { background:#769841; } #nav li:hover li a { background:#ffffff; color:#769841; } #nav li ul { position: absolute; left: -999em; height: auto; width: 14.4em; w\idth: 13.9em; font-weight: bold; border-width: 0.25em; /*green border around dropdown menu*/ margin: 0; } #nav li ul a { background:#ffffff; color:#769841; } #nav li li { padding-right: 1em; width: 13em; background:#ffffff; } #nav li ul a { width: 13em; w\idth: 9em; } #nav li ul ul { margin: -1.75em 0 0 14em; } #nav li:hover ul ul, #nav li:hover ul ul ul, #nav li.sfhover ul ul, #nav li.sfhover ul ul ul { left: -999em; } #nav li:hover ul, #nav li li:hover ul, #nav li li li:hover ul, #nav li.sfhover ul, #nav li li.sfhover ul, #nav li li li.sfhover ul { left: auto; } #nav li:hover, #nav li.sfhover, { background: #769841; color:#ffe400; } #nav li a:hover, #nav li li a:hover, #nav li:hover li:hover, #nav li.sfhover a:hover { background: #769841; color:#ffe400; }

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Create an axpanding image with CSS and div or span

- by user1594895

I have a complex image cutted up in alot of slice. You can see http://jsfiddle.net/yefQR/  <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <title>Page Title</title> <style type="text/css"> body{ margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; overflow: hidden; height: 100%; max-height: 100%; } #framecontentTop, #framecontentBottom{ position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 130px; /*Height of top frame div*/ overflow: hidden; /*Disable scrollbars. Set to "scroll" to enable*/ background-color: navy; color: white; } #framecontentBottom{ top: auto; bottom: 0; height: 110px; /*Height of bottom frame div*/ overflow: hidden; /*Disable scrollbars. Set to "scroll" to enable*/ background-color: navy; color: white; } #maincontent{ position: fixed; top: 130px; /*Set top value to HeightOfTopFrameDiv*/ left: 0; right: 0; bottom: 110px; /*Set bottom value to HeightOfBottomFrameDiv*/ overflow: auto; background: #fff; } .innertube{ margin: 15px; /*Margins for inner DIV inside each DIV (to provide padding)*/ } * html body{ /*IE6 hack*/ padding: 130px 0 110px 0; /*Set value to (HeightOfTopFrameDiv 0 HeightOfBottomFrameDiv 0)*/ } * html #maincontent{ /*IE6 hack*/ height: 100%; width: 100%; } </style> </head> <body> <div id="framecontentTop"> <div class="innertube"> <div id="screenshot%20tsam%20900r2c2" style=" background-color: green;position:absolute; left:4px; top:6px; width:20px; height:68px; z-index:1; visibility:visible; "> </div> <div id="screenshot%20tsam%20900r2c3" style="background-color: yellow; position:absolute; left:24px; top:6px;width:47px; height:68px;z-index:2; visibility:visible;"></div> <div id="screenshot%20tsam%20900r2c4" style="background-color: red; position:absolute; left:71px; top:6px;width:165px; height:68px;z-index:3; visibility:visible;"></div> <div id="screenshot%20tsam%20900r2c5" style="background-color: black; position:absolute; left:236px; top:6px;width:62px; height:68px;z-index:4; visibility:visible;"></div> <div id="screenshot%20tsam%20900r2c6" style="background-color: pink; position:absolute; left:298px; top:6px;width:147px; height:68px;z-index:5; visibility:visible;"></div> <div id="screenshot%20tsam%20900r2c7" style="background-color: orange; position:absolute; left:445px; top:6px;width:311px; height:37px;z-index:6; visibility:visible;"></div> <div id="screenshot%20tsam%20900r2c9" style="background-color: cyan; position:absolute; left:756px; top:6px;width:108px; height:37px;z-index:7; visibility:visible;"></div> <div id="screenshot%20tsam%20900r2c11" style="background-color: white; position:absolute; left:864px; top:6px;width:27px; height:37px;z-index:8; visibility:visible;"></div> <div id="screenshot%20tsam%20900r3c7" style="background-color: DodgerBlue; position:absolute; left:445px; top:43px;width:8px; height:31px;z-index:9; visibility:visible;"></div> <div id="screenshot%20tsam%20900r3c8" style="background-color: Gold; position:absolute; left:453px; top:43px;width:355px; height:31px;z-index:10; visibility:visible;"></div> <div id="screenshot%20tsam%20900r3c10" style="background-color: LightCyan ; position:absolute; left:808px; top:43px;width:83px; height:31px;z-index:11; visibility:visible;"></div> </div> </div> <div id="framecontentBottom"> <div class="innertube"> <h3>Sample text here</h3> </div> </div> <div id="maincontent"> <div class="innertube"> <h1>Lorem</h1> <p> Lorem ipsum </p> <p style="text-align: center">Vestibulum </p> </div> </div> </body> </html> Id like to make : 1) the header image autoexpanding using the repeated-y css property of DodgerBlue color and Orange div because thy are the only 2 part of image axpandible. 2) Is it possible to define a minimum size of header, and is possible to make the entire body minimum size based that size so the browser cant get smaller an if the window get smaller, scrollbar is show.

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Java MVC project - either I can't update the drawing, or I can't see it

- by user1881164

I've got a project based around the Model-View-Controller paradigm, and I've been having a lot of trouble with getting it to work properly. The program has 4 panels, which are supposed to allow me to modify an oval drawn on the screen in various ways. These seem to work fine, and after considerable trouble I was able to get them to display in the JFrame which holds the whole shebang. I've managed to get them to display by breaking away from the provided instructions, but when I do that, I can't seem to get the oval to update. However, if I follow the directions to the letter, I only ever see an empty frame. The project had pretty specific directions, which I followed up to a point, but some of the documentation was unclear. I think what I'm missing must be something simple, since nothing is jumping out at me as not making sense. I have to admit though that my Java experience is limited and my experience with GUI design/paradigms is even more so. Anyway, I've been searching the web and this site extensively trying to figure out what's wrong, but this is a somewhat specific example and honestly I just don't know enough about this to generalize any of the answers I've found online and figure out what's missing. I've been poring over this code for far too long now so I'm really hoping someone can help me out. public class Model { private Controller controller; private View view; private MvcFrame mvcFrame; private int radius = 44; private Color color = Color.BLUE; private boolean solid = true; //bunch of mutators and accessors for the above variables public Model() { controller = new Controller(this); view = new View(this); mvcFrame = new MvcFrame(this); } } Here's the model class. This seems to be fairly simple. I think my understanding of what's going on here is solid, and nothing seems to be wrong. Included mostly for context. public class Controller extends JPanel{ private Model model; public Controller(Model model) { this.model = model; setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.GREEN)); setLayout(new GridLayout(4,1)); add(new RadiusPanel(model)); add(new ColorPanel(model)); add(new SolidPanel(model)); add(new TitlePanel(model)); } } This is the Controller class. As far as I can tell, the setBorder, setLayout, and series of adds do nothing here. I had them commented out, but this is the way that the instructions told me to do things, so either there's a mistake there or something about my setup is wrong. However, when I did it this way, I would get an empty window (JFrame) but none of the panels would show up in it. What I did to fix this is put those add functions in the mvcFrame class: public class MvcFrame extends JFrame { private Model model; public MvcFrame(Model model){ this.model = model; //setLayout(new GridLayout(4,1)); //add(new RadiusPanel(model)); //add(new ColorPanel(model)); //add(new SolidPanel(model)); //add(new TitlePanel(model)); //add(new View(model)); setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); setLocationRelativeTo(null); setSize(800,600); setVisible(true); } } So here's where things kind of started getting weird. The first block of commented out code is the same as what's in the Controller class. The reason I have it commented out is because that was just a lucky guess - it's not supposed to be like that according to the instructions. However, this did work for getting the panels to show up - but at that point I was still tearing my hair out trying to get the oval to display. The other commented line ( add(new View(model)); ) was a different attempt at making things work. In this case, I put those add functions in the View class (see commented out code below). This actually worked to display both the oval and the panels, but that method wouldn't allow me to update the oval. Also, though I just had the oval displaying, I can't seem to figure out what exactly made that happen, and I can't seem to make it come back. public class View extends JPanel{ private Model model; public View(Model model) { this.model = model; //setLayout(new GridLayout(4,1)); //add(new RadiusPanel(model)); //add(new ColorPanel(model)); //add(new SolidPanel(model)); //add(new TitlePanel(model)); repaint(); } @Override protected void paintComponent(Graphics g){ super.paintComponent(g); //center of view panel, in pixels: int xCenter = getWidth()/2; int yCenter = getHeight()/2; int radius = model.getRadius(); int xStart = xCenter - radius; int yStart = yCenter - radius; int xWidth = 2 * radius; int yHeight = 2 * radius; g.setColor(model.getColor()); g.clearRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight()); if (model.isSolid()){ g.fillOval(xStart, yStart, xWidth, yHeight); } else { g.drawOval(xStart, yStart, xWidth, yHeight); } } } Kinda same idea as before - the commented out code is stuff I added to try to get things working, but is not based on the provided directions. In the case where that stuff was uncommented, I had the add(new View(model)); line from the mvcFrame line uncommented as well. The various panel classes (SolidPanel, ColorPanel, etc) simply extend a class called ControlPanel which extends JPanel. These all seem to work as expected, not having much issue with them. There is also a driver which launches the GUI. This also seems to work as expected. The main problem I'm having is that I can't get the oval to show up, and the one time I could make it show up, none of the options for changing it seemed to work. I feel like I'm close but I'm just at a loss for other things to try out at this point. Anyone who can help will have my sincerest gratitude.

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Array comparion for multidimensinal array in php

- by Learner

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High Load mysql on Debian server stops every day. Why?

- by Oleg Abrazhaev

I have Debian server with 32 gb memory. And there is apache2, memcached and nginx on this server. Memory load always on maximum. Only 500m free. Most memory leak do MySql. Apache only 70 clients configured, other services small memory usage. When mysql use all memory it stops. And nothing works, need mysql reboot. Mysql configured use maximum 24 gb memory. I have hight weight InnoDB bases. (400000 rows, 30 gb). And on server multithread daemon, that makes many inserts in this tables, thats why InnoDB. There is my mysql config. [mysqld] # # * Basic Settings # default-time-zone = "+04:00" user = mysql pid-file = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock port = 3306 basedir = /usr datadir = /var/lib/mysql tmpdir = /tmp language = /usr/share/mysql/english skip-external-locking default-time-zone='Europe/Moscow' # # Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on # localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure. # # * Fine Tuning # #low_priority_updates = 1 concurrent_insert = ALWAYS wait_timeout = 600 interactive_timeout = 600 #normal key_buffer_size = 2024M #key_buffer_size = 1512M #70% hot cache key_cache_division_limit= 70 #16-32 max_allowed_packet = 32M #1-16M thread_stack = 8M #40-50 thread_cache_size = 50 #orderby groupby sort sort_buffer_size = 64M #same myisam_sort_buffer_size = 400M #temp table creates when group_by tmp_table_size = 3000M #tables in memory max_heap_table_size = 3000M #on disk open_files_limit = 10000 table_cache = 10000 join_buffer_size = 5M # This replaces the startup script and checks MyISAM tables if needed # the first time they are touched myisam-recover = BACKUP #myisam_use_mmap = 1 max_connections = 200 thread_concurrency = 8 # # * Query Cache Configuration # #more ignored query_cache_limit = 50M query_cache_size = 210M #on query cache query_cache_type = 1 # # * Logging and Replication # # Both location gets rotated by the cronjob. # Be aware that this log type is a performance killer. #log = /var/log/mysql/mysql.log # # Error logging goes to syslog. This is a Debian improvement :) # # Here you can see queries with especially long duration log_slow_queries = /var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log long_query_time = 1 log-queries-not-using-indexes # # The following can be used as easy to replay backup logs or for replication. # note: if you are setting up a replication slave, see README.Debian about # other settings you may need to change. #server-id = 1 #log_bin = /var/log/mysql/mysql-bin.log server-id = 1 log-bin = /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin #replicate-do-db = gate log-bin-index = /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.index log-error = /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.err relay-log = /var/lib/mysql/relay-bin relay-log-info-file = /var/lib/mysql/relay-bin.info relay-log-index = /var/lib/mysql/relay-bin.index binlog_do_db = 24avia expire_logs_days = 10 max_binlog_size = 100M read_buffer_size = 4024288 innodb_buffer_pool_size = 5000M innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 2 innodb_thread_concurrency = 8 table_definition_cache = 2000 group_concat_max_len = 16M #binlog_do_db = gate #binlog_ignore_db = include_database_name # # * BerkeleyDB # # Using BerkeleyDB is now discouraged as its support will cease in 5.1.12. #skip-bdb # # * InnoDB # # InnoDB is enabled by default with a 10MB datafile in /var/lib/mysql/. # Read the manual for more InnoDB related options. There are many! # You might want to disable InnoDB to shrink the mysqld process by circa 100MB. #skip-innodb # # * Security Features # # Read the manual, too, if you want chroot! # chroot = /var/lib/mysql/ # # For generating SSL certificates I recommend the OpenSSL GUI "tinyca". # # ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/cacert.pem # ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/server-cert.pem # ssl-key=/etc/mysql/server-key.pem [mysqldump] quick quote-names max_allowed_packet = 500M [mysql] #no-auto-rehash # faster start of mysql but no tab completition [isamchk] key_buffer = 32M key_buffer_size = 512M # # * NDB Cluster # # See /usr/share/doc/mysql-server-*/README.Debian for more information. # # The following configuration is read by the NDB Data Nodes (ndbd processes) # not from the NDB Management Nodes (ndb_mgmd processes). # # [MYSQL_CLUSTER] # ndb-connectstring=127.0.0.1 # # * IMPORTANT: Additional settings that can override those from this file! # The files must end with '.cnf', otherwise they'll be ignored. # !includedir /etc/mysql/conf.d/ Please, help me make it stable. Memory used /etc/mysql # free total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 32930800 32766424 164376 0 139208 23829196 -/+ buffers/cache: 8798020 24132780 Swap: 33553328 44660 33508668 Maybe my problem not in memory, but MySQL stops every day. As you can see, cache memory free 24 gb. Thank to Michael Hampton? for correction. Load overage on server 3.5. Maybe hdd or another problem? Maybe my config not optimal for 30gb InnoDB ? I'm already try mysqltuner and tunung-primer.sh , but they marked all green. Mysqltuner output mysqltuner >> MySQLTuner 1.0.1 - Major Hayden <[email protected]> >> Bug reports, feature requests, and downloads at http://mysqltuner.com/ >> Run with '--help' for additional options and output filtering -------- General Statistics -------------------------------------------------- [--] Skipped version check for MySQLTuner script [OK] Currently running supported MySQL version 5.5.24-9-log [OK] Operating on 64-bit architecture -------- Storage Engine Statistics ------------------------------------------- [--] Status: -Archive -BDB -Federated +InnoDB -ISAM -NDBCluster [--] Data in MyISAM tables: 112G (Tables: 1528) [--] Data in InnoDB tables: 39G (Tables: 340) [--] Data in PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA tables: 0B (Tables: 17) [!!] Total fragmented tables: 344 -------- Performance Metrics ------------------------------------------------- [--] Up for: 8h 18m 33s (14M q [478.333 qps], 259K conn, TX: 9B, RX: 5B) [--] Reads / Writes: 84% / 16% [--] Total buffers: 10.5G global + 81.1M per thread (200 max threads) [OK] Maximum possible memory usage: 26.3G (83% of installed RAM) [OK] Slow queries: 1% (259K/14M) [!!] Highest connection usage: 100% (201/200) [OK] Key buffer size / total MyISAM indexes: 1.5G/5.6G [OK] Key buffer hit rate: 100.0% (6B cached / 1M reads) [OK] Query cache efficiency: 74.3% (8M cached / 11M selects) [OK] Query cache prunes per day: 0 [OK] Sorts requiring temporary tables: 0% (0 temp sorts / 247K sorts) [!!] Joins performed without indexes: 106025 [!!] Temporary tables created on disk: 49% (351K on disk / 715K total) [OK] Thread cache hit rate: 99% (249 created / 259K connections) [!!] Table cache hit rate: 15% (2K open / 13K opened) [OK] Open file limit used: 15% (3K/20K) [OK] Table locks acquired immediately: 99% (4M immediate / 4M locks) [!!] InnoDB data size / buffer pool: 39.4G/5.9G -------- Recommendations ----------------------------------------------------- General recommendations: Run OPTIMIZE TABLE to defragment tables for better performance MySQL started within last 24 hours - recommendations may be inaccurate Reduce or eliminate persistent connections to reduce connection usage Adjust your join queries to always utilize indexes Temporary table size is already large - reduce result set size Reduce your SELECT DISTINCT queries without LIMIT clauses Increase table_cache gradually to avoid file descriptor limits Variables to adjust: max_connections (> 200) wait_timeout (< 600) interactive_timeout (< 600) join_buffer_size (> 5.0M, or always use indexes with joins) table_cache (> 10000) innodb_buffer_pool_size (>= 39G) Mysql primer output -- MYSQL PERFORMANCE TUNING PRIMER -- - By: Matthew Montgomery - MySQL Version 5.5.24-9-log x86_64 Uptime = 0 days 8 hrs 20 min 50 sec Avg. qps = 478 Total Questions = 14369568 Threads Connected = 16 Warning: Server has not been running for at least 48hrs. It may not be safe to use these recommendations To find out more information on how each of these runtime variables effects performance visit: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/server-system-variables.html Visit http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html for info about MySQL's Enterprise Monitoring and Advisory Service SLOW QUERIES The slow query log is enabled. Current long_query_time = 1.000000 sec. You have 260626 out of 14369701 that take longer than 1.000000 sec. to complete Your long_query_time seems to be fine BINARY UPDATE LOG The binary update log is enabled Binlog sync is not enabled, you could loose binlog records during a server crash WORKER THREADS Current thread_cache_size = 50 Current threads_cached = 45 Current threads_per_sec = 0 Historic threads_per_sec = 0 Your thread_cache_size is fine MAX CONNECTIONS Current max_connections = 200 Current threads_connected = 11 Historic max_used_connections = 201 The number of used connections is 100% of the configured maximum. You should raise max_connections INNODB STATUS Current InnoDB index space = 214 M Current InnoDB data space = 39.40 G Current InnoDB buffer pool free = 0 % Current innodb_buffer_pool_size = 5.85 G Depending on how much space your innodb indexes take up it may be safe to increase this value to up to 2 / 3 of total system memory MEMORY USAGE Max Memory Ever Allocated : 23.46 G Configured Max Per-thread Buffers : 15.84 G Configured Max Global Buffers : 7.54 G Configured Max Memory Limit : 23.39 G Physical Memory : 31.40 G Max memory limit seem to be within acceptable norms KEY BUFFER Current MyISAM index space = 5.61 G Current key_buffer_size = 1.47 G Key cache miss rate is 1 : 5578 Key buffer free ratio = 77 % Your key_buffer_size seems to be fine QUERY CACHE Query cache is enabled Current query_cache_size = 200 M Current query_cache_used = 101 M Current query_cache_limit = 50 M Current Query cache Memory fill ratio = 50.59 % Current query_cache_min_res_unit = 4 K MySQL won't cache query results that are larger than query_cache_limit in size SORT OPERATIONS Current sort_buffer_size = 64 M Current read_rnd_buffer_size = 256 K Sort buffer seems to be fine JOINS Current join_buffer_size = 5.00 M You have had 106606 queries where a join could not use an index properly You have had 8 joins without keys that check for key usage after each row join_buffer_size >= 4 M This is not advised You should enable "log-queries-not-using-indexes" Then look for non indexed joins in the slow query log. OPEN FILES LIMIT Current open_files_limit = 20210 files The open_files_limit should typically be set to at least 2x-3x that of table_cache if you have heavy MyISAM usage. Your open_files_limit value seems to be fine TABLE CACHE Current table_open_cache = 10000 tables Current table_definition_cache = 2000 tables You have a total of 1910 tables You have 2151 open tables. The table_cache value seems to be fine TEMP TABLES Current max_heap_table_size = 2.92 G Current tmp_table_size = 2.92 G Of 366426 temp tables, 49% were created on disk Perhaps you should increase your tmp_table_size and/or max_heap_table_size to reduce the number of disk-based temporary tables Note! BLOB and TEXT columns are not allow in memory tables. If you are using these columns raising these values might not impact your ratio of on disk temp tables. TABLE SCANS Current read_buffer_size = 3 M Current table scan ratio = 2846 : 1 read_buffer_size seems to be fine TABLE LOCKING Current Lock Wait ratio = 1 : 185 You may benefit from selective use of InnoDB. If you have long running SELECT's against MyISAM tables and perform frequent updates consider setting 'low_priority_updates=1'

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OS X won't see Windows 7 in network (and vice versa)

- by meds

I've enabled SMB sharing in OS X Lion and have added folders to share, it says 'Windows Sharing: On' with a green circle next to it (from the sharing window) and that to access the volume I will need to to go to \\192.168.0.17. It also says that the OS X should be visible as 'macbook' in the network. Both my WIndows 7 and OS X are connected to the same network, yet when I try to go to \\192.168.0.17 or from the Mac try to go to my Windows system (smb://192.168.0.6) the two OSs don't see each other. Any ideas why? Attempting to ping the Mac from Windows results in this output in the command prompt: Pinging 192.168.0.17 with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 192.168.0.6: Destination host unreachable. Request timed out. Request timed out. Request timed out. Ping statistics for 192.168.0.17: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss), ipconfig in Windows is: Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::8918:efd1:b05c:890f%21 IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.6 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet1: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::98ab:63fc:3c07:d837%13 IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.74.1 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet8: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::80ff:c575:7b50:3a10%14 IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.21.1 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : Tunnel adapter isatap.{2E97D0AE-9E18-4072-AC23-1979BA0DCB79}: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Tunnel adapter isatap.{E260CE43-E9A7-4DE0-A88E-4EAFF68ACDDB}: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Tunnel adapter isatap.{A5130812-59CE-4DDF-9C35-9433BCED9831}: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Tunnel adapter isatap.{134BCAE7-CFFF-4A98-8DA0-3708806AABEB}: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Tunnel adapter isatap.{8D9E3B8F-161C-4ACE-B211-3EDD694416B2}: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : in OS X: lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384 options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM> inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280 stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280 en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 options=2b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_HWTAGGING,TSO4> ether c8:2a:14:01:24:c1 media: autoselect (none) status: inactive en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 ether e0:f8:47:0c:fe:04 inet6 fe80::e2f8:47ff:fe0c:fe04%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5 inet 192.168.0.17 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255 media: autoselect status: active p2p0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2304 ether 02:f8:47:0c:fe:04 media: autoselect status: inactive fw0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 4078 lladdr 70:cd:60:ff:fe:d8:f1:32 media: autoselect <full-duplex> status: inactive

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Tip/Trick: Fix Common SEO Problems Using the URL Rewrite Extension

- by ScottGu

Search engine optimization (SEO) is important for any publically facing web-site. A large % of traffic to sites now comes directly from search engines, and improving your site’s search relevancy will lead to more users visiting your site from search engine queries. This can directly or indirectly increase the money you make through your site. This blog post covers how you can use the free Microsoft URL Rewrite Extension to fix a bunch of common SEO problems that your site might have. It takes less than 15 minutes (and no code changes) to apply 4 simple URL Rewrite rules to your site, and in doing so cause search engines to drive more visitors and traffic to your site. The techniques below work equally well with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC based sites. They also works with all versions of ASP.NET (and even work with non-ASP.NET content). [In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu] Measuring the SEO of your website with the Microsoft SEO Toolkit A few months ago I blogged about the free SEO Toolkit that we’ve shipped. This useful tool enables you to automatically crawl/scan your site for SEO correctness, and it then flags any SEO issues it finds. I highly recommend downloading and using the tool against any public site you work on. It makes it easy to spot SEO issues you might have in your site, and pinpoint ways to optimize it further. Below is a simple example of a report I ran against one of my sites (www.scottgu.com) prior to applying the URL Rewrite rules I’ll cover later in this blog post: Search Relevancy and URL Splitting Two of the important things that search engines evaluate when assessing your site’s “search relevancy” are: How many other sites link to your content. Search engines assume that if a lot of people around the web are linking to your content, then it is likely useful and so weight it higher in relevancy. The uniqueness of the content it finds on your site. If search engines find that the content is duplicated in multiple places around the Internet (or on multiple URLs on your site) then it is likely to drop the relevancy of the content. One of the things you want to be very careful to avoid when building public facing sites is to not allow different URLs to retrieve the same content within your site. Doing so will hurt with both of the situations above. In particular, allowing external sites to link to the same content with multiple URLs will cause your link-count and page-ranking to be split up across those different URLs (and so give you a smaller page rank than what it would otherwise be if it was just one URL). Not allowing external sites to link to you in different ways sounds easy in theory – but you might wonder what exactly this means in practice and how you avoid it. 4 Really Common SEO Problems Your Sites Might Have Below are 4 really common scenarios that can cause your site to inadvertently expose multiple URLs for the same content. When this happens external sites linking to yours will end up splitting their page links across multiple URLs - and as a result cause you to have a lower page ranking with search engines than you deserve. SEO Problem #1: Default Document IIS (and other web servers) supports the concept of a “default document”. This allows you to avoid having to explicitly specify the page you want to serve at either the root of the web-site/application, or within a sub-directory. This is convenient – but means that by default this content is available via two different publically exposed URLs (which is bad). For example: http://scottgu.com/ http://scottgu.com/default.aspx SEO Problem #2: Different URL Casings Web developers often don’t realize URLs are case sensitive to search engines on the web. This means that search engines will treat the following links as two completely different URLs: http://scottgu.com/Albums.aspx http://scottgu.com/albums.aspx SEO Problem #3: Trailing Slashes Consider the below two URLs – they might look the same at first, but they are subtly different. The trailing slash creates yet another situation that causes search engines to treat the URLs as different and so split search rankings: http://scottgu.com http://scottgu.com/ SEO Problem #4: Canonical Host Names Sometimes sites support scenarios where they support a web-site with both a leading “www” hostname prefix as well as just the hostname itself. This causes search engines to treat the URLs as different and split search rankling: http://scottgu.com/albums.aspx/ http://www.scottgu.com/albums.aspx/ How to Easily Fix these SEO Problems in 10 minutes (or less) using IIS Rewrite If you haven’t been careful when coding your sites, chances are you are suffering from one (or more) of the above SEO problems. Addressing these issues will improve your search engine relevancy ranking and drive more traffic to your site. The “good news” is that fixing the above 4 issues is really easy using the URL Rewrite Extension. This is a completely free Microsoft extension available for IIS 7.x (on Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7 and Windows Vista). The great thing about using the IIS Rewrite extension is that it allows you to fix the above problems *without* having to change any code within your applications. You can easily install the URL Rewrite Extension in under 3 minutes using the Microsoft Web Platform Installer (a free tool we ship that automates setting up web servers and development machines). Just click the green “Install Now” button on the URL Rewrite Spotlight page to install it on your Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 or Windows Vista machine: Once installed you’ll find that a new “URL Rewrite” icon is available within the IIS 7 Admin Tool: Double-clicking the icon will open up the URL Rewrite admin panel – which will display the list of URL Rewrite rules configured for a particular application or site: Notice that our rewrite rule list above is currently empty (which is the default when you first install the extension). We can click the “Add Rule…” link button in the top-right of the panel to add and enable new URL Rewriting logic for our site. Scenario 1: Handling Default Document Scenarios One of the SEO problems I discussed earlier in this post was the scenario where the “default document” feature of IIS causes you to inadvertently expose two URLs for the same content on your site. For example: http://scottgu.com/ http://scottgu.com/default.aspx We can fix this by adding a new IIS Rewrite rule that automatically redirects anyone who navigates to the second URL to instead go to the first one. We will setup the HTTP redirect to be a “permanent redirect” – which will indicate to search engines that they should follow the redirect and use the new URL they are redirected to as the identifier of the content they retrieve. Let’s look at how we can create such a rule. We’ll begin by clicking the “Add Rule” link in the screenshot above. This will cause the below dialog to display: We’ll select the “Blank Rule” template within the “Inbound rules” section to create a new custom URL Rewriting rule. This will display an empty pane like below: Don’t worry – setting up the above rule is easy. The following 4 steps explain how to do so: Step 1: Name the Rule Our first step will be to name the rule we are creating. Naming it with a descriptive name will make it easier to find and understand later. Let’s name this rule our “Default Document URL Rewrite” rule: Step 2: Setup the Regular Expression that Matches this Rule Our second step will be to specify a regular expression filter that will cause this rule to execute when an incoming URL matches the regex pattern. Don’t worry if you aren’t good with regular expressions - I suck at them too. The trick is to know someone who is good at them or copy/paste them from a web-site. Below we are going to specify the following regular expression as our pattern rule: (.*?)/?Default\.aspx$ This pattern will match any URL string that ends with Default.aspx. The "(.*?)" matches any preceding character zero or more times. The "/?" part says to match the slash symbol zero or one times. The "$" symbol at the end will ensure that the pattern will only match strings that end with Default.aspx. Combining all these regex elements allows this rule to work not only for the root of your web site (e.g. http://scottgu.com/default.aspx) but also for any application or subdirectory within the site (e.g. http://scottgu.com/photos/default.aspx. Because the “ignore case” checkbox is selected it will match both “Default.aspx” as well as “default.aspx” within the URL. One nice feature built-into the rule editor is a “Test pattern” button that you can click to bring up a dialog that allows you to test out a few URLs with the rule you are configuring: Above I've added a “products/default.aspx” URL and clicked the “Test” button. This will give me immediate feedback on whether the rule will execute for it. Step 3: Setup a Permanent Redirect Action We’ll then setup an action to occur when our regular expression pattern matches the incoming URL: In the dialog above I’ve changed the “Action Type” drop down to be a “Redirect” action. The “Redirect Type” will be a HTTP 301 Permanent redirect – which means search engines will follow it. I’ve also set the “Redirect URL” property to be: {R:1}/ This indicates that we want to redirect the web client requesting the original URL to a new URL that has the originally requested URL path - minus the "Default.aspx" in it. For example, requests for http://scottgu.com/default.aspx will be redirected to http://scottgu.com/, and requests for http://scottgu.com/photos/default.aspx will be redirected to http://scottgu.com/photos/ The "{R:N}" regex construct, where N >= 0, is called a back-reference and N is the back-reference index. In the case of our pattern "(.*?)/?Default\.aspx$", if the input URL is "products/Default.aspx" then {R:0} will contain "products/Default.aspx" and {R:1} will contain "products". We are going to use this {R:1}/ value to be the URL we redirect users to. Step 4: Apply and Save the Rule Our final step is to click the “Apply” button in the top right hand of the IIS admin tool – which will cause the tool to persist the URL Rewrite rule into our application’s root web.config file (under a <system.webServer/rewrite> configuration section): <configuration> <system.webServer> <rewrite> <rules> <rule name="Default Document" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*?)/?Default\.aspx$" /> <action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}/" /> </rule> </rules> </rewrite> </system.webServer> </configuration> Because IIS 7.x and ASP.NET share the same web.config files, you can actually just copy/paste the above code into your web.config files using Visual Studio and skip the need to run the admin tool entirely. This also makes adding/deploying URL Rewrite rules with your ASP.NET applications really easy. Step 5: Try the Rule Out Now that we’ve saved the rule, let’s try it out on our site. Try the following two URLs on my site: http://scottgu.com/ http://scottgu.com/default.aspx Notice that the second URL automatically redirects to the first one. Because it is a permanent redirect, search engines will follow the URL and should update the page ranking of http://scottgu.com to include links to http://scottgu.com/default.aspx as well. Scenario 2: Different URL Casing Another common SEO problem I discussed earlier in this post is that URLs are case sensitive to search engines on the web. This means that search engines will treat the following links as two completely different URLs: http://scottgu.com/Albums.aspx http://scottgu.com/albums.aspx We can fix this by adding a new IIS Rewrite rule that automatically redirects anyone who navigates to the first URL to instead go to the second (all lower-case) one. Like before, we will setup the HTTP redirect to be a “permanent redirect” – which will indicate to search engines that they should follow the redirect and use the new URL they are redirected to as the identifier of the content they retrieve. To create such a rule we’ll click the “Add Rule” link in the URL Rewrite admin tool again. This will cause the “Add Rule” dialog to appear again: Unlike the previous scenario (where we created a “Blank Rule”), with this scenario we can take advantage of a built-in “Enforce lowercase URLs” rule template. When we click the “ok” button we’ll see the following dialog which asks us if we want to create a rule that enforces the use of lowercase letters in URLs: When we click the “Yes” button we’ll get a pre-written rule that automatically performs a permanent redirect if an incoming URL has upper-case characters in it – and automatically send users to a lower-case version of the URL: We can click the “Apply” button to use this rule “as-is” and have it apply to all incoming URLs to our site. Because my www.scottgu.com site uses ASP.NET Web Forms, I’m going to make one small change to the rule we generated above – which is to add a condition that will ensure that URLs to ASP.NET’s built-in “WebResource.axd” handler are excluded from our case-sensitivity URL Rewrite logic. URLs to the WebResource.axd handler will only come from server-controls emitted from my pages – and will never be linked to from external sites. While my site will continue to function fine if we redirect these URLs to automatically be lower-case – doing so isn’t necessary and will add an extra HTTP redirect to many of my pages. The good news is that adding a condition that prevents my URL Rewriting rule from happening with certain URLs is easy. We simply need to expand the “Conditions” section of the form above We can then click the “Add” button to add a condition clause. This will bring up the “Add Condition” dialog: Above I’ve entered {URL} as the Condition input – and said that this rule should only execute if the URL does not match a regex pattern which contains the string “WebResource.axd”. This will ensure that WebResource.axd URLs to my site will be allowed to execute just fine without having the URL be re-written to be all lower-case. Note: If you have static resources (like references to .jpg, .css, and .js files) within your site that currently use upper-case characters you’ll probably want to add additional condition filter clauses so that URLs to them also don’t get redirected to be lower-case (just add rules for patterns like .jpg, .gif, .js, etc). Your site will continue to work fine if these URLs get redirected to be lower case (meaning the site won’t break) – but it will cause an extra HTTP redirect to happen on your site for URLs that don’t need to be redirected for SEO reasons. So setting up a condition clause makes sense to add. When I click the “ok” button above and apply our lower-case rewriting rule the admin tool will save the following additional rule to our web.config file: <configuration> <system.webServer> <rewrite> <rules> <rule name="Default Document" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*?)/?Default\.aspx$" /> <action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}/" /> </rule> <rule name="Lower Case URLs" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="[A-Z]" ignoreCase="false" /> <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{URL}" pattern="WebResource.axd" negate="true" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="{ToLower:{URL}}" /> </rule> </rules> </rewrite> </system.webServer> </configuration> Try the Rule Out Now that we’ve saved the rule, let’s try it out on our site. Try the following two URLs on my site: http://scottgu.com/Albums.aspx http://scottgu.com/albums.aspx Notice that the first URL (which has a capital “A”) automatically does a redirect to a lower-case version of the URL. Scenario 3: Trailing Slashes Another common SEO problem I discussed earlier in this post is the scenario of trailing slashes within URLs. The trailing slash creates yet another situation that causes search engines to treat the URLs as different and so split search rankings: http://scottgu.com http://scottgu.com/ We can fix this by adding a new IIS Rewrite rule that automatically redirects anyone who navigates to the first URL (that does not have a trailing slash) to instead go to the second one that does. Like before, we will setup the HTTP redirect to be a “permanent redirect” – which will indicate to search engines that they should follow the redirect and use the new URL they are redirected to as the identifier of the content they retrieve. To create such a rule we’ll click the “Add Rule” link in the URL Rewrite admin tool again. This will cause the “Add Rule” dialog to appear again: The URL Rewrite admin tool has a built-in “Append or remove the trailing slash symbol” rule template. When we select it and click the “ok” button we’ll see the following dialog which asks us if we want to create a rule that automatically redirects users to a URL with a trailing slash if one isn’t present: Like within our previous lower-casing rewrite rule we’ll add one additional condition clause that will exclude WebResource.axd URLs from being processed by this rule. This will avoid an unnecessary redirect for happening for those URLs. When we click the “OK” button we’ll get a pre-written rule that automatically performs a permanent redirect if the URL doesn’t have a trailing slash – and if the URL is not processed by either a directory or a file. This will save the following additional rule to our web.config file: <configuration> <system.webServer> <rewrite> <rules> <rule name="Default Document" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*?)/?Default\.aspx$" /> <action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}/" /> </rule> <rule name="Lower Case URLs" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="[A-Z]" ignoreCase="false" /> <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{URL}" pattern="WebResource.axd" negate="true" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="{ToLower:{URL}}" /> </rule> <rule name="Trailing Slash" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*[^/])$" /> <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" /> <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" /> <add input="{URL}" pattern="WebResource.axd" negate="true" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}/" /> </rule> </rules> </rewrite> </system.webServer> </configuration> Try the Rule Out Now that we’ve saved the rule, let’s try it out on our site. Try the following two URLs on my site: http://scottgu.com http://scottgu.com/ Notice that the first URL (which has no trailing slash) automatically does a redirect to a URL with the trailing slash. Because it is a permanent redirect, search engines will follow the URL and update the page ranking. Scenario 4: Canonical Host Names The final SEO problem I discussed earlier are scenarios where a site works with both a leading “www” hostname prefix as well as just the hostname itself. This causes search engines to treat the URLs as different and split search rankling: http://www.scottgu.com/albums.aspx http://scottgu.com/albums.aspx We can fix this by adding a new IIS Rewrite rule that automatically redirects anyone who navigates to the first URL (that has a www prefix) to instead go to the second URL. Like before, we will setup the HTTP redirect to be a “permanent redirect” – which will indicate to search engines that they should follow the redirect and use the new URL they are redirected to as the identifier of the content they retrieve. To create such a rule we’ll click the “Add Rule” link in the URL Rewrite admin tool again. This will cause the “Add Rule” dialog to appear again: The URL Rewrite admin tool has a built-in “Canonical domain name” rule template. When we select it and click the “ok” button we’ll see the following dialog which asks us if we want to create a redirect rule that automatically redirects users to a primary host name URL: Above I’m entering the primary URL address I want to expose to the web: scottgu.com. When we click the “OK” button we’ll get a pre-written rule that automatically performs a permanent redirect if the URL has another leading domain name prefix. This will save the following additional rule to our web.config file: <configuration> <system.webServer> <rewrite> <rules> <rule name="Cannonical Hostname"> <match url="(.*)" /> <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^scottgu\.com$" negate="true" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="http://scottgu.com/{R:1}" /> </rule> <rule name="Default Document" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*?)/?Default\.aspx$" /> <action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}/" /> </rule> <rule name="Lower Case URLs" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="[A-Z]" ignoreCase="false" /> <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{URL}" pattern="WebResource.axd" negate="true" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="{ToLower:{URL}}" /> </rule> <rule name="Trailing Slash" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*[^/])$" /> <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" /> <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" /> <add input="{URL}" pattern="WebResource.axd" negate="true" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}/" /> </rule> </rules> </rewrite> </system.webServer> </configuration> Try the Rule Out Now that we’ve saved the rule, let’s try it out on our site. Try the following two URLs on my site: http://www.scottgu.com/albums.aspx http://scottgu.com/albums.aspx Notice that the first URL (which has the “www” prefix) now automatically does a redirect to the second URL which does not have the www prefix. Because it is a permanent redirect, search engines will follow the URL and update the page ranking. 4 Simple Rules for Improved SEO The above 4 rules are pretty easy to setup and should take less than 15 minutes to configure on existing sites you already have. The beauty of using a solution like the URL Rewrite Extension is that you can take advantage of it without having to change code within your web-site – and without having to break any existing links already pointing at your site. Users who follow existing links will be automatically redirected to the new URLs you wish to publish. And search engines will start to give your site a higher search relevancy ranking – which will list your site higher in search results and drive more traffic to it. Customizing your URL Rewriting rules further is easy to-do either by editing the web.config file directly, or alternatively, just double click the URL Rewrite icon within the IIS 7.x admin tool and it will list all the active rules for your web-site or application: Clicking any of the rules above will open the rules editor back up and allow you to tweak/customize/save them further. Summary Measuring and improving SEO is something every developer building a public-facing web-site needs to think about and focus on. If you haven’t already, download and use the SEO Toolkit to analyze the SEO of your sites today. New URL Routing features in ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Web Forms 4 make it much easier to build applications that have more control over the URLs that are published. Tools like the URL Rewrite Extension that I’ve talked about in this blog post make it much easier to improve the URLs that are published from sites you already have built today – without requiring you to change a lot of code. The URL Rewrite Extension provides a bunch of additional great capabilities – far beyond just SEO - as well. I’ll be covering these additional capabilities more in future blog posts. Hope this helps, Scott

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The Incremental Architect’s Napkin - #5 - Design functions for extensibility and readability

- by Ralf Westphal

Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/theArchitectsNapkin/archive/2014/08/24/the-incremental-architectrsquos-napkin---5---design-functions-for.aspx The functionality of programs is entered via Entry Points. So what we´re talking about when designing software is a bunch of functions handling the requests represented by and flowing in through those Entry Points. Designing software thus consists of at least three phases: Analyzing the requirements to find the Entry Points and their signatures Designing the functionality to be executed when those Entry Points get triggered Implementing the functionality according to the design aka coding I presume, you´re familiar with phase 1 in some way. And I guess you´re proficient in implementing functionality in some programming language. But in my experience developers in general are not experienced in going through an explicit phase 2. “Designing functionality? What´s that supposed to mean?” you might already have thought. Here´s my definition: To design functionality (or functional design for short) means thinking about… well, functions. You find a solution for what´s supposed to happen when an Entry Point gets triggered in terms of functions. A conceptual solution that is, because those functions only exist in your head (or on paper) during this phase. But you may have guess that, because it´s “design” not “coding”. And here is, what functional design is not: It´s not about logic. Logic is expressions (e.g. +, -, && etc.) and control statements (e.g. if, switch, for, while etc.). Also I consider calling external APIs as logic. It´s equally basic. It´s what code needs to do in order to deliver some functionality or quality. Logic is what´s doing that needs to be done by software. Transformations are either done through expressions or API-calls. And then there is alternative control flow depending on the result of some expression. Basically it´s just jumps in Assembler, sometimes to go forward (if, switch), sometimes to go backward (for, while, do). But calling your own function is not logic. It´s not necessary to produce any outcome. Functionality is not enhanced by adding functions (subroutine calls) to your code. Nor is quality increased by adding functions. No performance gain, no higher scalability etc. through functions. Functions are not relevant to functionality. Strange, isn´t it. What they are important for is security of investment. By introducing functions into our code we can become more productive (re-use) and can increase evolvability (higher unterstandability, easier to keep code consistent). That´s no small feat, however. Evolvable code can hardly be overestimated. That´s why to me functional design is so important. It´s at the core of software development. To sum this up: Functional design is on a level of abstraction above (!) logical design or algorithmic design. Functional design is only done until you get to a point where each function is so simple you are very confident you can easily code it. Functional design an logical design (which mostly is coding, but can also be done using pseudo code or flow charts) are complementary. Software needs both. If you start coding right away you end up in a tangled mess very quickly. Then you need back out through refactoring. Functional design on the other hand is bloodless without actual code. It´s just a theory with no experiments to prove it. But how to do functional design? An example of functional design Let´s assume a program to de-duplicate strings. The user enters a number of strings separated by commas, e.g. a, b, a, c, d, b, e, c, a. And the program is supposed to clear this list of all doubles, e.g. a, b, c, d, e. There is only one Entry Point to this program: the user triggers the de-duplication by starting the program with the string list on the command line C:\>deduplicate "a, b, a, c, d, b, e, c, a" a, b, c, d, e …or by clicking on a GUI button. This leads to the Entry Point function to get called. It´s the program´s main function in case of the batch version or a button click event handler in the GUI version. That´s the physical Entry Point so to speak. It´s inevitable. What then happens is a three step process: Transform the input data from the user into a request. Call the request handler. Transform the output of the request handler into a tangible result for the user. Or to phrase it a bit more generally: Accept input. Transform input into output. Present output. This does not mean any of these steps requires a lot of effort. Maybe it´s just one line of code to accomplish it. Nevertheless it´s a distinct step in doing the processing behind an Entry Point. Call it an aspect or a responsibility - and you will realize it most likely deserves a function of its own to satisfy the Single Responsibility Principle (SRP). Interestingly the above list of steps is already functional design. There is no logic, but nevertheless the solution is described - albeit on a higher level of abstraction than you might have done yourself. But it´s still on a meta-level. The application to the domain at hand is easy, though: Accept string list from command line De-duplicate Present de-duplicated strings on standard output And this concrete list of processing steps can easily be transformed into code:static void Main(string[] args) { var input = Accept_string_list(args); var output = Deduplicate(input); Present_deduplicated_string_list(output); } Instead of a big problem there are three much smaller problems now. If you think each of those is trivial to implement, then go for it. You can stop the functional design at this point. But maybe, just maybe, you´re not so sure how to go about with the de-duplication for example. Then just implement what´s easy right now, e.g.private static string Accept_string_list(string[] args) { return args[0]; } private static void Present_deduplicated_string_list( string[] output) { var line = string.Join(", ", output); Console.WriteLine(line); } Accept_string_list() contains logic in the form of an API-call. Present_deduplicated_string_list() contains logic in the form of an expression and an API-call. And then repeat the functional design for the remaining processing step. What´s left is the domain logic: de-duplicating a list of strings. How should that be done? Without any logic at our disposal during functional design you´re left with just functions. So which functions could make up the de-duplication? Here´s a suggestion: De-duplicate Parse the input string into a true list of strings. Register each string in a dictionary/map/set. That way duplicates get cast away. Transform the data structure into a list of unique strings. Processing step 2 obviously was the core of the solution. That´s where real creativity was needed. That´s the core of the domain. But now after this refinement the implementation of each step is easy again:private static string[] Parse_string_list(string input) { return input.Split(',') .Select(s => s.Trim()) .ToArray(); } private static Dictionary<string,object> Compile_unique_strings(string[] strings) { return strings.Aggregate( new Dictionary<string, object>(), (agg, s) => { agg[s] = null; return agg; }); } private static string[] Serialize_unique_strings( Dictionary<string,object> dict) { return dict.Keys.ToArray(); } With these three additional functions Main() now looks like this:static void Main(string[] args) { var input = Accept_string_list(args); var strings = Parse_string_list(input); var dict = Compile_unique_strings(strings); var output = Serialize_unique_strings(dict); Present_deduplicated_string_list(output); } I think that´s very understandable code: just read it from top to bottom and you know how the solution to the problem works. It´s a mirror image of the initial design: Accept string list from command line Parse the input string into a true list of strings. Register each string in a dictionary/map/set. That way duplicates get cast away. Transform the data structure into a list of unique strings. Present de-duplicated strings on standard output You can even re-generate the design by just looking at the code. Code and functional design thus are always in sync - if you follow some simple rules. But about that later. And as a bonus: all the functions making up the process are small - which means easy to understand, too. So much for an initial concrete example. Now it´s time for some theory. Because there is method to this madness ;-) The above has only scratched the surface. Introducing Flow Design Functional design starts with a given function, the Entry Point. Its goal is to describe the behavior of the program when the Entry Point is triggered using a process, not an algorithm. An algorithm consists of logic, a process on the other hand consists just of steps or stages. Each processing step transforms input into output or a side effect. Also it might access resources, e.g. a printer, a database, or just memory. Processing steps thus can rely on state of some sort. This is different from Functional Programming, where functions are supposed to not be stateful and not cause side effects.[1] In its simplest form a process can be written as a bullet point list of steps, e.g. Get data from user Output result to user Transform data Parse data Map result for output Such a compilation of steps - possibly on different levels of abstraction - often is the first artifact of functional design. It can be generated by a team in an initial design brainstorming. Next comes ordering the steps. What should happen first, what next etc.? Get data from user Parse data Transform data Map result for output Output result to user That´s great for a start into functional design. It´s better than starting to code right away on a given function using TDD. Please get me right: TDD is a valuable practice. But it can be unnecessarily hard if the scope of a functionn is too large. But how do you know beforehand without investing some thinking? And how to do this thinking in a systematic fashion? My recommendation: For any given function you´re supposed to implement first do a functional design. Then, once you´re confident you know the processing steps - which are pretty small - refine and code them using TDD. You´ll see that´s much, much easier - and leads to cleaner code right away. For more information on this approach I call “Informed TDD” read my book of the same title. Thinking before coding is smart. And writing down the solution as a bunch of functions possibly is the simplest thing you can do, I´d say. It´s more according to the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle than returning constants or other trivial stuff TDD development often is started with. So far so good. A simple ordered list of processing steps will do to start with functional design. As shown in the above example such steps can easily be translated into functions. Moving from design to coding thus is simple. However, such a list does not scale. Processing is not always that simple to be captured in a list. And then the list is just text. Again. Like code. That means the design is lacking visuality. Textual representations need more parsing by your brain than visual representations. Plus they are limited in their “dimensionality”: text just has one dimension, it´s sequential. Alternatives and parallelism are hard to encode in text. In addition the functional design using numbered lists lacks data. It´s not visible what´s the input, output, and state of the processing steps. That´s why functional design should be done using a lightweight visual notation. No tool is necessary to draw such designs. Use pen and paper; a flipchart, a whiteboard, or even a napkin is sufficient. Visualizing processes The building block of the functional design notation is a functional unit. I mostly draw it like this: Something is done, it´s clear what goes in, it´s clear what comes out, and it´s clear what the processing step requires in terms of state or hardware. Whenever input flows into a functional unit it gets processed and output is produced and/or a side effect occurs. Flowing data is the driver of something happening. That´s why I call this approach to functional design Flow Design. It´s about data flow instead of control flow. Control flow like in algorithms is of no concern to functional design. Thinking about control flow simply is too low level. Once you start with control flow you easily get bogged down by tons of details. That´s what you want to avoid during design. Design is supposed to be quick, broad brush, abstract. It should give overview. But what about all the details? As Robert C. Martin rightly said: “Programming is abot detail”. Detail is a matter of code. Once you start coding the processing steps you designed you can worry about all the detail you want. Functional design does not eliminate all the nitty gritty. It just postpones tackling them. To me that´s also an example of the SRP. Function design has the responsibility to come up with a solution to a problem posed by a single function (Entry Point). And later coding has the responsibility to implement the solution down to the last detail (i.e. statement, API-call). TDD unfortunately mixes both responsibilities. It´s just coding - and thereby trying to find detailed implementations (green phase) plus getting the design right (refactoring). To me that´s one reason why TDD has failed to deliver on its promise for many developers. Using functional units as building blocks of functional design processes can be depicted very easily. Here´s the initial process for the example problem: For each processing step draw a functional unit and label it. Choose a verb or an “action phrase” as a label, not a noun. Functional design is about activities, not state or structure. Then make the output of an upstream step the input of a downstream step. Finally think about the data that should flow between the functional units. Write the data above the arrows connecting the functional units in the direction of the data flow. Enclose the data description in brackets. That way you can clearly see if all flows have already been specified. Empty brackets mean “no data is flowing”, but nevertheless a signal is sent. A name like “list” or “strings” in brackets describes the data content. Use lower case labels for that purpose. A name starting with an upper case letter like “String” or “Customer” on the other hand signifies a data type. If you like, you also can combine descriptions with data types by separating them with a colon, e.g. (list:string) or (strings:string[]). But these are just suggestions from my practice with Flow Design. You can do it differently, if you like. Just be sure to be consistent. Flows wired-up in this manner I call one-dimensional (1D). Each functional unit just has one input and/or one output. A functional unit without an output is possible. It´s like a black hole sucking up input without producing any output. Instead it produces side effects. A functional unit without an input, though, does make much sense. When should it start to work? What´s the trigger? That´s why in the above process even the first processing step has an input. If you like, view such 1D-flows as pipelines. Data is flowing through them from left to right. But as you can see, it´s not always the same data. It get´s transformed along its passage: (args) becomes a (list) which is turned into (strings). The Principle of Mutual Oblivion A very characteristic trait of flows put together from function units is: no functional units knows another one. They are all completely independent of each other. Functional units don´t know where their input is coming from (or even when it´s gonna arrive). They just specify a range of values they can process. And they promise a certain behavior upon input arriving. Also they don´t know where their output is going. They just produce it in their own time independent of other functional units. That means at least conceptually all functional units work in parallel. Functional units don´t know their “deployment context”. They now nothing about the overall flow they are place in. They are just consuming input from some upstream, and producing output for some downstream. That makes functional units very easy to test. At least as long as they don´t depend on state or resources. I call this the Principle of Mutual Oblivion (PoMO). Functional units are oblivious of others as well as an overall context/purpose. They are just parts of a whole focused on a single responsibility. How the whole is built, how a larger goal is achieved, is of no concern to the single functional units. By building software in such a manner, functional design interestingly follows nature. Nature´s building blocks for organisms also follow the PoMO. The cells forming your body do not know each other. Take a nerve cell “controlling” a muscle cell for example:[2] The nerve cell does not know anything about muscle cells, let alone the specific muscel cell it is “attached to”. Likewise the muscle cell does not know anything about nerve cells, let a lone a specific nerve cell “attached to” it. Saying “the nerve cell is controlling the muscle cell” thus only makes sense when viewing both from the outside. “Control” is a concept of the whole, not of its parts. Control is created by wiring-up parts in a certain way. Both cells are mutually oblivious. Both just follow a contract. One produces Acetylcholine (ACh) as output, the other consumes ACh as input. Where the ACh is going, where it´s coming from neither cell cares about. Million years of evolution have led to this kind of division of labor. And million years of evolution have produced organism designs (DNA) which lead to the production of these different cell types (and many others) and also to their co-location. The result: the overall behavior of an organism. How and why this happened in nature is a mystery. For our software, though, it´s clear: functional and quality requirements needs to be fulfilled. So we as developers have to become “intelligent designers” of “software cells” which we put together to form a “software organism” which responds in satisfying ways to triggers from it´s environment. My bet is: If nature gets complex organisms working by following the PoMO, who are we to not apply this recipe for success to our much simpler “machines”? So my rule is: Wherever there is functionality to be delivered, because there is a clear Entry Point into software, design the functionality like nature would do it. Build it from mutually oblivious functional units. That´s what Flow Design is about. In that way it´s even universal, I´d say. Its notation can also be applied to biology: Never mind labeling the functional units with nouns. That´s ok in Flow Design. You´ll do that occassionally for functional units on a higher level of abstraction or when their purpose is close to hardware. Getting a cockroach to roam your bedroom takes 1,000,000 nerve cells (neurons). Getting the de-duplication program to do its job just takes 5 “software cells” (functional units). Both, though, follow the same basic principle. Translating functional units into code Moving from functional design to code is no rocket science. In fact it´s straightforward. There are two simple rules: Translate an input port to a function. Translate an output port either to a return statement in that function or to a function pointer visible to that function. The simplest translation of a functional unit is a function. That´s what you saw in the above example. Functions are mutually oblivious. That why Functional Programming likes them so much. It makes them composable. Which is the reason, nature works according to the PoMO. Let´s be clear about one thing: There is no dependency injection in nature. For all of an organism´s complexity no DI container is used. Behavior is the result of smooth cooperation between mutually oblivious building blocks. Functions will often be the adequate translation for the functional units in your designs. But not always. Take for example the case, where a processing step should not always produce an output. Maybe the purpose is to filter input. Here the functional unit consumes words and produces words. But it does not pass along every word flowing in. Some words are swallowed. Think of a spell checker. It probably should not check acronyms for correctness. There are too many of them. Or words with no more than two letters. Such words are called “stop words”. In the above picture the optionality of the output is signified by the astrisk outside the brackets. It means: Any number of (word) data items can flow from the functional unit for each input data item. It might be none or one or even more. This I call a stream of data. Such behavior cannot be translated into a function where output is generated with return. Because a function always needs to return a value. So the output port is translated into a function pointer or continuation which gets passed to the subroutine when called:[3]void filter_stop_words( string word, Action<string> onNoStopWord) { if (...check if not a stop word...) onNoStopWord(word); } If you want to be nitpicky you might call such a function pointer parameter an injection. And technically you´re right. Conceptually, though, it´s not an injection. Because the subroutine is not functionally dependent on the continuation. Firstly continuations are procedures, i.e. subroutines without a return type. Remember: Flow Design is about unidirectional data flow. Secondly the name of the formal parameter is chosen in a way as to not assume anything about downstream processing steps. onNoStopWord describes a situation (or event) within the functional unit only. Translating output ports into function pointers helps keeping functional units mutually oblivious in cases where output is optional or produced asynchronically. Either pass the function pointer to the function upon call. Or make it global by putting it on the encompassing class. Then it´s called an event. In C# that´s even an explicit feature.class Filter { public void filter_stop_words( string word) { if (...check if not a stop word...) onNoStopWord(word); } public event Action<string> onNoStopWord; } When to use a continuation and when to use an event dependens on how a functional unit is used in flows and how it´s packed together with others into classes. You´ll see examples further down the Flow Design road. Another example of 1D functional design Let´s see Flow Design once more in action using the visual notation. How about the famous word wrap kata? Robert C. Martin has posted a much cited solution including an extensive reasoning behind his TDD approach. So maybe you want to compare it to Flow Design. The function signature given is:string WordWrap(string text, int maxLineLength) {...} That´s not an Entry Point since we don´t see an application with an environment and users. Nevertheless it´s a function which is supposed to provide a certain functionality. The text passed in has to be reformatted. The input is a single line of arbitrary length consisting of words separated by spaces. The output should consist of one or more lines of a maximum length specified. If a word is longer than a the maximum line length it can be split in multiple parts each fitting in a line. Flow Design Let´s start by brainstorming the process to accomplish the feat of reformatting the text. What´s needed? Words need to be assembled into lines Words need to be extracted from the input text The resulting lines need to be assembled into the output text Words too long to fit in a line need to be split Does sound about right? I guess so. And it shows a kind of priority. Long words are a special case. So maybe there is a hint for an incremental design here. First let´s tackle “average words” (words not longer than a line). Here´s the Flow Design for this increment: The the first three bullet points turned into functional units with explicit data added. As the signature requires a text is transformed into another text. See the input of the first functional unit and the output of the last functional unit. In between no text flows, but words and lines. That´s good to see because thereby the domain is clearly represented in the design. The requirements are talking about words and lines and here they are. But note the asterisk! It´s not outside the brackets but inside. That means it´s not a stream of words or lines, but lists or sequences. For each text a sequence of words is output. For each sequence of words a sequence of lines is produced. The asterisk is used to abstract from the concrete implementation. Like with streams. Whether the list of words gets implemented as an array or an IEnumerable is not important during design. It´s an implementation detail. Does any processing step require further refinement? I don´t think so. They all look pretty “atomic” to me. And if not… I can always backtrack and refine a process step using functional design later once I´ve gained more insight into a sub-problem. Implementation The implementation is straightforward as you can imagine. The processing steps can all be translated into functions. Each can be tested easily and separately. Each has a focused responsibility. And the process flow becomes just a sequence of function calls: Easy to understand. It clearly states how word wrapping works - on a high level of abstraction. And it´s easy to evolve as you´ll see. Flow Design - Increment 2 So far only texts consisting of “average words” are wrapped correctly. Words not fitting in a line will result in lines too long. Wrapping long words is a feature of the requested functionality. Whether it´s there or not makes a difference to the user. To quickly get feedback I decided to first implement a solution without this feature. But now it´s time to add it to deliver the full scope. Fortunately Flow Design automatically leads to code following the Open Closed Principle (OCP). It´s easy to extend it - instead of changing well tested code. How´s that possible? Flow Design allows for extension of functionality by inserting functional units into the flow. That way existing functional units need not be changed. The data flow arrow between functional units is a natural extension point. No need to resort to the Strategy Pattern. No need to think ahead where extions might need to be made in the future. I just “phase in” the remaining processing step: Since neither Extract words nor Reformat know of their environment neither needs to be touched due to the “detour”. The new processing step accepts the output of the existing upstream step and produces data compatible with the existing downstream step. Implementation - Increment 2 A trivial implementation checking the assumption if this works does not do anything to split long words. The input is just passed on: Note how clean WordWrap() stays. The solution is easy to understand. A developer looking at this code sometime in the future, when a new feature needs to be build in, quickly sees how long words are dealt with. Compare this to Robert C. Martin´s solution:[4] How does this solution handle long words? Long words are not even part of the domain language present in the code. At least I need considerable time to understand the approach. Admittedly the Flow Design solution with the full implementation of long word splitting is longer than Robert C. Martin´s. At least it seems. Because his solution does not cover all the “word wrap situations” the Flow Design solution handles. Some lines would need to be added to be on par, I guess. But even then… Is a difference in LOC that important as long as it´s in the same ball park? I value understandability and openness for extension higher than saving on the last line of code. Simplicity is not just less code, it´s also clarity in design. But don´t take my word for it. Try Flow Design on larger problems and compare for yourself. What´s the easier, more straightforward way to clean code? And keep in mind: You ain´t seen all yet ;-) There´s more to Flow Design than described in this chapter. In closing I hope I was able to give you a impression of functional design that makes you hungry for more. To me it´s an inevitable step in software development. Jumping from requirements to code does not scale. And it leads to dirty code all to quickly. Some thought should be invested first. Where there is a clear Entry Point visible, it´s functionality should be designed using data flows. Because with data flows abstraction is possible. For more background on why that´s necessary read my blog article here. For now let me point out to you - if you haven´t already noticed - that Flow Design is a general purpose declarative language. It´s “programming by intention” (Shalloway et al.). Just write down how you think the solution should work on a high level of abstraction. This breaks down a large problem in smaller problems. And by following the PoMO the solutions to those smaller problems are independent of each other. So they are easy to test. Or you could even think about getting them implemented in parallel by different team members. Flow Design not only increases evolvability, but also helps becoming more productive. All team members can participate in functional design. This goes beyon collective code ownership. We´re talking collective design/architecture ownership. Because with Flow Design there is a common visual language to talk about functional design - which is the foundation for all other design activities. PS: If you like what you read, consider getting my ebook “The Incremental Architekt´s Napkin”. It´s where I compile all the articles in this series for easier reading. I like the strictness of Function Programming - but I also find it quite hard to live by. And it certainly is not what millions of programmers are used to. Also to me it seems, the real world is full of state and side effects. So why give them such a bad image? That´s why functional design takes a more pragmatic approach. State and side effects are ok for processing steps - but be sure to follow the SRP. Don´t put too much of it into a single processing step. ? Image taken from www.physioweb.org ? My code samples are written in C#. C# sports typed function pointers called delegates. Action is such a function pointer type matching functions with signature void someName(T t). Other languages provide similar ways to work with functions as first class citizens - even Java now in version 8. I trust you find a way to map this detail of my translation to your favorite programming language. I know it works for Java, C++, Ruby, JavaScript, Python, Go. And if you´re using a Functional Programming language it´s of course a no brainer. ? Taken from his blog post “The Craftsman 62, The Dark Path”. ?

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Part 2–Load Testing In The Cloud

- by Tarun Arora

Welcome to Part 2, In Part 1 we discussed the advantages of creating a Test Rig in the cloud, the Azure edge and the Test Rig Topology we want to get to. In Part 2, Let’s start by understanding the components of Azure we’ll be making use of followed by manually putting them together to create the test rig, so… let’s get down dirty start setting up the Test Rig. What Components of Azure will I be using for building the Test Rig in the Cloud? To run the Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Compute and to enable communication between Test Controller and Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect. Azure Connect The Test Controller is on premise and the Test Agents are in the cloud (How will they talk?). To enable communication between the two, we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect. With Windows Azure Connect, you can use a simple user interface to configure IPsec protected connections between computers or virtual machines (VMs) in your organization’s network, and roles running in Windows Azure. With this you can now join Windows Azure role instances to your domain, so that you can use your existing methods for domain authentication, name resolution, or other domain-wide maintenance actions. For more details refer to an overview of Windows Azure connect. A very useful video explaining everything you wanted to know about Windows Azure connect. Azure Compute Windows Azure compute provides developers a platform to host and manage applications in Microsoft’s data centres across the globe. A Windows Azure application is built from one or more components called ‘roles.’ Roles come in three different types: Web role, Worker role, and Virtual Machine (VM) role, we’ll be using the Worker role to set up the Test Agents. A very nice blog post discussing the difference between the 3 role types. Developers are free to use the .NET framework or other software that runs on Windows with the Worker role or Web role. Developers can also create applications using languages such as PHP and Java. More on Windows Azure Compute. Each Windows Azure compute instance represents a virtual server... Virtual Machine Size CPU Cores Memory Cost Per Hour Extra Small Shared 768 MB $0.04 Small 1 1.75 GB $0.12 Medium 2 3.50 GB $0.24 Large 4 7.00 GB $0.48 Extra Large 8 14.00 GB $0.96 You might want to review the Windows Azure Pricing FAQ. Let’s Get Started building the Test Rig… Configuration Machine Role Comments VM – 1 Domain Controller for Playpit.com On Premise VM – 2 TFS, Test Controller On Premise VM – 3 Test Agent Cloud In this blog post I would assume that you have the domain, Team Foundation Server and Test Controller Installed and set up already. If not, please refer to the TFS 2010 Installation Guide and this walkthrough on MSDN to set up your Test Controller. You can also download a preconfigured TFS 2010 VM from Brian Keller's blog, Brian also has some great hands on Labs on TFS 2010 that you may want to explore. I. Lets start building VM – 3: The Test Agent Download the Windows Azure SDK and Tools Open Visual Studio and create a new Windows Azure Project using the Cloud Template Choose the Worker Role for reasons explained in the earlier post The WorkerRole.cs implements the Run() and OnStart() methods, no code changes required. You should be able to compile the project and run it in the compute emulator (The compute emulator should have been installed as part of the Windows Azure Toolkit) on your local machine. We will only be making changes to WindowsAzureProject, open ServiceDefinition.csdef. Ensure that the vmsize is small (remember the cost chart above). Import the “Connect” module. I am importing the Connect module because I need to join the Worker role VM to the Playpit domain. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect"/> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg and note that settings with key ‘Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.%%%%’ have been added to the configuration file. This is because you decided to import the connect module. See the config below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="1" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration> Let’s go step by step and understand all the highlighted parameters and where you can find the values for them. osFamily – By default this is set to 1 (Windows Server 2008 SP2). Change this to 2 if you want the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. The Advantage of using osFamily = “2” is that you get Powershell 2.0 rather than Powershell 1.0. In Powershell 2.0 you could simply use “powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted ./myscript.ps1” and it will work while in Powershell 1.0 you will have to change the registry key by including the following in your command file “reg add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell /v ExecutionPolicy /d Unrestricted /f” before you can execute any power shell. The other reason you might want to move to os2 is if you wanted IIS 7.5. Activation Token – To enable communication between the on premise machine and the Windows Azure Worker role VM both need to have the same token. Log on to Windows Azure Management Portal, click on Connect, click on Get Activation Token, this should give you the activation token, copy the activation token to the clipboard and paste it in the configuration file. Note – Later in the blog I’ll be showing you how to install connect on the on premise machine. EnableDomainJoin – Set the value to true, ofcourse we want to join the on windows azure worker role VM to the domain. DomainFQDN, DomainControllerFQDN, DomainAccountName, DomainPassword, DomainOU, Administrators – This information is specific to your domain. I have extracted this information from the ‘service manager’ and ‘Active Directory Users and Computers’. Also, i created a new Domain-OU namely ‘CloudInstances’ so all my cloud instances joined to my domain show up here, this is optional. You can encrypt the DomainPassword – refer to the instructions here. Or hold fire, I’ll be covering that when i come to certificates and encryption in the coming section. Now once you have filled all this information up, the configuration file should look something like below, <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration> Next we will be enabling the Remote Desktop module in to the ServiceDefinition.csdef, we could make changes manually or allow a beautiful wizard to help us make changes. I prefer the second option. So right click on the Windows Azure project and choose Publish Now once you get the publish wizard, if you haven’t already you would be asked to import your Windows Azure subscription, this is simply the Msdn subscription activation key xml. Once you have done click Next to go to the Settings page and check ‘Enable Remote Desktop for all roles’. As soon as you do that you get another pop up asking you the details for the user that you would be logging in with (make sure you enter a reasonable expiry date, you do not want the user account to expire today). Notice the more information tag at the bottom, click that to get access to the certificate section. See screen shot below. From the drop down select the option to create a new certificate In the pop up window enter the friendly name for your certificate. In my case I entered ‘WAC – Test Rig’ and click ok. This will create a new certificate for you. Click on the view button to see the certificate details. Do you see the Thumbprint, this is the value that will go in the config file (very important). Now click on the Copy to File button to copy the certificate, we will need to import the certificate to the windows Azure Management portal later. So, make sure you save it a safe location. Click Finish and enter details of the user you would like to create with permissions for remote desktop access, once you have entered the details on the ‘Remote desktop configuration’ screen click on Ok. From the Publish Windows Azure Wizard screen press Cancel. Cancel because we don’t want to publish the role just yet and Yes because we want to save all the changes in the config file. Now if you go to the ServiceDefinition.csdef file you will see that the RemoteAccess and RemoteForwarder roles have been imported for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteAccess" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteForwarder" /> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Now go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg file and you see a whole bunch for setting “Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.%%%” values added for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.Enabled" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountUsername" value="Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountEncryptedPassword" value="MIIBnQYJKoZIhvcNAQcDoIIBjjCCAYoCAQAxggFOMIIBSgIBADAyMB4xHDAaBgNVBAMME1dpbmRvd 3MgQXp1cmUgVG9vbHMCEGa+B46voeO5T305N7TSG9QwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQAEggEABg4ol5Xol66Ip6QKLbAPWdmD4ae ADZ7aKj6fg4D+ATr0DXBllZHG5Umwf+84Sj2nsPeCyrg3ZDQuxrfhSbdnJwuChKV6ukXdGjX0hlowJu/4dfH4jTJC7sBWS AKaEFU7CxvqYEAL1Hf9VPL5fW6HZVmq1z+qmm4ecGKSTOJ20Fptb463wcXgR8CWGa+1w9xqJ7UmmfGeGeCHQ4QGW0IDSBU6ccg vzF2ug8/FY60K1vrWaCYOhKkxD3YBs8U9X/kOB0yQm2Git0d5tFlIPCBT2AC57bgsAYncXfHvPesI0qs7VZyghk8LVa9g5IqaM Cp6cQ7rmY/dLsKBMkDcdBHuCTAzBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwFAYIKoZIhvcNAwcECDRVifSXbA43gBApNrp40L1VTVZ1iGag+3O1" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountExpiration" value="2012-11-27T23:59:59.0000000+00:00" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteForwarder.Enabled" value="true" /> </ConfigurationSettings> <Certificates> <Certificate name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.PasswordEncryption" thumbprint="AA23016CF0BDFC344400B5B82706B608B92E4217" thumbprintAlgorithm="sha1" /> </Certificates> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration> Okay let’s look at them one at a time, Enabled - Yes, we would like to enable Remote Access. AccountUserName – This is the user name you entered while you were on the publish windows azure role screen, as detailed above. AccountEncrytedPassword – Try and decode that, the certificate is used to encrypt the password you specified for the user account. Remember earlier i said, either use the instructions or wait and i’ll be showing you encryption, now the user account i am using for rdp has the same password as my domain password, so i can simply copy the value of the AccountEncryptedPassword to the DomainPassword as well. AccountExpiration – This is the expiration as you specified in the wizard earlier, make sure your account does not expire today. Remote Forwarder – Check out the documentation, below is how I understand it, -- One role in an application that implements a remote desktop connection must import the RemoteForwarder module. The two modules work together to enable the remote desktop connections to role instances. -- If you have multiple roles defined in the service model, it does not matter which role you add the RemoteForwarder module to, but you must add it to only one of the role definitions. Certificate – Remember the certificate thumbprint from the wizard, the on premise machine and windows azure role machine that need to speak to each other must have the same thumbprint. More on that when we install Windows Azure connect Endpoints on the on premise machine. As i said earlier, in this blog post, I’ll be showing you the manual process so i won’t be scripting any star up tasks to install the test agent or register the test agent with the TFS Server. I’ll be showing you all this cool stuff in the next blog post, that’s because it’s important to understand the manual side of it, it becomes easier for you to troubleshoot in case something fails. Having said that, the changes we have made are sufficient to spin up the Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent VM, have it connected with the play.pit.com domain and have remote access enabled on it. Before we deploy the Test Agent VM we need to set up Windows Azure Connect on the TFS Server. II. Windows Azure Connect: Setting up Connect on VM – 2 i.e. TFS & Test Controller Glad you made it so far, now to enable communication between the on premise TFS/Test Controller and Azure-ed Test Agent we need to enable communication. We have set up the Azure connect module in the Test Agent configuration, now the connect end points need to be enabled on the on premise machines, let’s have a look at how we can do this. Log on to VM – 2 running the TFS Server and Test Controller Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network Click on Virtual Network, if you already have a subscription you should see the below screen shot, if not, you would be asked to complete the subscription first Click on Install Local Endpoints from the top left on the panel and you get a url appended with a token id in it, remember the token i showed you earlier, in theory the token you get here should match the token you added to the Test Agent config file. Copy the url to the clip board and paste it in IE explorer (important, the installation at present only works out of IE and you need to have cookies enabled in order to complete the installation). As stated in the pop up, you can NOT download and run the software later, you need to run it as is, since it contains a token. Once the installation completes you should see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray. Right click the Azure Connect icon, choose Diagnostics and refer to this link for diagnostic detail terminology. NOTE – Unfortunately I could not see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray, a bit of binging with Google revealed that the azure connect icon is only shown when the ‘Windows Azure Connect Endpoint’ Service is started. So go to services.msc and make sure that the service is started, if not start it, unfortunately again, the service did not start for me on a manual start and i realised that one of the dependant services was disabled, you can look at the service dependencies and start them and then start windows azure connect. Bottom line, you need to start Windows Azure connect service before you can proceed. Please refer here on MSDN for more on Troubleshooting Windows Azure connect. (Follow the next step as well) Now go back to the Windows Azure Management Portal and from Groups and Roles create a new group, lets call it ‘Test Rig’. Make sure you add the VM – 2 (the TFS Server VM where you just installed the endpoint). Now if you go back to the Azure Connect icon in the system tray and click ‘Refresh Policy’ you will notice that the disconnected status of the icon should change to ready for connection. III. Importing Certificate in to Windows Azure Management Portal But before that you need to import the certificate you created in Step I in to the Windows Azure Management Portal. Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on ‘Hosted Services, Storage Accounts & CDN’ and then ‘Management Certificates’ followed by Add Certificates as shown in the screen shot below Browse to the location where you saved the certificate earlier, remember… Refer to Step I in case you forgot. Now you should be able to see the imported certificate here, make sure the thumbprint of the certificate matches the one you inserted in the config files IV. Publish Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent Having completed I, II and III, you are ready to publish the Test Agent VM – 3 to the cloud. Go to Visual Studio and right click the Windows Azure project and select Publish. Verify the infomration in the wizard, from the advanced settings tab, you can also enabled capture of intellitrace or profiling information. Click Next and Click Publish! From the view menu bar select the Windows Azure Activity Log window. Now you should be able to see the deployment progress in real time. In the Windows Azure Management Portal, you should also be able to see the progress of creation of a new Worker Role. Once the deployment is complete you should be able to RDP (go to run prompt type mstsc and in the pop up the machine name) in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM from the Playpit network using the domain admin user account. In case you are unable to log in to the Test Agent using the domain admin user account it means the process of joining the Test Agent to the domain has failed! But the good news is, because you imported the connect module, you can connect to the Test Agent machine using Windows Azure Management Portal and troubleshoot the reason for failure, you will be able to log in with the user name and password you specified in the config file for the keys ‘RemoteAccess.AccountUsername, RemoteAccess.EncryptedPassword (just that enter the password unencrypted)’, fix it or manually join the machine to the domain. Once you have managed to Join the Test Agent VM to the Domain move to the next step. So, log in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM with the Playpit Domain Administrator and verify that you can log in, the machine is connected to the domain and the connect service is successfully running. If yes, give your self a pat on the back, you are 80% mission accomplished! Go to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network, click on Groups and Roles and click on Test Rig, click Edit Group, the edit the Test Rig group you created earlier. In the Connect to section, click on Add to select the worker role you have just deployed. Also, check the ‘Allow connections between endpoints in the group’ with this you will enable to communication between test controller and test agents and test agents/test agents. Click Save. Now, you are ready to deploy the Test Agent software on the Worker Role Test Agent VM and configure it to work with the Test Controller. V. Configuring VM – 3: Installing Test Agent and Associating Test Agent to Controller Log in to the Worker Role Test Agent VM that you have just successfully deployed, make sure you log in with the domain administrator account. Download the All Agents software from MSDN, ‘en_visual_studio_agents_2010_x86_x64_dvd_509679.iso’, extract the iso and navigate to where you have extracted the iso. In my case, i have extracted the iso to “C:\Resources\Temp\VsAgentSetup”. Open the Test Agent folder and double click on setup.exe. Once you have installed the Test Agent you should reach the configuration window. If you face any issues installing TFS Test Agent on the VM, refer to the walkthrough on MSDN. Once you have successfully installed the Test Agent software you will need to configure the test agent. Right click the test agent configuration tool and run as a different user. i.e. an Administrator. This is really to run the configuration wizard with elevated privileges (you might have UAC block something's otherwise). In the run options, you can select ‘service’ you do not need to run the agent as interactive un less you are running coded UI tests. I have specified the domain administrator to connect to the TFS Test Controller. In real life, i would never do that, i would create a separate test user service account for this purpose. But for the blog post, we are using the most powerful user so that any policies or restrictions don’t block you. Click the Apply Settings button and you should be all green! If not, the summary usually gives helpful error messages that you can resolve and proceed. As per my experience, you may run in to either a permission or a firewall blocking communication issue. And now the moment of truth! Go to VM –2 open up Visual Studio and from the Test Menu select Manage Test Controller Mission Accomplished! You should be able to see the Test Agent that you have just configured here, VI. Creating and Running Load Tests on your brand new Azure-ed Test Rig I have various blog posts on Performance Testing with Visual Studio Ultimate, you can follow the links and videos below, Blog Posts: - Part 1 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 2 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 3 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Videos: - Test Tools Configuration & Settings in Visual Studio - Why & How to Record Web Performance Tests in Visual Studio Ultimate - Goal Driven Load Testing using Visual Studio Ultimate Now that you have created your load tests, there is one last change you need to make before you can run the tests on your Azure Test Rig, create a new Test settings file, and change the Test Execution method to ‘Remote Execution’ and select the test controller you have configured the Worker Role Test Agent against in our case VM – 2 So, go on, fire off a test run and see the results of the test being executed on the Azur-ed Test Rig. Review and What’s next? A quick recap of the benefits of running the Test Rig in the cloud and what i will be covering in the next blog post AND I would love to hear your feedback! Advantages Utilizing the power of Azure compute to run a heavy virtual user load. Benefiting from the Azure flexibility, destroy Test Agents when not in use, takes < 25 minutes to spin up a new Test Agent. Most important test Network Latency, (network latency and speed of connection are two different things – usually network latency is very hard to test), by placing the Test Agents in Microsoft Data centres around the globe, one can actually test the lag in transferring the bytes not because of a slow connection but because the page has been requested from the other side of the globe. Next Steps The process of spinning up the Test Agents in windows Azure is not 100% automated. I am working on the Worker process and power shell scripts to make the role deployment, unattended install of test agent software and registration of the test agent to the test controller automated. In the next blog post I will show you how to make the complete process unattended and automated. Remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Hope you enjoyed this post, I would love to hear your feedback! If you have any recommendations on things that I should consider or any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment. See you in Part III. Share this post : CodeProject

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Jframe using multiple classes?

- by user2945880

and im trying to make it so it can show multiple classes at once Jframe: import javax.swing.JFrame; import java.awt.BorderLayout; public class Concert { public static void main(String[] args) { JFrame frame = new JFrame(); frame.setSize(1000, 800); frame.setTitle("Concert!"); frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); Concertbackground component = new Concertbackground(); BandComponent component1 = new BandComponent(); frame.add(component, BorderLayout.NORTH); frame.add(component1, BorderLayout.CENTER); frame.setVisible(true); } } These are the two classes mentioned in the Jframe: import java.awt.Color; import java.awt.Graphics; import java.awt.Graphics2D; import java.awt.Rectangle; import java.awt.geom.Ellipse2D; import java.awt.geom.Line2D; import javax.swing.JComponent; import java.awt.Polygon; /* BandComponent.java Justin Walker 10/27/13 */ public class BandComponent extends JComponent { public void paintComponent(Graphics g) { // Recover Graphics2D Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g; int xScale = 250; int yScale = 100; int x = 343; int y = 343; //singer Polygon sing = new Polygon(); sing.addPoint(667 ,208 + xScale); sing.addPoint(676,213 + xScale); sing.addPoint(678,217 + xScale); sing.addPoint(682,221 + xScale); sing.addPoint(681,224 + xScale); sing.addPoint(680,231 + xScale); sing.addPoint(676,242 + xScale); sing.addPoint(672,244 + xScale); sing.addPoint(672,250 + xScale); sing.addPoint(682,248 + xScale); sing.addPoint(713,244 + xScale); sing.addPoint(734,247 + xScale); sing.addPoint(750,247 + xScale); sing.addPoint(794,232 + xScale); sing.addPoint(800,231 + xScale); sing.addPoint(801,223 + xScale); sing.addPoint(807,219 + xScale); sing.addPoint(806,221 + xScale); sing.addPoint(806,229 + xScale); sing.addPoint(818,222 + xScale); sing.addPoint(820,223 + xScale); sing.addPoint(825,227 + xScale); sing.addPoint(825,240 + xScale); sing.addPoint(817,243 + xScale); sing.addPoint(807,245 + xScale); sing.addPoint(803,247 + xScale); sing.addPoint(801,252 + xScale); sing.addPoint(781,257 + xScale); sing.addPoint(762,264 + xScale); sing.addPoint(734,271 + xScale); sing.addPoint(701,286 + xScale); sing.addPoint(691,296 + xScale); sing.addPoint(693,311 + xScale); sing.addPoint(690,317 + xScale); sing.addPoint(690,335 + xScale); sing.addPoint(691,339 + xScale); sing.addPoint(689,343 + xScale); sing.addPoint(712,382 + xScale); sing.addPoint(725,400 + xScale); sing.addPoint(731,418 + xScale); sing.addPoint(731,428 + xScale); sing.addPoint(738,454 + xScale); sing.addPoint(741,460 + xScale); sing.addPoint(746,468 + xScale); sing.addPoint(766,468 + xScale); sing.addPoint(771,481 + xScale);// sing.addPoint(723,482 + xScale); sing.addPoint(720,462 + xScale); sing.addPoint(718,454 + xScale); sing.addPoint(709,436 + xScale); sing.addPoint(703,436 + xScale); sing.addPoint(699,417 + xScale); sing.addPoint(686,396 + xScale); sing.addPoint(678,395 + xScale); sing.addPoint(676,437 + xScale); sing.addPoint(673,439 + xScale); sing.addPoint(638,435 + xScale); sing.addPoint(640,398 + xScale); sing.addPoint(634,410 + xScale); sing.addPoint(625,416 + xScale); sing.addPoint(622,436 + xScale); sing.addPoint(622,443 + xScale); sing.addPoint(615,447 + xScale); sing.addPoint(609,456 + xScale); sing.addPoint(606,481 + xScale);// sing.addPoint(557,481 + xScale); sing.addPoint(560,467 + xScale); sing.addPoint(579,467 + xScale); sing.addPoint(587,464 + xScale); sing.addPoint(593,452 + xScale); sing.addPoint(594,441 + xScale); sing.addPoint(592,434 + xScale); sing.addPoint(600,416 + xScale); sing.addPoint(608,405 + xScale); sing.addPoint(609,394 + xScale); sing.addPoint(617,376 + xScale); sing.addPoint(619,363 + xScale); sing.addPoint(632,334 + xScale); sing.addPoint(637,324 + xScale); sing.addPoint(635,314 + xScale); sing.addPoint(639,296 + xScale); sing.addPoint(627,285 + xScale); sing.addPoint(600,279 + xScale); sing.addPoint(582,278 + xScale); sing.addPoint(575,275 + xScale); sing.addPoint(546,256 + xScale); sing.addPoint(536,252 + xScale); sing.addPoint(533,350 + xScale); sing.addPoint(534,361 + xScale); sing.addPoint(532,367 + xScale); sing.addPoint(529,369 + xScale); sing.addPoint(524,363 + xScale); sing.addPoint(525,355 + xScale); sing.addPoint(531,254 + xScale); sing.addPoint(527,249 + xScale); sing.addPoint(527,242 + xScale); sing.addPoint(529,237 + xScale); sing.addPoint(532,237 + xScale); sing.addPoint(536,178 + xScale); sing.addPoint(534,129 + xScale); sing.addPoint(535,123 + xScale); sing.addPoint(541,120 + xScale); sing.addPoint(545,123 + xScale); sing.addPoint(547,131 + xScale); sing.addPoint(545,173 + xScale); sing.addPoint(538,233 + xScale); sing.addPoint(549,239 + xScale); sing.addPoint(558,241 + xScale); sing.addPoint(585,257 + xScale); sing.addPoint(599,257 + xScale); sing.addPoint(627,254 + xScale); sing.addPoint(647,251 + xScale); sing.addPoint(653,248 + xScale); sing.addPoint(652,235 + xScale); sing.addPoint(648,226 + xScale); sing.addPoint(652,218 + xScale); sing.addPoint(661,212 + xScale); g2.setColor(Color.black); g2.fill(sing); g2.draw(sing); //guitar Polygon guitar = new Polygon(); guitar.addPoint(148,28); guitar.addPoint(158,32); guitar.addPoint(164,38); guitar.addPoint(168,46); guitar.addPoint(169,52); guitar.addPoint(167,60); guitar.addPoint(164,65); guitar.addPoint(165,70); guitar.addPoint(161,76); guitar.addPoint(158,92); guitar.addPoint(162,97); guitar.addPoint(161,102); guitar.addPoint(158,106); guitar.addPoint(155,108); guitar.addPoint(151,127); guitar.addPoint(152,133); guitar.addPoint(155,137); guitar.addPoint(151,146); guitar.addPoint(153,147); guitar.addPoint(160,142); guitar.addPoint(162,133); guitar.addPoint(162,123); guitar.addPoint(161,113); guitar.addPoint(162,110); guitar.addPoint(164,117); guitar.addPoint(169,131); guitar.addPoint(171,144); guitar.addPoint(170,159); guitar.addPoint(166,167); guitar.addPoint(166,171); guitar.addPoint(174,174); guitar.addPoint(183,184); guitar.addPoint(191,195); guitar.addPoint(196,198); guitar.addPoint(198,200); guitar.addPoint(199,210); guitar.addPoint(211,225); guitar.addPoint(212,233); guitar.addPoint(220,248); guitar.addPoint(233,260); guitar.addPoint(245,266); guitar.addPoint(248,268); guitar.addPoint(249,277); guitar.addPoint(205,275); guitar.addPoint(204,262); guitar.addPoint(187,238); guitar.addPoint(178,224); guitar.addPoint(177,216); guitar.addPoint(156,201); guitar.addPoint(146,197); guitar.addPoint(134,211); guitar.addPoint(128,229); guitar.addPoint(125,244);// guitar.addPoint(121,246); guitar.addPoint(107,248); guitar.addPoint(100,252); guitar.addPoint(97,258); guitar.addPoint(96,253); guitar.addPoint(89,258); guitar.addPoint(65,267); guitar.addPoint(63,274); guitar.addPoint(64,283); guitar.addPoint(41,282); guitar.addPoint(44,270); guitar.addPoint(47,264); guitar.addPoint(51,255); guitar.addPoint(73,238); guitar.addPoint(79,228); guitar.addPoint(97,222); guitar.addPoint(101,204); guitar.addPoint(102,181); guitar.addPoint(100,170); guitar.addPoint(95,161); guitar.addPoint(97,154); guitar.addPoint(91,152); guitar.addPoint(77,131); guitar.addPoint(65,123); guitar.addPoint(61,105); guitar.addPoint(64,94); guitar.addPoint(72,91); guitar.addPoint(78,82); guitar.addPoint(78,76); guitar.addPoint(70,73); guitar.addPoint(70,67); guitar.addPoint(93,51); guitar.addPoint(101,48); guitar.addPoint(111,52); guitar.addPoint(118,59); guitar.addPoint(119,70); guitar.addPoint(117,78); guitar.addPoint(113,79); guitar.addPoint(112,86); guitar.addPoint(111,88); guitar.addPoint(109,89); guitar.addPoint(109,92); guitar.addPoint(122,99);// guitar.addPoint(124,99); guitar.addPoint(133,96); guitar.addPoint(145,93); //guitar.addPoint(138,124); guitar.addPoint(150,69); guitar.addPoint(150,62); guitar.addPoint(155,58); guitar.addPoint(154,53); guitar.addPoint(149,50); guitar.addPoint(154,46); guitar.addPoint(153,38); guitar.addPoint(147,28); g2.setColor(Color.black); g2.fill(guitar); g2.draw(guitar); Polygon guitar2 = new Polygon (); guitar2.addPoint(141,108); guitar2.addPoint(139,126); guitar2.addPoint(135,122); guitar2.addPoint(128,122); guitar2.addPoint(129,116); guitar2.addPoint(143,108); g2.setColor(Color.white); g2.fill(guitar2); g2.draw(guitar2); //bass guitar Polygon bassgt = new Polygon (); bassgt.addPoint(871,21); bassgt.addPoint(879,24); bassgt.addPoint(885,32); bassgt.addPoint(886,42); bassgt.addPoint(895,47); bassgt.addPoint(904,56); bassgt.addPoint(907,69); bassgt.addPoint(909,83); bassgt.addPoint(910,91); bassgt.addPoint(941,81); bassgt.addPoint(946,75); bassgt.addPoint(945,67); bassgt.addPoint(950,67); bassgt.addPoint(955,75); bassgt.addPoint(960,68); bassgt.addPoint(963,74); bassgt.addPoint(967,72); bassgt.addPoint(971,66); bassgt.addPoint(973,70); bassgt.addPoint(981,67); bassgt.addPoint(984,71); bassgt.addPoint(982,76); bassgt.addPoint(987,80); bassgt.addPoint(986,82); bassgt.addPoint(980,83); bassgt.addPoint(979,90); bassgt.addPoint(974,85); bassgt.addPoint(970,86); bassgt.addPoint(973,91); bassgt.addPoint(965,86); bassgt.addPoint(960,90); bassgt.addPoint(961,100); bassgt.addPoint(955,92); bassgt.addPoint(944,91); bassgt.addPoint(907,103); bassgt.addPoint(906,109); bassgt.addPoint(893,114); bassgt.addPoint(895,123); bassgt.addPoint(900,131); bassgt.addPoint(904,134); bassgt.addPoint(908,145); bassgt.addPoint(911,159); bassgt.addPoint(918,171); bassgt.addPoint(919,190); bassgt.addPoint(923,198); bassgt.addPoint(919,201); bassgt.addPoint(919,210); bassgt.addPoint(927,220); bassgt.addPoint(942,226); bassgt.addPoint(944,234); bassgt.addPoint(909,230); bassgt.addPoint(905,214); bassgt.addPoint(899,204); bassgt.addPoint(893,203); bassgt.addPoint(889,171); bassgt.addPoint(877,151); bassgt.addPoint(861,152); bassgt.addPoint(852,169); bassgt.addPoint(849,203); bassgt.addPoint(841,210); bassgt.addPoint(840,228); bassgt.addPoint(828,233); bassgt.addPoint(806,235); bassgt.addPoint(805,228); bassgt.addPoint(822,219); bassgt.addPoint(824,204); bassgt.addPoint(817,201); bassgt.addPoint(822,196); bassgt.addPoint(822,184); bassgt.addPoint(828,162); bassgt.addPoint(829,152); bassgt.addPoint(820,149); bassgt.addPoint(811,144); bassgt.addPoint(806,134); bassgt.addPoint(805,117); bassgt.addPoint(820,107); bassgt.addPoint(819,89); bassgt.addPoint(811,83); bassgt.addPoint(811,77); bassgt.addPoint(824,66); bassgt.addPoint(825,61); bassgt.addPoint(842,53); bassgt.addPoint(852,43); bassgt.addPoint(853,29); bassgt.addPoint(870,20); g2.setColor(Color.black); g2.fill(bassgt); g2.draw(bassgt); Polygon bassgt2 = new Polygon(); bassgt2.addPoint(845,78); bassgt2.addPoint(845,98); bassgt2.addPoint(843,98); bassgt2.addPoint(842,105); bassgt2.addPoint(839,109); bassgt2.addPoint(834,103); bassgt2.addPoint(832,85); bassgt2.addPoint(845,78); g2.setColor(Color.white); g2.fill(bassgt2); g2.draw(bassgt2); Polygon drums = new Polygon (); drums.addPoint(713,104); drums.addPoint(706,121); drums.addPoint(721,377); drums.addPoint(248,380); drums.addPoint(253,228); drums.addPoint(250,206); drums.addPoint(237,178); drums.addPoint(206,166); drums.addPoint(201,154); drums.addPoint(198,152); drums.addPoint(208,148); drums.addPoint(236,150); drums.addPoint(247,130); drums.addPoint(227,119); drums.addPoint(219,105); drums.addPoint(222,96); drums.addPoint(233,88); drums.addPoint(251,84); drums.addPoint(272,83); drums.addPoint(300,91); drums.addPoint(285,72); drums.addPoint(294,57); drums.addPoint(319,46); drums.addPoint(372,45); drums.addPoint(406,50); drums.addPoint(428,65); drums.addPoint(433,74); drums.addPoint(450,58); drums.addPoint(478,48); drums.addPoint(514,48); drums.addPoint(544,51); drums.addPoint(566,52); drums.addPoint(577,67); drums.addPoint(575,79); drums.addPoint(561,95); drums.addPoint(545,98); drums.addPoint(525,105); drums.addPoint(524,147); drums.addPoint(524,183); drums.addPoint(645,175); drums.addPoint(662,143); drums.addPoint(617,152); drums.addPoint(608,148); drums.addPoint(614,139); drums.addPoint(633,128); drums.addPoint(661,116); drums.addPoint(659,107); drums.addPoint(625,114); drums.addPoint(592,113); drums.addPoint(571,111); drums.addPoint(565,102); drums.addPoint(576,86); drums.addPoint(616,70); drums.addPoint(647,66); drums.addPoint(679,67); drums.addPoint(695,72); drums.addPoint(699,90); drums.addPoint(678,100); drums.addPoint(667,103); drums.addPoint(672,113); drums.addPoint(689,105); drums.addPoint(709,106); g2.setColor(Color.black); g2.fill(drums); g2.draw(drums); } } The second class: import java.awt.Color; import java.awt.Graphics; import java.awt.Graphics2D; import java.awt.Rectangle; import java.awt.geom.Ellipse2D; import java.awt.geom.Line2D; import javax.swing.JComponent; import java.awt.GradientPaint; /* component that draws the concert background */ public class Concertbackground extends JComponent { public void paintComponent(Graphics g) { super.paintComponent(g); // Recover Graphics2D Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g; //Background Top g2.setColor(Color.BLUE); Rectangle backgroundTop = new Rectangle (0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight() / 4); g2.fill(backgroundTop); // Background bottom g2.setColor(Color.GREEN); Rectangle backgroundBottom = new Rectangle (0, getHeight() / 2, getWidth(), getHeight() / 2); g2.fill(backgroundBottom); // Speaker base g2.setColor(Color.BLACK); Rectangle base = new Rectangle (0, 0, 50, 100); g2.fill(base); // Speakers circles gray top g2.setColor(Color.DARK_GRAY); Ellipse2D.Double speakerTop = new Ellipse2D.Double(10, 10, 30, 30); g2.fill(speakerTop); //speakers circles black top g2.setColor(Color.BLACK); Ellipse2D.Double speakerTop1 = new Ellipse2D.Double(15, 15, 20, 20); g2.fill(speakerTop1); // Speakers circles gray bottom g2.setColor(Color.DARK_GRAY); Ellipse2D.Double speakerBottom = new Ellipse2D.Double(10, 50, 30, 30); g2.fill(speakerBottom); //speakers circles black bottom g2.setColor(Color.BLACK); Ellipse2D.Double speakerBottom1 = new Ellipse2D.Double(15, 55, 20, 20); g2.fill(speakerBottom1); } } My main question is how do I change my Jframe so it can use as many classes as I want, It cant be the size of my classes because they were used with the same 1000, 800 Jframe to make the classes. I also need to be able to add more than just these two classes to my Jframe.

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Suckerfish Menu Not Working. Nested UL not displaying block

- by Brett

I'm going out of my mind with this one. I'm trying to build a suckerfish css drop down menu. I have the first level working ok but I can't get the nested ul (under the Glossary tab) to display in block format and show my a background color. I've been at this for three days and I'm about to go crazy. If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it. You can see it here: www.brettlockhart.com/blast/ body { min-width:640px; margin:0px; padding:0px 40px 0px 40px; background-color:#eee; } /*Nav One styles*/ nav#navOne ul { width:100%; min-width:640px; height:25px; margin:0px auto; padding:0px; background-image:url(/blast/images/navOneBg.png); border-radius:0px 0px 8px 8px; text-align:right; float:right; } nav#navOne ul li { position:relative; display:inline; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px auto; padding:3px 0px; border-left:1px #0b4c8f solid; line-height:23px; } nav#navOne ul li:last-child { margin-right:10px; } .arrowDown { margin: auto; font-family:Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:.7em; color:#FFF; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; } nav#navOne ul li a { margin: 0px auto; padding: 4px 10px 4px 15px; font-family:Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:.7em; color:#FFF; border-left:1px #5d9ee0 solid; text-decoration:none; line-height:23px; } /*Nav One rollover*/ nav#navOne ul li ul { display:none; background-image:none; } nav#navOne ul li:hover ul { display:block !important; } nav#navOne ul li:hover nav#navOne ul li ul li { background-color:#69C !important; left:0px; top:26px; z-index:10; } h1 { float:left; width:158px; text-indent:-9999px; background-image:url(/blast/images/logo.png); background-repeat:no-repeat; } #search { float:right; width:280px; margin:0px; padding:0px; } /*Nav Two styles*/ nav#navTwo h3 { display:inline; } nav#navTwo ul { width:100%; height:50px; margin:0 auto; padding:0px; border:1px solid red; clear:both; } nav#navTwo ul li { display:inline; border: 1px solid green; margin-top:20px; } <header> <nav id="navOne"> <ul> <li><a href="#">Sign In</a></li> <li><a href="#">Register</a></li> <li><a href="#">Print Page</a></li> <li id="glossary"><a href="#">Glossary</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Item Placeholder</a></li> <li><a href="#">Item Placeholder</a></li> <li><a href="#">Item Placeholder</a></li> <li><a href="#">Item Placeholder</a></li> <li><a href="#">Item Placeholder</a></li> <li><a href="#">Item Placeholder</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#">Text Size: A A A</a></li> <li><a href="#">Select Your Location</a> <span class="arrowDown">˅</span></li> </ul> </nav> <h1>Logo</h1> <div id="search"> <form action="?" method="get"> <fieldset> <input type="text" id="searchField"> <input type="submit" id="searchSubmit" value="Submit"> Search:<label for="radioHere">here</label> <input type="radio" id="radioHere" name="here" value="here"> <label for="radioWeb">the web</label> <input type="radio" id="radioWeb" name="the web" value="the web"> </fieldset> </form> </div> <nav id="navTwo"> <ul> <li><h3>Residential:</h3></li> <li>TV</li> <li>Internet</li> <li>Phone</li> <li>Pricing</li> <li class="navTwoSelected">Music</li> <li>Order</li> <li>Billing</li> <li>Support</li> <li>|</li> <li>Business</li> <li>About Us</li> </ul> </nav> <nav id="navThree"> <ul> <li>Today</li> <li>Watch</li> <li>Surf</li> <li>Play</li> <li class="navThreeSelected">Listen</li> <li>Learn</li> <li>Local</li> </ul> <h3>Tools:</h3> <ul> <li>Webmail</li> <li>Account</li> <li>Billing</li> <li>Order Services</li> </ul> </nav> <nav id="navFour"> <h3>Your are here:</h3> <ul id="breadcrumbs"> <li>Residential ></li> <li>My Place ></li> <li>Listen ></li> <li class="currentPage">Music</li> </ul> </nav> </header>

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lnk2019 error in very simple c++ program

- by Erin

I have tried removing various parts and building, but nothing makes the lnk2019 error go away, or even produces any normal errors. Everything is in the one file at the moment (it won't be later when it is finished). The program has three lists of words and makes a jargon phrase out of them, and you are supposed to be able to add words, remove words, view the lists, restore defaults, save changes to file, and load changes from file. #include "stdafx.h" #include <iostream> #include <string.h> using namespace std; const int maxlist = 20; string adj1[maxlist], adj2[maxlist], noun[maxlist]; void defaultlist(int list) { if(list == 1) { adj1[0] = "green"; adj1[1] = "red"; adj1[2] = "yellow"; adj1[3] = "blue"; adj1[4] = "purple"; int i = 5; while(i != maxlist) { adj1[i] = ""; i = i + 1; } } if(list == 2) { adj2[0] = "shiny"; adj2[1] = "hard"; adj2[2] = "soft"; adj2[3] = "spiky"; adj2[4] = "furry"; int i = 5; while(i != maxlist) { adj2[i] = ""; i = i + 1; } } if(list == 3) { noun[0] = "cat"; noun[1] = "dog"; noun[2] = "desk"; noun[3] = "chair"; noun[4] = "door"; int i = 5; while(i != maxlist) { noun[i] = ""; i = i + 1; } } return; } void printlist(int list) { if(list == 1) { int i = 0; while(!(i == maxlist)) { cout << adj1[i] << endl; i = i + 1; } } if(list == 2) { int i = 0; while(!(i == maxlist)) { cout << adj2[i] << endl; i = i + 1; } } if(list == 3) { int i = 0; while(!(i == maxlist)) { cout << noun[i] << endl; i = i + 1; } } return; } string makephrase() { int num1 = rand()%maxlist; int num2 = rand()%maxlist; int num3 = rand()%maxlist; int num4 = rand()%1; string word1, word2, word3; if(num4 = 0) { word1 = adj1[num1]; word2 = adj2[num2]; } else { word1 = adj2[num1]; word2 = adj1[num2]; } word3 = noun[num3]; return word1 + " ," + word2 + " " + word3; } string addword(string word, int list) { string result; if(list == 1) { int i = 0; while(!(adj1[i] == "" || i == maxlist)) { i = i + 1; } if(i == maxlist) result = "List is full. Please try again."; if(adj1[i] == "") { adj1[i] = word; result = "Word was entered successfully."; } } if(list == 2) { int i = 0; while(!(adj2[i] == "" || i == maxlist)) { i = i + 1; } if(i == maxlist) result = "List is full. Please try again."; if(adj2[i] == "") { adj2[i] = word; result = "Word was entered successfully."; } } if(list == 3) { int i = 0; while(!(noun[i] == "" || i == maxlist)) { i = i + 1; } if(i == maxlist) result = "List is full. Please try again."; if(noun[i] == "") { noun[i] = word; result = "Word was entered successfully."; } } return result; } string removeword(string word, int list) { string result; if(list == 1) { int i = 0; while(!(adj1[i] == word || i == maxlist)) { i = i + 1; } if(i == maxlist) result = "Word is not on the list. Please try again."; if(adj1[i] == word) { adj1[i] = ""; result = "Word was removed successfully."; } } if(list == 2) { int i = 0; while(!(adj2[i] == word || i == maxlist)) { i = i + 1; } if(i == maxlist) result = "Word is not on the list. Please try again."; if(adj2[i] == word) { adj2[i] = ""; result = "Word was removed successfully."; } } if(list == 3) { int i = 0; while(!(noun[i] == word || i == maxlist)) { i = i + 1; } if(i == maxlist) result = "Word is not on the list. Please try again."; if(noun[i] == word) { noun[i] = ""; result = "Word was removed successfully."; } } return result; } /////////////////////////////main/////////////////////////////////// int main() { string mainselection; string makeselection; string phrase; defaultlist(1); defaultlist(2); defaultlist(3); cout << "This program generates jargon phrases made of two adjectives and one noun,"; cout << " on three lists. Each list may contain a maximum of " << maxlist << "elements."; cout << " Please choose from the following menu by typing the appropriate number "; cout << "and pressing enter." << endl; cout << endl; cout << "1. Make a jargon phrase." << endl; cout << "2. View a list." << endl; cout << "3. Add a word to a list." << endl; cout << "4. Remove a word from a list." << endl; cout << "5. Restore default lists." << endl; cout << "More options coming soon!." << endl; cin mainselection if(mainselection == 1) { phrase = makephrase(); cout << "Your phrase is " << phrase << "." << endl; cout << "To make another phrase, press 1. To go back to the main menu,"; cout << " press 2. To exit the program, press 3." << endl; cin makeselection; while(!(makeselection == "1" || makeselection == "2" || makeselection == "3")) { cout << "You have entered an invalid selection. Please try again." << endl; cin makeselection; } while(makeselection == "1") { phrase = makephrase(); cout << "To make another phrase, press 1. To go back to the main menu,"; cout << " press 2. To exit the program, press 3." << endl; } if(makeselection == "2") main(); if(makeselection == "3") return 0; } return 0; } //Rest of the options coming soon!

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Very Unusual Margin Appears Always in Internet Explorer [CSS]

- by Jay

Only in Internet Explorer does this occur: I'm getting an additional margin (of 19 pixels) below a fieldset and I can't seem to see why, whatever I try! Try it for yourself, take a look at http://theshrop.com/d/call_us_or_call_in.php. To aid I've added a grid and some background colours. The fieldset should have a 1.125em bottom margin and it does in Safari, Firefox etc. It has an extra 19 pixels in Internet Explorer? I've given the fieldset a width and height so it hasLayout, hope this helps. body{ color:#171717; font:1em/1.125em Georgia,serif; margin:0; padding:0; } /* */ fieldset{ background:fuchsia; border:0 solid green; border-width:0.0625em 0; height:19.125em; margin:0 0 1.125em; padding:3.3125em 1.125em 1.0625em; position:relative; width:31.5em; } /* */ form dl{ margin:0; } form dl dd{ /* */ height:2.25em; margin:0 0 1.125em; position:relative; /* */ } form dl dt{ margin:0 0 1.125em; } /* */ form dl dt+dd+dt+dd{ height:7.875em; } /* */ form dl+div{ line-height:2.25em; /* */ margin:0; padding:0; /* */ } h3{ color:#701; font:bold 1em/1.125em Helvetica,Arial,serif; margin:0 0 1.125em; text-transform:uppercase; } input[type=text]{ border:0.0625em solid #171717; font:1em/1.125em Georgia,serif; height:1.125em; margin:0; padding:0.5em 1.0625em; /* */ position:absolute; top:0; /* */ } /* */ legend{ background:aqua; margin:1.0625em 0 1.125em; padding:0; position:absolute; top:0; } /* */ p{ background:lime; margin:0 0 1.125em; } textarea{ border:0.0625em solid #171717; font:1em/1.125em Georgia,serif; height:6.75em; margin:0; padding:0.5em 1.0625em; /* */ position:absolute; top:0; /* */ } .Address{ margin:0 0 1.125em; } .Address dd{ margin:0; } .Address dt{ display:none; } .Address dt+dd+dt+dd{ display:inline; } .Address dt+dd+dt+dd+dt+dd+dt+dd{ display:block; text-transform:uppercase; } .Bad{ background:#dbb; color:#901; } .Calendar{ list-style:none; margin:0; padding:0; } .Calendar dd{ background:#701; font:bold 0.5625em/2em Helvetica,Arial,serif; margin:0; text-align:center; text-transform:uppercase; } .Calendar dl{ border:0 solid #111; border-width:0.0625em 0.125em 0.125em 0.0625em; float:left; margin:-0.0625em 1em 1em 1.0625em; width:3.375em; } .Calendar dt{ display:none; } .Calendar dt+dd+dt+dd{ background:#fff; color:#171717; font:1em/2.25em Georgia,serif; margin:0; } .Calendar h4{ float:right; font:1em/1.125em Georgia,serif; margin:0 0 1.125em; width:10.125em; } .Calendar li{ clear:both; } .Calendar p{ float:right; font:1em/1.125em Georgia,serif; width:10.125em; } .Good{ background:#bdb; color:#091; } .Left{ float:left; margin:0 0.5625em 0 1.125em; } .Message{ border-style:solid; border-width:0.0625em; margin:0 0 1.125em; padding:1em 1.0625em 0; } .Message p{ margin:0 0 1.0625em; padding:0.0625em 0 0; } .Narrow{ width:15.75em; } .Narrow input[type=text]{ width:13.5em; } .Right{ float:right; margin:0 1.125em 0 0.5625em; } .Wide{ /* */ background:gray; /* */ width:31.5em; } .Wide input[type=text]{ width:29.25em; } .Wide textarea{ width:29.25em; } .Wrapper{ background:url(../i/grid_w18_h18.png); margin:0 auto; overflow:hidden; padding:1.125em 0 0; position:relative; width:50.625em; } #Blackboard{ background:#171717; color:#fff; margin:1.125em 0 0; min-width:50.625em; } #Blackboard a{ background:#111; color:#fff; } #Blackboard h3{ color:#fff; } #Blackboard div>p{ font:1.5em/1.5em Georgia,serif; } #Footer{ background:#901; clear:both; color:#fff; min-width:50.625em; } #Footer h3{ color:#fff; } #Google_Copilot ol{ padding:0; } #Google_Copilot ol li{ list-style:none; margin:0 0 1.125em; padding:0; /* I.E.7 Fix */ } #Google_Map{ height:23.625em; margin:0 0 1.125em; width:31.5em; } #Google_Query dt{ /* display:none; */ } #Header{ background:#901; min-width:50.625em; } #Header h1{ background:url(../i/the_shropshire_arms_w288_h72.gif) no-repeat 0 2.8125em; font:1em/1.125em serif; height:7.875em; margin:0 0 0 0.5625em; width:18em; } #Header h1 a{ display:none; } #Header h2{ background-color:#933; display:inline; font:1em/2.25em Georgia,serif; left:0; margin:1.125em 0 0 0.5625em; padding:0 0.5625em; position:absolute; top:0; } #Header h2 a{ color:#fff; text-decoration:none; } #Header h2 a span{ text-decoration:underline; } #Header ul{ list-style:none; height:2.25em; margin:0; padding:0; } #Header ul li{ display:inline; /* I.E.7 Fix */ } #Header ul li a{ background:#fff; color:#000; float:left; line-height:2.25em; margin:0 0 0 0.5625em; padding:0 0.5625em; text-decoration:none; } #Header .Wrapper{ background:url(../i/shield_w126_h126.gif) no-repeat 42.1875em 1.6875em; } This post could get stupidly long so I'll provide a link to the Web page rather than post the HTML: http://theshrop.com/d/call_us_or_call_in.php I really appreciate answers and all who contribute, thanks in advance!

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Gui problem after rewriting to MVC

- by trevor_nise

I'm practicing MVC style programming. I have a Mastermind game in a single file, working with no problems (maybe apart of the fact that "Check" button is invisible at start). http://paste.pocoo.org/show/226726/ But when I've rewritten it to model, view, controller files - when I click on empty Pin (that should be updated, and repainted with new color) - noting happens. Can anybody see any problems here ? I've tried placing repaint() in different places, but it simply does not work at all :/ Main : public class Main { public static void main(String[] args){ Model model = new Model(); View view = new View("Mastermind", 400, 590, model); Controller controller = new Controller(model, view); view.setVisible(true); } } Model : import java.util.Random; public class Model{ static final int LINE = 5, SCORE = 10, OPTIONS = 20; Pin pins[][] = new Pin[21][LINE]; int combination[] = new int[LINE]; int curPin = 0; int turn = 1; Random generator = new Random(); int repaintPin; boolean pinsRepaint=false; int pinsToRepaint; boolean isUpdate = true, isPlaying = true, isRowFull = false; static final int HIT_X[] = {270,290,310,290,310}, HIT_Y[] = {506,496,496,516,516}; public Model(){ for ( int i=0; i < SCORE; i++ ){ for ( int j = 0; j < LINE; j++ ){ pins[i][j] = new Pin(20,0); pins[i][j].setPosition(j*50+30,510-i*50); pins[i+SCORE][j] = new Pin(8,0); pins[i+SCORE][j].setPosition(HIT_X[j],HIT_Y[j]-i*50); } } for ( int i=0; i < LINE; i++ ){ pins[OPTIONS][i] = new Pin( 20, i+2 ); pins[OPTIONS][i].setPosition( 370,i * 50 + 56); } } void fillHole(int color) { pins[turn-1][curPin].setColor(color+1); pinsRepaint = true; pinsToRepaint = turn; curPin = (curPin+1) % LINE; if (curPin == 0){ isRowFull = true; } pinsRepaint = false; pinsToRepaint = 0; } void check() { int junkPins[] = new int[LINE], junkCode[] = new int[LINE]; int pinCount = 0, pico = 0; for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ) { junkPins[i] = pins[turn-1][i].getColor(); junkCode[i] = combination[i]; } for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ){ if (junkPins[i]==junkCode[i]) { pins[turn+SCORE][pinCount].setColor(1); pinCount++; pico++; junkPins[i] = 98; junkCode[i] = 99; } } for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ){ for ( int j = 0; j < LINE; j++ ) if (junkPins[i]==junkCode[j]) { pins[turn+SCORE][pinCount].setColor(2); pinCount++; junkPins[i] = 98; junkCode[j] = 99; j = LINE; } } pinsRepaint = true; pinsToRepaint = turn + SCORE; pinsRepaint = false; pinsToRepaint=0; if ( pico == LINE ){ isPlaying = false; } else if ( turn >= 10 ){ isPlaying = false; } else{ curPin = 0; isRowFull = false; turn++; } } void combination() { for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ){ combination[i] = generator.nextInt(6) + 1; } } } class Pin{ private int color, X, Y, radius; public Pin(){ X = 0; Y = 0; radius = 0; color = 0; } public Pin( int r,int c ){ X = 0; Y = 0; radius = r; color = c; } public int getX(){ return X; } public int getY(){ return Y; } public int getRadius(){ return radius; } public void setRadius(int r){ radius = r; } public void setPosition( int x,int y ){ this.X = x ; this.Y = y ; } public void setColor( int c ){ color = c; } public int getColor() { return color; } } View: import java.awt.*; import javax.swing.*; public class View extends Frame{ Model model; JButton checkAnswer; private JPanel button; private static final Color COLORS[] = {Color.black, Color.white, Color.red, Color.yellow, Color.green, Color.blue, new Color(7, 254, 250)}; public View(String name, int w, int h, Model m){ model = m; setTitle( name ); setSize( w,h ); setResizable( false ); this.setLayout(new BorderLayout()); button = new JPanel(); button.setSize( new Dimension(400, 100)); button.setVisible(true); checkAnswer = new JButton("Check"); checkAnswer.setSize( new Dimension(200, 30)); button.add( checkAnswer ); this.add( button, BorderLayout.SOUTH); button.setVisible(true); } @Override public void paint( Graphics g ) { g.setColor( new Color(238, 238, 238)); g.fillRect( 0,0,400,590); for ( int i=0; i < model.pins.length; i++ ) { paintPins(model.pins[i][0],g); paintPins(model.pins[i][1],g); paintPins(model.pins[i][2],g); paintPins(model.pins[i][3],g); paintPins(model.pins[i][4],g); } } @Override public void update( Graphics g ) { if ( model.isUpdate ) { paint(g); } else { model.isUpdate = true; paintPins(model.pins[model.repaintPin-1][0],g); paintPins(model.pins[model.repaintPin-1][1],g); paintPins(model.pins[model.repaintPin-1][2],g); paintPins(model.pins[model.repaintPin-1][3],g); paintPins(model.pins[model.repaintPin-1][4],g); } } void repaintPins( int pin ) { model.repaintPin = pin; model.isUpdate = false; repaint(); } public void paintPins(Pin p, Graphics g ){ int X = p.getX(); int Y = p.getY(); int color = p.getColor(); int radius = p.getRadius(); int x = X-radius; int y = Y-radius; if (color > 0){ g.setColor( COLORS[color]); g.fillOval( x,y,2*radius,2*radius ); } else{ g.setColor( new Color(238, 238, 238) ); g.drawOval( x,y,2*radius-1,2*radius-1 ); } g.setColor( Color.black ); g.drawOval( x,y,2*radius,2*radius ); } } Controller: import java.awt.*; import java.awt.event.*; public class Controller implements MouseListener, ActionListener { private Model model; private View view; public Controller(Model m, View v){ model = m; view = v; view.addWindowListener( new WindowAdapter(){ public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e){ System.exit(0); } }); view.addMouseListener(this); view.checkAnswer.addActionListener(this); model.combination(); } public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent e ) { if(e.getSource() == view.checkAnswer){ if(model.isRowFull){ model.check(); } } } public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) { Point mouse = new Point(); mouse = e.getPoint(); if (model.isPlaying){ if (mouse.x > 350) { int button = 1 + (int)((mouse.y - 32) / 50); if ((button >= 1) && (button <= 5)){ model.fillHole(button); if(model.pinsRepaint){ view.repaintPins( model.pinsToRepaint ); } } } } } public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {} public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e){} public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {} public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {} }

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Problem with richfaces ajax datatable + buttons

- by Schyzotrop

Hello i have another problem with RichFaces this is my application and it shows how i want it to work : http://www.screencast.com/users/Schyzotrop/folders/Jing/media/a299dc1e-7a10-440e-8c39-96b1ec6e85a4 this is video of some glitch that i can't solve http://screencast.com/t/MDFiMGMzY the problem is that when i am trying to press any buttons on others than 1st category it won't do anything IF 1st category has less rows than the one i am calling it from from 1st category it works always i am using follwoing code in jsp for collumns : <h:form id="categoryAttributeList"> <rich:panel> <f:facet name="header"> <h:outputText value="Category Attribute List" /> </f:facet> <rich:dataTable id="table" value="#{categoryAttributeBean.allCategoryAttribute}" var="cat" width="100%" rows="10" columnClasses="col1,col2,col2,col3"> <f:facet name="header"> <rich:columnGroup> <h:column>Name</h:column> <h:column>Description</h:column> <h:column>Category</h:column> <h:column>Actions</h:column> </rich:columnGroup> </f:facet> <rich:column filterMethod="#{categoryAttributeFilteringBean.filterNames}"> <f:facet name="header"> <h:inputText value="#{categoryAttributeFilteringBean.filterNameValue}" id="input"> <a4j:support event="onkeyup" reRender="table , ds" ignoreDupResponses="true" requestDelay="700" oncomplete="setCaretToEnd(event);" /> </h:inputText> </f:facet> <h:outputText value="#{cat.name}" /> </rich:column> <rich:column filterMethod="#{categoryAttributeFilteringBean.filterDescriptions}"> <f:facet name="header"> <h:inputText value="#{categoryAttributeFilteringBean.filterDescriptionValue}" id="input2"> <a4j:support event="onkeyup" reRender="table , ds" ignoreDupResponses="true" requestDelay="700" oncomplete="setCaretToEnd(event);" /> </h:inputText> </f:facet> <h:outputText value="#{cat.description}" /> </rich:column> <rich:column filterMethod="#{categoryAttributeFilteringBean.filterCategories}"> <f:facet name="header"> <h:selectOneMenu value="#{categoryAttributeFilteringBean.filterCategoryValue}"> <f:selectItems value="#{categoryAttributeFilteringBean.categories}" /> <a4j:support event="onchange" reRender="table, ds" /> </h:selectOneMenu> </f:facet> <h:outputText value="#{cat.categoryID.name}" /> </rich:column> <h:column> <a4j:commandButton value="Edit" reRender="pnl" action="#{categoryAttributeBean.editCategoryAttributeSetup}"> <a4j:actionparam name="categoryAttributeID" value="#{cat.categoryAttributeID}" assignTo="#{categoryAttributeBean.id}" /> <a4j:actionparam name="state" value="edit" /> <a4j:actionparam name="editId" value="#{cat.categoryAttributeID}" /> </a4j:commandButton> <a4j:commandButton reRender="categoryAttributeList" value="Delete" action="#{categoryAttributeBean.deleteCategoryAttribute}"> <a4j:actionparam name="categoryAttributeID" value="#{cat.categoryAttributeID}" assignTo="#{categoryAttributeBean.id}" /> </a4j:commandButton> </h:column> <f:facet name="footer"> <rich:datascroller id="ds" renderIfSinglePage="false"></rich:datascroller> </f:facet> </rich:dataTable> <rich:panel id="msg"> <h:messages errorStyle="color:red" infoStyle="color:green"></h:messages> </rich:panel> </rich:panel> </h:form> and here is code of my backing bean @EJB private CategoryBeanLocal categoryBean; private CategoryAttribute categoryAttribute = new CategoryAttribute(); private ArrayList<SelectItem> categories = new ArrayList<SelectItem>(); private int id; private int categoryid; // Actions public void newCategoryAttribute() { categoryAttribute.setCategoryID(categoryBean.findCategoryByID(categoryid)); categoryBean.addCategoryAttribute(categoryAttribute); FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage("newCategoryAttribute", new FacesMessage("CategoryAttribute " + categoryAttribute.getName() + " created.")); this.categoryAttribute = new CategoryAttribute(); } public void editCategoryAttributeSetup() { categoryAttribute = categoryBean.findCategoryAttributeByID(id); } public void editCategoryAttribute() { categoryAttribute.setCategoryID(categoryBean.findCategoryByID(categoryid)); categoryBean.updateCategoryAttribute(categoryAttribute); FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage("newCategoryAttribute", new FacesMessage("CategoryAttribute " + categoryAttribute.getName() + " edited.")); this.categoryAttribute = new CategoryAttribute(); } public void deleteCategoryAttribute() { categoryAttribute = categoryBean.findCategoryAttributeByID(id); categoryBean.removeCategoryAttribute(categoryAttribute); FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage("categoryAttributeList", new FacesMessage("CategoryAttribute " + categoryAttribute.getName() + " deleted.")); this.categoryAttribute = new CategoryAttribute(); } // Getters public CategoryAttribute getCategoryAttribute() { return categoryAttribute; } public List<CategoryAttribute> getAllCategoryAttribute() { return categoryBean.findAllCategoryAttributes(); } public ArrayList<SelectItem> getCategories() { categories.clear(); List<Category> allCategory = categoryBean.findAllCategory(); Iterator it = allCategory.iterator(); while (it.hasNext()) { Category cat = (Category) it.next(); SelectItem select = new SelectItem(); select.setLabel(cat.getName()); select.setValue(cat.getCategoryID()); categories.add(select); } return categories; } public int getId() { return id; } public int getCategoryid() { return categoryid; } // Setters public void setCategoryAttribute(CategoryAttribute categoryAttribute) { this.categoryAttribute = categoryAttribute; } public void setId(int id) { this.id = id; } public void setCategoryid(int categoryid) { this.categoryid = categoryid; } and here is filtering bean : @EJB private CategoryBeanLocal categoryBean; private String filterNameValue = ""; private String filterDescriptionValue = ""; private int filterCategoryValue = 0; private ArrayList<SelectItem> categories = new ArrayList<SelectItem>(); public boolean filterNames(Object current) { CategoryAttribute currentName = (CategoryAttribute) current; if (filterNameValue.length() == 0) { return true; } if (currentName.getName().toLowerCase().contains(filterNameValue.toLowerCase())) { return true; } else { System.out.println("name"); return false; } } public boolean filterDescriptions(Object current) { CategoryAttribute currentDescription = (CategoryAttribute) current; if (filterDescriptionValue.length() == 0) { return true; } if (currentDescription.getDescription().toLowerCase().contains(filterDescriptionValue.toLowerCase())) { return true; } else { System.out.println("desc"); return false; } } public boolean filterCategories(Object current) { if (filterCategoryValue == 0) { getCategories(); filterCategoryValue = new Integer(categories.get(0).getValue().toString()); } CategoryAttribute currentCategory = (CategoryAttribute) current; if (currentCategory.getCategoryID().getCategoryID() == filterCategoryValue) { return true; } else { System.out.println(currentCategory.getCategoryID().getCategoryID() + "cate" + filterCategoryValue); return false; } } public ArrayList<SelectItem> getCategories() { categories.clear(); List<Category> allCategory = categoryBean.findAllCategory(); Iterator it = allCategory.iterator(); while (it.hasNext()) { Category cat = (Category) it.next(); SelectItem select = new SelectItem(); select.setLabel(cat.getName()); select.setValue(cat.getCategoryID()); categories.add(select); } return categories; } public String getFilterDescriptionValue() { return filterDescriptionValue; } public String getFilterNameValue() { return filterNameValue; } public int getFilterCategoryValue() { return filterCategoryValue; } public void setFilterDescriptionValue(String filterDescriptionValue) { this.filterDescriptionValue = filterDescriptionValue; } public void setFilterNameValue(String filterNameValue) { this.filterNameValue = filterNameValue; } public void setFilterCategoryValue(int filterCategoryValue) { this.filterCategoryValue = filterCategoryValue; } unfortunetly i can't even imagine what could cause this problem that's why i even made videos to help u understand my problem thanks for help!

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Storing unique values into an array and comparing against a loop - PHP

- by Aphex22

I'm writing a PHP report which is designed to be exported purely as a CSV file, using commma delimiters. There are three columns relating to product_id, these three columns are as follows: SKU Parent / Child Parent SKU 12345 parent 12345 12345_1 child 12345 12345_2 child 12345 12345_3 child 12345 12345_4 child 12345 18099 parent 18099 18099_1 child 18099 Here's a link to the full CSV file: http://i.imgur.com/XELufRd.png At the moment the code looks like this: $sql = "select * from product WHERE on_amazon = 'on' AND active = 'on'"; $result = mysql_query($sql) or die ( mysql_error() );?> <? // set headers echo " Type, SKU, Parent / Child, Parent SKU, Product name, Manufacturer name, Gender, Product_description, Product price, Discount price, Quantity, Category, Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3, Photo 4, Photo 5, Photo 6, Photo 7, Photo 8, Color id, Color name, Size name <br> "; // load all stock while ($line = mysql_fetch_assoc($result) ) { ?> <?php // Loop through each possible size variation to see whether any of the quantity column has stock > 0 $con_size = array (35,355,36,37,375,38,385,39,395,40,405,41,415,42,425,43,435,44,445,45,455,46,465,47,475,48,485); $arrlength=count($con_size); for($x=0;$x<$arrlength;$x++) { // check if size is available if($line['quantity_c_size_'.$con_size[$x].'_chain'] > 0 ) { ?> <? echo 'Shoes'; ?>, <?=$line['product_id']?>, , , <?=$line['title']?>, <? $brand = $line['jys_brand']; echo ucfirst($brand); ?>, <? $gender = $line['category']; if ($gender == 'Mens') { echo 'H'; } else{ echo 'F'; } ?>, <?=preg_replace('/[^\da-z]/i', ' ', $line['amazon_desc']) ?>, <?=$line['price']?>, <?=$line['price']?>, <?=$line['quantity_c_size_'.$con_size[$x].'_chain']?>, <? $category = $line['style1']; switch ($category) { case "ankle-boots": echo "10013"; break; case "knee-high-boots": echo "10011"; break; case "high-heel-boots": echo "10033"; break; case "low-heel-boots": echo "10014"; break; case "wedge-boots": echo "10014"; break; case "western-boots": echo "10032"; break; case "flat-shoes": echo "10034"; break; case "high-heel-shoes": echo "10039"; break; case "low-heel-shoes": echo "10039"; break; case "wedge-shoes": echo "10035"; break; case "ballerina-shoes": echo "10008"; break; case "boat-shoes": echo "10018"; break; case "loafer-shoes": echo "10037"; break; case "work-shoes": echo "10039"; break; case "flat-sandals": echo "10041"; break; case "low-heel-sandals": echo "10042"; break; case "high-heel-sandals": echo "10042"; break; case "wedge-sandals": echo "10042"; break; case "mule-sandals": echo "10038"; break; case "mary-jane-shoes": echo "10039"; break; case "sports-shoes": echo "10026"; break; case "court-shoes": echo "10035"; break; case "peep-toe-shoes": echo "10035"; break; case "flat-boots": echo "10609"; break; case "mid-calf-boots": echo "10014"; break; case "trainer-shoes": echo "10009"; break; case "wellington-boots": echo "10012"; break; case "lace-up-boots": echo "10609"; break; case "chelsea-and-jodphur-boots": echo "10609"; break; case "desert-and-chukka-boots": echo "10032"; break; case "lace-up-shoes": echo "10034"; break; case "slip-on-shoes": echo "10043"; break; case "gibson-and-derby-shoes": echo "10039"; break; case "oxford-shoes": echo "10039"; break; case "brogue-shoes": echo "10039"; break; case "winter-boots": echo "10021"; break; case "slipper-shoes": echo "10016"; break; case "mid-heel-shoes": echo "10039"; break; case "sandals-and-beach-shoes": echo "10044"; break; case "mid-heel-sandals": echo "10042"; break; case "mid-heel-boots": echo "10014"; break; default: echo ""; } ?>, http://www.getashoe.co.uk/full/<?=$line['product_id']?>_1.jpg, http://www.getashoe.co.uk/full/<?=$line['product_id']?>_2.jpg, http://www.getashoe.co.uk/full/<?=$line['product_id']?>_3.jpg, http://www.getashoe.co.uk/full/<?=$line['product_id']?>_4.jpg, , , , , <? $colour = preg_replace('/[^\da-z]/i', ' ', $line['colour']); if( preg_match( '/white.*/i', $colour)) { echo '1'; } elseif( preg_match( '/yellow.*/i', $colour)) { echo '4'; } elseif( preg_match( '/orange.*/i', $colour)) { echo '7'; } elseif( preg_match( '/red.*/i', $colour)) { echo '8'; } elseif( preg_match( '/pink.*/i', $colour)) { echo '13'; } elseif( preg_match( '/purple.*/i', $colour)) { echo '15'; } elseif( preg_match( '/blue.*/i', $colour)) { echo '19'; } elseif( preg_match( '/green.*/i', $colour)) { echo '25'; } elseif( preg_match( '/brown.*/i', $colour)) { echo '28'; } elseif( preg_match( '/grey.*/i', $colour)) { echo '35'; } elseif( preg_match( '/black.*/i', $colour)) { echo '38'; } elseif( preg_match( '/gold.*/i', $colour)) { echo '41'; } elseif( preg_match( '/silver.*/i', $colour)) { echo '46'; } elseif( preg_match( '/multi.*/i', $colour)) { echo '594'; } elseif( preg_match( '/beige.*/i', $colour)) { echo '6887'; } elseif( preg_match( '/nude.*/i', $colour)) { echo '6887'; } else { echo '534'; } ?>, <?=$line['colour']?>, <?=$con_size[$x]?> <br> <? // finish checking if size is available } } ?> So at the moment this is simply echoing out the product_ID into the SKU column. The code would need to enter the product_id into an array and check whether it is unique. If the product_id is unique to the array, then the product_id is echoed out unaltered, and parent is echoed out to the 'Parent/Child' column and then the product_id is repeated to the 'Parent SKU' column. However, if the array is checked and the product_id already exists in the array, then the product_id is echoed out to the 'SKU' column with a suffix i.e. _1. Then child is echoed to the 'Parent / Child' column and the original parent product_id echoed to the 'Parent SKU' column. HOWEVER - the same SKU cannot be repeated with the same suffix i.e. 12345_1, 12345_1 - so presumably there would be to be another array for the suffixed SKUs to be checked against. If anybody could help, it would be great. Thanks --- UPDATE ANSWER --- I managed to solved this myself and thought I would share my solution for future reference. /* * Array to collect product_ids and check whether unique. * If unique product_id becomes parent SKU * If not product_id becomes child of previous parent and suffixed with _1, _2 etc... */ if (!in_array($line['product_id'], $SKU)) { $SKU[] = $line['product_id']; $parent = $line['product_id']; $a = 0; ?> <? echo 'Shoes'; ?>, <? echo $parent; ?>, <? echo "Parent"; ?>, <? echo $parent; ?>, <? } else { $child = $line['product_id'] . "_" . $a; ?> <? echo 'Shoes'; ?>, <? echo $child; ?>, <? echo "Child"; ?>, <? echo $child; <? // increment suffix value for child SKU $a++; ?>

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Cnoverting application to MVC architecture

- by terence6

I'm practicing writing MVC applications. I have a Mastermind game, that I would like to rewrite as MVC app. I have divided my code to parts, but instead of working game I'm getting empty Frame and an error in "public void paint( Graphics g )". Error comes from calling this method in my view with null argument. But how to overcome this ? MVC was quite simple with swing but awt and it's paint methods are much more complicated. Code of working app : http://paste.pocoo.org/show/224982/ App divided to MVC : Main : public class Main { public static void main(String[] args){ Model model = new Model(); View view = new View("Mastermind", 400, 590, model); Controller controller = new Controller(model, view); view.setVisible(true); } } Controller : import java.awt.*; import java.awt.event.*; public class Controller implements MouseListener, ActionListener { private Model model; private View view; public Controller(Model m, View v){ model = m; view = v; view.addWindowListener( new WindowAdapter(){ public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e){ System.exit(0); } }); view.addMouseListener(this); } public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent e ) { if(e.getSource() == view.checkAnswer){ if(model.isRowFull){ model.check(); } } } public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) { Point mouse = new Point(); mouse = e.getPoint(); if (model.isPlaying){ if (mouse.x > 350) { int button = 1 + (int)((mouse.y - 32) / 50); if ((button >= 1) && (button <= 5)){ model.fillHole(button); } } } } public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {} public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e){} public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {} public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {} } View : import java.awt.*; import javax.swing.*; import java.awt.event.*; public class View extends Frame implements ActionListener { Model model; JButton checkAnswer; private JPanel button; static final int HIT_X[] = {270,290,310,290,310}, HIT_Y[] = {506,496,496,516,516}; public View(String name, int w, int h, Model m){ model = m; setTitle( name ); setSize( w,h ); setResizable( false ); this.setLayout(new BorderLayout()); button = new JPanel(); button.setSize( new Dimension(400, 100)); button.setVisible(true); checkAnswer = new JButton("Check"); checkAnswer.addActionListener(this); checkAnswer.setSize( new Dimension(200, 30)); button.add( checkAnswer ); this.add( button, BorderLayout.SOUTH); button.setVisible(true); for ( int i=0; i < model.SCORE; i++ ){ for ( int j = 0; j < model.LINE; j++ ){ model.pins[i][j] = new Pin(20,0); model.pins[i][j].setPosition(j*50+30,510-i*50); model.pins[i+model.SCORE][j] = new Pin(8,0); model.pins[i+model.SCORE][j].setPosition(HIT_X[j],HIT_Y[j]-i*50); } } for ( int i=0; i < model.LINE; i++ ){ model.pins[model.OPTIONS][i] = new Pin( 20, i+2 ); model.pins[model.OPTIONS][i].setPosition( 370,i * 50 + 56); } model.combination(); model.paint(null); } public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent e ) { } } Model: import java.awt.*; public class Model extends Frame{ static final int LINE = 5, SCORE = 10, OPTIONS = 20; Pin pins[][] = new Pin[21][LINE]; int combination[] = new int[LINE]; int curPin = 0; int turn = 1; int repaintPin; boolean isUpdate = true, isPlaying = true, isRowFull = false; public Model(){ } void fillHole(int color) { pins[turn-1][curPin].setColor(color+1); repaintPins( turn ); curPin = (curPin+1) % LINE; if (curPin == 0){ isRowFull = true; } } public void paint( Graphics g ) { g.setColor( new Color(238, 238, 238)); g.fillRect( 0,0,400,590); for ( int i=0; i < pins.length; i++ ) { pins[i][0].paint(g); pins[i][1].paint(g); pins[i][2].paint(g); pins[i][3].paint(g); pins[i][4].paint(g); } } public void update( Graphics g ) { if ( isUpdate ) { paint(g); } else { isUpdate = true; pins[repaintPin-1][0].paint(g); pins[repaintPin-1][1].paint(g); pins[repaintPin-1][2].paint(g); pins[repaintPin-1][3].paint(g); pins[repaintPin-1][4].paint(g); } } void repaintPins( int pin ) { repaintPin = pin; isUpdate = false; repaint(); } void check() { int junkPegs[] = new int[LINE], junkCode[] = new int[LINE]; int pegCount = 0, pico = 0; for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ) { junkPegs[i] = pins[turn-1][i].getColor(); junkCode[i] = combination[i]; } for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ){ if (junkPegs[i]==junkCode[i]) { pins[turn+SCORE][pegCount].setColor(1); pegCount++; pico++; junkPegs[i] = 98; junkCode[i] = 99; } } for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ){ for ( int j = 0; j < LINE; j++ ) if (junkPegs[i]==junkCode[j]) { pins[turn+SCORE][pegCount].setColor(2); pegCount++; junkPegs[i] = 98; junkCode[j] = 99; j = LINE; } } repaintPins( turn+SCORE ); if ( pico == LINE ){ isPlaying = false; } else if ( turn >= 10 ){ isPlaying = false; } else{ curPin = 0; isRowFull = false; turn++; } } void combination() { for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ){ combination[i] = 1 + (int)(Math.random()*5); System.out.print(i+","); } } } class Pin{ private int color, X, Y, radius; private static final Color COLORS[] = { Color.black, Color.white, Color.red, Color.yellow, Color.green, Color.blue, new Color(7, 254, 250)}; public Pin(){ X = 0; Y = 0; radius = 0; color = 0; } public Pin( int r,int c ){ X = 0; Y = 0; radius = r; color = c; } public void paint( Graphics g ){ int x = X-radius; int y = Y-radius; if (color > 0){ g.setColor( COLORS[color]); g.fillOval( x,y,2*radius,2*radius ); } else{ g.setColor( new Color(238, 238, 238) ); g.drawOval( x,y,2*radius-1,2*radius-1 ); } g.setColor( Color.black ); g.drawOval( x,y,2*radius,2*radius ); } public void setPosition( int x,int y ){ this.X = x ; this.Y = y ; } public void setColor( int c ){ color = c; } public int getColor() { return color; } } Any clues on how to overcome this would be great. Have I divided my code improperly ?

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How to Make a Game like Space Invaders - Ray Wenderlich (why do my space invaders scroll off screen)

- by Erv Noel

I'm following this tutorial(http://www.raywenderlich.com/51068/how-to-make-a-game-like-space-invaders-with-sprite-kit-tutorial-part-1) and I've run into a problem right after the part where I add [self determineInvaderMovementDirection]; to my GameScene.m file (specifically to my moveInvadersForUpdate method) The tutorial states that the space invaders should be moving accordingly after adding this piece of code but when I run they move to the left and they do not come back. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong as I have followed this tutorial very carefully. Any help or clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance ! Here is the full GameScene.m #import "GameScene.h" #import <CoreMotion/CoreMotion.h> #pragma mark - Custom Type Definitions /* The type definition and constant definitions 1,2,3 take care of the following tasks: 1.Define the possible types of invader enemies. This can be used in switch statements later when things like displaying different sprites images for each enemy type. The typedef makes InvaderType a formal Obj-C type that is type checked for method arguments and variables.This is so that the wrong method argument is not used or assigned to the wrong variable. 2. Define the size of the invaders and that they'll be laid out in a grid of rows and columns on the screen. 3. Define a name that will be used to identify invaders when searching for them. */ //1 typedef enum InvaderType { InvaderTypeA, InvaderTypeB, InvaderTypeC } InvaderType; /* Invaders move in a fixed pattern: right, right, down, left, down, right right. InvaderMovementDirection tracks the invaders' progress through this pattern */ typedef enum InvaderMovementDirection { InvaderMovementDirectionRight, InvaderMovementDirectionLeft, InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenRight, InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenLeft, InvaderMovementDirectionNone } InvaderMovementDirection; //2 #define kInvaderSize CGSizeMake(24,16) #define kInvaderGridSpacing CGSizeMake(12,12) #define kInvaderRowCount 6 #define kInvaderColCount 6 //3 #define kInvaderName @"invader" #define kShipSize CGSizeMake(30, 16) //stores the size of the ship #define kShipName @"ship" // stores the name of the ship stored on the sprite node #define kScoreHudName @"scoreHud" #define kHealthHudName @"healthHud" /* this class extension allows you to add “private” properties to GameScene class, without revealing the properties to other classes or code. You still get the benefit of using Objective-C properties, but your GameScene state is stored internally and can’t be modified by other external classes. As well, it doesn’t clutter the namespace of datatypes that your other classes see. This class extension is used in the method didMoveToView */ #pragma mark - Private GameScene Properties @interface GameScene () @property BOOL contentCreated; @property InvaderMovementDirection invaderMovementDirection; @property NSTimeInterval timeOfLastMove; @property NSTimeInterval timePerMove; @end @implementation GameScene #pragma mark Object Lifecycle Management #pragma mark - Scene Setup and Content Creation /*This method simply invokes createContent using the BOOL property contentCreated to make sure you don’t create your scene’s content more than once. This property is defined in an Objective-C Class Extension found near the top of the file()*/ - (void)didMoveToView:(SKView *)view { if (!self.contentCreated) { [self createContent]; self.contentCreated = YES; } } - (void)createContent { //1 - Invaders begin by moving to the right self.invaderMovementDirection = InvaderMovementDirectionRight; //2 - Invaders take 1 sec for each move. Each step left, right or down // takes 1 second. self.timePerMove = 1.0; //3 - Invaders haven't moved yet, so set the time to zero self.timeOfLastMove = 0.0; [self setupInvaders]; [self setupShip]; [self setupHud]; } /* Creates an invade sprite of a given type 1. Use the invadeType parameterr to determine color of the invader 2. Call spriteNodeWithColor:size: of SKSpriteNode to alloc and init a sprite that renders as a rect of the given color invaderColor with size kInvaderSize */ -(SKNode*)makeInvaderOfType:(InvaderType)invaderType { //1 SKColor* invaderColor; switch (invaderType) { case InvaderTypeA: invaderColor = [SKColor redColor]; break; case InvaderTypeB: invaderColor = [SKColor greenColor]; break; case InvaderTypeC: invaderColor = [SKColor blueColor]; break; } //2 SKSpriteNode* invader = [SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithColor:invaderColor size:kInvaderSize]; invader.name = kInvaderName; return invader; } -(void)setupInvaders { //1 - loop over the rows CGPoint baseOrigin = CGPointMake(kInvaderSize.width / 2, 180); for (NSUInteger row = 0; row < kInvaderRowCount; ++row) { //2 - Choose a single InvaderType for all invaders // in this row based on the row number InvaderType invaderType; if (row % 3 == 0) invaderType = InvaderTypeA; else if (row % 3 == 1) invaderType = InvaderTypeB; else invaderType = InvaderTypeC; //3 - Does some math to figure out where the first invader // in the row should be positioned CGPoint invaderPosition = CGPointMake(baseOrigin.x, row * (kInvaderGridSpacing.height + kInvaderSize.height) + baseOrigin.y); //4 - Loop over the columns for (NSUInteger col = 0; col < kInvaderColCount; ++col) { //5 - Create an invader for the current row and column and add it // to the scene SKNode* invader = [self makeInvaderOfType:invaderType]; invader.position = invaderPosition; [self addChild:invader]; //6 - update the invaderPosition so that it's correct for the //next invader invaderPosition.x += kInvaderSize.width + kInvaderGridSpacing.width; } } } -(void)setupShip { //1 - creates ship using makeShip. makeShip can easily be used later // to create another ship (ex. to set up more lives) SKNode* ship = [self makeShip]; //2 - Places the ship on the screen. In SpriteKit the origin is at the lower //left corner of the screen. The anchorPoint is based on a unit square with (0, 0) at the lower left of the sprite's area and (1, 1) at its top right. Since SKSpriteNode has a default anchorPoint of (0.5, 0.5), i.e., its center, the ship's position is the position of its center. Positioning the ship at kShipSize.height/2.0f means that half of the ship's height will protrude below its position and half above. If you check the math, you'll see that the ship's bottom aligns exactly with the bottom of the scene. ship.position = CGPointMake(self.size.width / 2.0f, kShipSize.height/2.0f); [self addChild:ship]; } -(SKNode*)makeShip { SKNode* ship = [SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithColor:[SKColor greenColor] size:kShipSize]; ship.name = kShipName; return ship; } -(void)setupHud { //Sets the score label font to Courier SKLabelNode* scoreLabel = [SKLabelNode labelNodeWithFontNamed:@"Courier"]; //1 - Give the score label a name so it becomes easy to find later when // the score needs to be updated. scoreLabel.name = kScoreHudName; scoreLabel.fontSize = 15; //2 - Color the score label green scoreLabel.fontColor = [SKColor greenColor]; scoreLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Score: %04u", 0]; //3 - Positions the score label near the top left corner of the screen scoreLabel.position = CGPointMake(20 + scoreLabel.frame.size.width/2, self.size.height - (20 + scoreLabel.frame.size.height/2)); [self addChild:scoreLabel]; //Applies the font of the health label SKLabelNode* healthLabel = [SKLabelNode labelNodeWithFontNamed:@"Courier"]; //4 - Give the health label a name so it can be referenced later when it needs // to be updated to display the health healthLabel.name = kHealthHudName; healthLabel.fontSize = 15; //5 - Colors the health label red healthLabel.fontColor = [SKColor redColor]; healthLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Health: %.1f%%", 100.0f]; //6 - Positions the health Label on the upper right hand side of the screen healthLabel.position = CGPointMake(self.size.width - healthLabel.frame.size.width/2 - 20, self.size.height - (20 + healthLabel.frame.size.height/2)); [self addChild:healthLabel]; } #pragma mark - Scene Update - (void)update:(NSTimeInterval)currentTime { //Makes the invaders move [self moveInvadersForUpdate:currentTime]; } #pragma mark - Scene Update Helpers //This method will get invoked by update -(void)moveInvadersForUpdate:(NSTimeInterval)currentTime { //1 - if it's not yet time to move, exit the method. moveInvadersForUpdate: // is invoked 60 times per second, but you don't want the invaders to move // that often since the movement would be too fast to see if (currentTime - self.timeOfLastMove < self.timePerMove) return; //2 - Recall that the scene holds all the invaders as child nodes; which were // added to the scene using addChild: in setupInvaders identifying each invader // by its name property. Invoking enumerateChildNodesWithName:usingBlock only loops over the invaders because they're named kInvaderType; which makes the loop skip the ship and the HUD. The guts og the block moves the invaders 10 pixels either right, left or down depending on the value of invaderMovementDirection [self enumerateChildNodesWithName:kInvaderName usingBlock:^(SKNode *node, BOOL *stop) { switch (self.invaderMovementDirection) { case InvaderMovementDirectionRight: node.position = CGPointMake(node.position.x - 10, node.position.y); break; case InvaderMovementDirectionLeft: node.position = CGPointMake(node.position.x - 10, node.position.y); break; case InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenLeft: case InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenRight: node.position = CGPointMake(node.position.x, node.position.y - 10); break; InvaderMovementDirectionNone: default: break; } }]; //3 - Record that you just moved the invaders, so that the next time this method is invoked (1/60th of a second from when it starts), the invaders won't move again until the set time period of one second has elapsed. self.timeOfLastMove = currentTime; //Makes it so that the invader movement direction changes only when the invaders are actually moving. Invaders only move when the check on self.timeOfLastMove passes (when conditional expression is true) [self determineInvaderMovementDirection]; } #pragma mark - Invader Movement Helpers -(void)determineInvaderMovementDirection { //1 - Since local vars accessed by block are default const(means they cannot be changed), this snippet of code qualifies proposedMovementDirection with __block so that you can modify it in //2 __block InvaderMovementDirection proposedMovementDirection = self.invaderMovementDirection; //2 - Loops over the invaders in the scene and refers to the block with the invader as an argument [self enumerateChildNodesWithName:kInvaderName usingBlock:^(SKNode *node, BOOL *stop) { switch (self.invaderMovementDirection) { case InvaderMovementDirectionRight: //3 - If the invader's right edge is within 1pt of the right edge of the scene, it's about to move offscreen. Sets proposedMovementDirection so that the invaders move down then left. You compare the invader's frame(the frame that contains its content in the scene's coordinate system) with the scene width. Since the scene has an anchorPoint of (0,0) by default and is scaled to fill it's parent view, this comparison ensures you're testing against the view's edges. if (CGRectGetMaxX(node.frame) >= node.scene.size.width - 1.0f) { proposedMovementDirection = InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenLeft; *stop = YES; } break; case InvaderMovementDirectionLeft: //4 - If the invader's left edge is within 1 pt of the left edge of the scene, it's about to move offscreen. Sets the proposedMovementDirection so invaders move down then right if (CGRectGetMinX(node.frame) <= 1.0f) { proposedMovementDirection = InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenRight; *stop = YES; } break; case InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenLeft: //5 - If invaders are moving down then left, they already moved down at this point, so they should now move left. proposedMovementDirection = InvaderMovementDirectionLeft; *stop = YES; break; case InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenRight: //6 - if the invaders are moving down then right, they already moved down so they should now move right. proposedMovementDirection = InvaderMovementDirectionRight; *stop = YES; break; default: break; } }]; //7 - if the proposed invader movement direction is different than the current invader movement direction, update the current direction to the proposed direction if (proposedMovementDirection != self.invaderMovementDirection) { self.invaderMovementDirection = proposedMovementDirection; } } #pragma mark - Bullet Helpers #pragma mark - User Tap Helpers #pragma mark - HUD Helpers #pragma mark - Physics Contact Helpers #pragma mark - Game End Helpers @end

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Table overflow working in Chrome and IE but not Firefox

- by Craig

I am trying to get a layout that always takes up the entire screen, no more, no less. The layout has a header row, a 200px wide left bar (scrollable), and a scrollable content area. This works in Chrome and IE, but in Firefox the scroll bars never show nor work. Any thoughts? <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"> <html> <head> <style type="text/css"> * { margin: 0; padding: 0; } html, body { height: 100%; background-color: yellow; overflow: hidden; } #viewTable { width: 100%; height: 100%; background-color: red; } #header { height: 72px; background-color: blue; } #leftcol { vertical-align: top; width: 200px; height: 100%; background-color: green; } #menu { height: 100%; overflow: auto; } #rightcol { vertical-align: top; width: auto; height: 100%; background-color: purple; } #content { height: 100%; overflow: auto; } </style> </head> <body> </body> <table id="viewTable" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td colspan="2" id="header"> Header </td> </tr> <tr> <td id="leftcol"> <div id="menu"> 0<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 100<br/> </div> </td> <td id="rightcol"> <div id="content"> 0<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 1<br/> 100<br/> </div> </td> </tr> </table> hi </html> I would have preferred to use CSS, but could not find any way to do it. The hi should no show, it is simply there to verify it does not. Thank you!

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Converting application to MVC architecture

- by terence6

I'm practicing writing MVC applications. I have a Mastermind game, that I would like to rewrite as MVC app. I have divided my code to parts, but instead of working game I'm getting empty Frame and an error in "public void paint( Graphics g )". Error comes from calling this method in my view with null argument. But how to overcome this ? MVC was quite simple with swing but awt and it's paint methods are much more complicated. Code of working app : http://paste.pocoo.org/show/224982/ App divided to MVC : Main : public class Main { public static void main(String[] args){ Model model = new Model(); View view = new View("Mastermind", 400, 590, model); Controller controller = new Controller(model, view); view.setVisible(true); } } Controller : import java.awt.*; import java.awt.event.*; public class Controller implements MouseListener, ActionListener { private Model model; private View view; public Controller(Model m, View v){ model = m; view = v; view.addWindowListener( new WindowAdapter(){ public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e){ System.exit(0); } }); view.addMouseListener(this); } public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent e ) { if(e.getSource() == view.checkAnswer){ if(model.isRowFull){ model.check(); } } } public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) { Point mouse = new Point(); mouse = e.getPoint(); if (model.isPlaying){ if (mouse.x > 350) { int button = 1 + (int)((mouse.y - 32) / 50); if ((button >= 1) && (button <= 5)){ model.fillHole(button); } } } } public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {} public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e){} public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {} public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {} } View : import java.awt.*; import javax.swing.*; import java.awt.event.*; public class View extends Frame implements ActionListener { Model model; JButton checkAnswer; private JPanel button; static final int HIT_X[] = {270,290,310,290,310}, HIT_Y[] = {506,496,496,516,516}; public View(String name, int w, int h, Model m){ model = m; setTitle( name ); setSize( w,h ); setResizable( false ); this.setLayout(new BorderLayout()); button = new JPanel(); button.setSize( new Dimension(400, 100)); button.setVisible(true); checkAnswer = new JButton("Check"); checkAnswer.addActionListener(this); checkAnswer.setSize( new Dimension(200, 30)); button.add( checkAnswer ); this.add( button, BorderLayout.SOUTH); button.setVisible(true); for ( int i=0; i < model.SCORE; i++ ){ for ( int j = 0; j < model.LINE; j++ ){ model.pins[i][j] = new Pin(20,0); model.pins[i][j].setPosition(j*50+30,510-i*50); model.pins[i+model.SCORE][j] = new Pin(8,0); model.pins[i+model.SCORE][j].setPosition(HIT_X[j],HIT_Y[j]-i*50); } } for ( int i=0; i < model.LINE; i++ ){ model.pins[model.OPTIONS][i] = new Pin( 20, i+2 ); model.pins[model.OPTIONS][i].setPosition( 370,i * 50 + 56); } model.combination(); model.paint(null); } public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent e ) { } } Model: import java.awt.*; public class Model extends Frame{ static final int LINE = 5, SCORE = 10, OPTIONS = 20; Pin pins[][] = new Pin[21][LINE]; int combination[] = new int[LINE]; int curPin = 0; int turn = 1; int repaintPin; boolean isUpdate = true, isPlaying = true, isRowFull = false; public Model(){ } void fillHole(int color) { pins[turn-1][curPin].setColor(color+1); repaintPins( turn ); curPin = (curPin+1) % LINE; if (curPin == 0){ isRowFull = true; } } public void paint( Graphics g ) { g.setColor( new Color(238, 238, 238)); g.fillRect( 0,0,400,590); for ( int i=0; i < pins.length; i++ ) { pins[i][0].paint(g); pins[i][1].paint(g); pins[i][2].paint(g); pins[i][3].paint(g); pins[i][4].paint(g); } } public void update( Graphics g ) { if ( isUpdate ) { paint(g); } else { isUpdate = true; pins[repaintPin-1][0].paint(g); pins[repaintPin-1][1].paint(g); pins[repaintPin-1][2].paint(g); pins[repaintPin-1][3].paint(g); pins[repaintPin-1][4].paint(g); } } void repaintPins( int pin ) { repaintPin = pin; isUpdate = false; repaint(); } void check() { int junkPegs[] = new int[LINE], junkCode[] = new int[LINE]; int pegCount = 0, pico = 0; for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ) { junkPegs[i] = pins[turn-1][i].getColor(); junkCode[i] = combination[i]; } for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ){ if (junkPegs[i]==junkCode[i]) { pins[turn+SCORE][pegCount].setColor(1); pegCount++; pico++; junkPegs[i] = 98; junkCode[i] = 99; } } for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ){ for ( int j = 0; j < LINE; j++ ) if (junkPegs[i]==junkCode[j]) { pins[turn+SCORE][pegCount].setColor(2); pegCount++; junkPegs[i] = 98; junkCode[j] = 99; j = LINE; } } repaintPins( turn+SCORE ); if ( pico == LINE ){ isPlaying = false; } else if ( turn >= 10 ){ isPlaying = false; } else{ curPin = 0; isRowFull = false; turn++; } } void combination() { for ( int i = 0; i < LINE; i++ ){ combination[i] = 1 + (int)(Math.random()*5); System.out.print(i+","); } } } class Pin{ private int color, X, Y, radius; private static final Color COLORS[] = { Color.black, Color.white, Color.red, Color.yellow, Color.green, Color.blue, new Color(7, 254, 250)}; public Pin(){ X = 0; Y = 0; radius = 0; color = 0; } public Pin( int r,int c ){ X = 0; Y = 0; radius = r; color = c; } public void paint( Graphics g ){ int x = X-radius; int y = Y-radius; if (color > 0){ g.setColor( COLORS[color]); g.fillOval( x,y,2*radius,2*radius ); } else{ g.setColor( new Color(238, 238, 238) ); g.drawOval( x,y,2*radius-1,2*radius-1 ); } g.setColor( Color.black ); g.drawOval( x,y,2*radius,2*radius ); } public void setPosition( int x,int y ){ this.X = x ; this.Y = y ; } public void setColor( int c ){ color = c; } public int getColor() { return color; } } Any clues on how to overcome this would be great. Have I divided my code improperly ?

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Zen and the Art of File and Folder Organization

- by Mark Virtue

Is your desk a paragon of neatness, or does it look like a paper-bomb has gone off? If you’ve been putting off getting organized because the task is too huge or daunting, or you don’t know where to start, we’ve got 40 tips to get you on the path to zen mastery of your filing system. For all those readers who would like to get their files and folders organized, or, if they’re already organized, better organized—we have compiled a complete guide to getting organized and staying organized, a comprehensive article that will hopefully cover every possible tip you could want. Signs that Your Computer is Poorly Organized If your computer is a mess, you’re probably already aware of it. But just in case you’re not, here are some tell-tale signs: Your Desktop has over 40 icons on it “My Documents” contains over 300 files and 60 folders, including MP3s and digital photos You use the Windows’ built-in search facility whenever you need to find a file You can’t find programs in the out-of-control list of programs in your Start Menu You save all your Word documents in one folder, all your spreadsheets in a second folder, etc Any given file that you’re looking for may be in any one of four different sets of folders But before we start, here are some quick notes: We’re going to assume you know what files and folders are, and how to create, save, rename, copy and delete them The organization principles described in this article apply equally to all computer systems. However, the screenshots here will reflect how things look on Windows (usually Windows 7). We will also mention some useful features of Windows that can help you get organized. Everyone has their own favorite methodology of organizing and filing, and it’s all too easy to get into “My Way is Better than Your Way” arguments. The reality is that there is no perfect way of getting things organized. When I wrote this article, I tried to keep a generalist and objective viewpoint. I consider myself to be unusually well organized (to the point of obsession, truth be told), and I’ve had 25 years experience in collecting and organizing files on computers. So I’ve got a lot to say on the subject. But the tips I have described here are only one way of doing it. Hopefully some of these tips will work for you too, but please don’t read this as any sort of “right” way to do it. At the end of the article we’ll be asking you, the reader, for your own organization tips. Why Bother Organizing At All? For some, the answer to this question is self-evident. And yet, in this era of powerful desktop search software (the search capabilities built into the Windows Vista and Windows 7 Start Menus, and third-party programs like Google Desktop Search), the question does need to be asked, and answered. I have a friend who puts every file he ever creates, receives or downloads into his My Documents folder and doesn’t bother filing them into subfolders at all. He relies on the search functionality built into his Windows operating system to help him find whatever he’s looking for. And he always finds it. He’s a Search Samurai. For him, filing is a waste of valuable time that could be spent enjoying life! It’s tempting to follow suit. On the face of it, why would anyone bother to take the time to organize their hard disk when such excellent search software is available? Well, if all you ever want to do with the files you own is to locate and open them individually (for listening, editing, etc), then there’s no reason to ever bother doing one scrap of organization. But consider these common tasks that are not achievable with desktop search software: Find files manually. Often it’s not convenient, speedy or even possible to utilize your desktop search software to find what you want. It doesn’t work 100% of the time, or you may not even have it installed. Sometimes its just plain faster to go straight to the file you want, if you know it’s in a particular sub-folder, rather than trawling through hundreds of search results. Find groups of similar files (e.g. all your “work” files, all the photos of your Europe holiday in 2008, all your music videos, all the MP3s from Dark Side of the Moon, all your letters you wrote to your wife, all your tax returns). Clever naming of the files will only get you so far. Sometimes it’s the date the file was created that’s important, other times it’s the file format, and other times it’s the purpose of the file. How do you name a collection of files so that they’re easy to isolate based on any of the above criteria? Short answer, you can’t. Move files to a new computer. It’s time to upgrade your computer. How do you quickly grab all the files that are important to you? Or you decide to have two computers now – one for home and one for work. How do you quickly isolate only the work-related files to move them to the work computer? Synchronize files to other computers. If you have more than one computer, and you need to mirror some of your files onto the other computer (e.g. your music collection), then you need a way to quickly determine which files are to be synced and which are not. Surely you don’t want to synchronize everything? Choose which files to back up. If your backup regime calls for multiple backups, or requires speedy backups, then you’ll need to be able to specify which files are to be backed up, and which are not. This is not possible if they’re all in the same folder. Finally, if you’re simply someone who takes pleasure in being organized, tidy and ordered (me! me!), then you don’t even need a reason. Being disorganized is simply unthinkable. Tips on Getting Organized Here we present our 40 best tips on how to get organized. Or, if you’re already organized, to get better organized. Tip #1. Choose Your Organization System Carefully The reason that most people are not organized is that it takes time. And the first thing that takes time is deciding upon a system of organization. This is always a matter of personal preference, and is not something that a geek on a website can tell you. You should always choose your own system, based on how your own brain is organized (which makes the assumption that your brain is, in fact, organized). We can’t instruct you, but we can make suggestions: You may want to start off with a system based on the users of the computer. i.e. “My Files”, “My Wife’s Files”, My Son’s Files”, etc. Inside “My Files”, you might then break it down into “Personal” and “Business”. You may then realize that there are overlaps. For example, everyone may want to share access to the music library, or the photos from the school play. So you may create another folder called “Family”, for the “common” files. You may decide that the highest-level breakdown of your files is based on the “source” of each file. In other words, who created the files. You could have “Files created by ME (business or personal)”, “Files created by people I know (family, friends, etc)”, and finally “Files created by the rest of the world (MP3 music files, downloaded or ripped movies or TV shows, software installation files, gorgeous desktop wallpaper images you’ve collected, etc).” This system happens to be the one I use myself. See below: Mark is for files created by meVC is for files created by my company (Virtual Creations)Others is for files created by my friends and familyData is the rest of the worldAlso, Settings is where I store the configuration files and other program data files for my installed software (more on this in tip #34, below). Each folder will present its own particular set of requirements for further sub-organization. For example, you may decide to organize your music collection into sub-folders based on the artist’s name, while your digital photos might get organized based on the date they were taken. It can be different for every sub-folder! Another strategy would be based on “currentness”. Files you have yet to open and look at live in one folder. Ones that have been looked at but not yet filed live in another place. Current, active projects live in yet another place. All other files (your “archive”, if you like) would live in a fourth folder. (And of course, within that last folder you’d need to create a further sub-system based on one of the previous bullet points). Put some thought into this – changing it when it proves incomplete can be a big hassle! Before you go to the trouble of implementing any system you come up with, examine a wide cross-section of the files you own and see if they will all be able to find a nice logical place to sit within your system. Tip #2. When You Decide on Your System, Stick to It! There’s nothing more pointless than going to all the trouble of creating a system and filing all your files, and then whenever you create, receive or download a new file, you simply dump it onto your Desktop. You need to be disciplined – forever! Every new file you get, spend those extra few seconds to file it where it belongs! Otherwise, in just a month or two, you’ll be worse off than before – half your files will be organized and half will be disorganized – and you won’t know which is which! Tip #3. Choose the Root Folder of Your Structure Carefully Every data file (document, photo, music file, etc) that you create, own or is important to you, no matter where it came from, should be found within one single folder, and that one single folder should be located at the root of your C: drive (as a sub-folder of C:\). In other words, do not base your folder structure in standard folders like “My Documents”. If you do, then you’re leaving it up to the operating system engineers to decide what folder structure is best for you. And every operating system has a different system! In Windows 7 your files are found in C:\Users\YourName, whilst on Windows XP it was C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\My Documents. In UNIX systems it’s often /home/YourName. These standard default folders tend to fill up with junk files and folders that are not at all important to you. “My Documents” is the worst offender. Every second piece of software you install, it seems, likes to create its own folder in the “My Documents” folder. These folders usually don’t fit within your organizational structure, so don’t use them! In fact, don’t even use the “My Documents” folder at all. Allow it to fill up with junk, and then simply ignore it. It sounds heretical, but: Don’t ever visit your “My Documents” folder! Remove your icons/links to “My Documents” and replace them with links to the folders you created and you care about! Create your own file system from scratch! Probably the best place to put it would be on your D: drive – if you have one. This way, all your files live on one drive, while all the operating system and software component files live on the C: drive – simply and elegantly separated. The benefits of that are profound. Not only are there obvious organizational benefits (see tip #10, below), but when it comes to migrate your data to a new computer, you can (sometimes) simply unplug your D: drive and plug it in as the D: drive of your new computer (this implies that the D: drive is actually a separate physical disk, and not a partition on the same disk as C:). You also get a slight speed improvement (again, only if your C: and D: drives are on separate physical disks). Warning: From tip #12, below, you will see that it’s actually a good idea to have exactly the same file system structure – including the drive it’s filed on – on all of the computers you own. So if you decide to use the D: drive as the storage system for your own files, make sure you are able to use the D: drive on all the computers you own. If you can’t ensure that, then you can still use a clever geeky trick to store your files on the D: drive, but still access them all via the C: drive (see tip #17, below). If you only have one hard disk (C:), then create a dedicated folder that will contain all your files – something like C:\Files. The name of the folder is not important, but make it a single, brief word. There are several reasons for this: When creating a backup regime, it’s easy to decide what files should be backed up – they’re all in the one folder! If you ever decide to trade in your computer for a new one, you know exactly which files to migrate You will always know where to begin a search for any file If you synchronize files with other computers, it makes your synchronization routines very simple. It also causes all your shortcuts to continue to work on the other machines (more about this in tip #24, below). Once you’ve decided where your files should go, then put all your files in there – Everything! Completely disregard the standard, default folders that are created for you by the operating system (“My Music”, “My Pictures”, etc). In fact, you can actually relocate many of those folders into your own structure (more about that below, in tip #6). The more completely you get all your data files (documents, photos, music, etc) and all your configuration settings into that one folder, then the easier it will be to perform all of the above tasks. Once this has been done, and all your files live in one folder, all the other folders in C:\ can be thought of as “operating system” folders, and therefore of little day-to-day interest for us. Here’s a screenshot of a nicely organized C: drive, where all user files are located within the \Files folder: Tip #4. Use Sub-Folders This would be our simplest and most obvious tip. It almost goes without saying. Any organizational system you decide upon (see tip #1) will require that you create sub-folders for your files. Get used to creating folders on a regular basis. Tip #5. Don’t be Shy About Depth Create as many levels of sub-folders as you need. Don’t be scared to do so. Every time you notice an opportunity to group a set of related files into a sub-folder, do so. Examples might include: All the MP3s from one music CD, all the photos from one holiday, or all the documents from one client. It’s perfectly okay to put files into a folder called C:\Files\Me\From Others\Services\WestCo Bank\Statements\2009. That’s only seven levels deep. Ten levels is not uncommon. Of course, it’s possible to take this too far. If you notice yourself creating a sub-folder to hold only one file, then you’ve probably become a little over-zealous. On the other hand, if you simply create a structure with only two levels (for example C:\Files\Work) then you really haven’t achieved any level of organization at all (unless you own only six files!). Your “Work” folder will have become a dumping ground, just like your Desktop was, with most likely hundreds of files in it. Tip #6. Move the Standard User Folders into Your Own Folder Structure Most operating systems, including Windows, create a set of standard folders for each of its users. These folders then become the default location for files such as documents, music files, digital photos and downloaded Internet files. In Windows 7, the full list is shown below: Some of these folders you may never use nor care about (for example, the Favorites folder, if you’re not using Internet Explorer as your browser). Those ones you can leave where they are. But you may be using some of the other folders to store files that are important to you. Even if you’re not using them, Windows will still often treat them as the default storage location for many types of files. When you go to save a standard file type, it can become annoying to be automatically prompted to save it in a folder that’s not part of your own file structure. But there’s a simple solution: Move the folders you care about into your own folder structure! If you do, then the next time you go to save a file of the corresponding type, Windows will prompt you to save it in the new, moved location. Moving the folders is easy. Simply drag-and-drop them to the new location. Here’s a screenshot of the default My Music folder being moved to my custom personal folder (Mark): Tip #7. Name Files and Folders Intelligently This is another one that almost goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: Do not allow files to be created that have meaningless names like Document1.doc, or folders called New Folder (2). Take that extra 20 seconds and come up with a meaningful name for the file/folder – one that accurately divulges its contents without repeating the entire contents in the name. Tip #8. Watch Out for Long Filenames Another way to tell if you have not yet created enough depth to your folder hierarchy is that your files often require really long names. If you need to call a file Johnson Sales Figures March 2009.xls (which might happen to live in the same folder as Abercrombie Budget Report 2008.xls), then you might want to create some sub-folders so that the first file could be simply called March.xls, and living in the Clients\Johnson\Sales Figures\2009 folder. A well-placed file needs only a brief filename! Tip #9. Use Shortcuts! Everywhere! This is probably the single most useful and important tip we can offer. A shortcut allows a file to be in two places at once. Why would you want that? Well, the file and folder structure of every popular operating system on the market today is hierarchical. This means that all objects (files and folders) always live within exactly one parent folder. It’s a bit like a tree. A tree has branches (folders) and leaves (files). Each leaf, and each branch, is supported by exactly one parent branch, all the way back to the root of the tree (which, incidentally, is exactly why C:\ is called the “root folder” of the C: drive). That hard disks are structured this way may seem obvious and even necessary, but it’s only one way of organizing data. There are others: Relational databases, for example, organize structured data entirely differently. The main limitation of hierarchical filing structures is that a file can only ever be in one branch of the tree – in only one folder – at a time. Why is this a problem? Well, there are two main reasons why this limitation is a problem for computer users: The “correct” place for a file, according to our organizational rationale, is very often a very inconvenient place for that file to be located. Just because it’s correctly filed doesn’t mean it’s easy to get to. Your file may be “correctly” buried six levels deep in your sub-folder structure, but you may need regular and speedy access to this file every day. You could always move it to a more convenient location, but that would mean that you would need to re-file back to its “correct” location it every time you’d finished working on it. Most unsatisfactory. A file may simply “belong” in two or more different locations within your file structure. For example, say you’re an accountant and you have just completed the 2009 tax return for John Smith. It might make sense to you to call this file 2009 Tax Return.doc and file it under Clients\John Smith. But it may also be important to you to have the 2009 tax returns from all your clients together in the one place. So you might also want to call the file John Smith.doc and file it under Tax Returns\2009. The problem is, in a purely hierarchical filing system, you can’t put it in both places. Grrrrr! Fortunately, Windows (and most other operating systems) offers a way for you to do exactly that: It’s called a “shortcut” (also known as an “alias” on Macs and a “symbolic link” on UNIX systems). Shortcuts allow a file to exist in one place, and an icon that represents the file to be created and put anywhere else you please. In fact, you can create a dozen such icons and scatter them all over your hard disk. Double-clicking on one of these icons/shortcuts opens up the original file, just as if you had double-clicked on the original file itself. Consider the following two icons: The one on the left is the actual Word document, while the one on the right is a shortcut that represents the Word document. Double-clicking on either icon will open the same file. There are two main visual differences between the icons: The shortcut will have a small arrow in the lower-left-hand corner (on Windows, anyway) The shortcut is allowed to have a name that does not include the file extension (the “.docx” part, in this case) You can delete the shortcut at any time without losing any actual data. The original is still intact. All you lose is the ability to get to that data from wherever the shortcut was. So why are shortcuts so great? Because they allow us to easily overcome the main limitation of hierarchical file systems, and put a file in two (or more) places at the same time. You will always have files that don’t play nice with your organizational rationale, and can’t be filed in only one place. They demand to exist in two places. Shortcuts allow this! Furthermore, they allow you to collect your most often-opened files and folders together in one spot for convenient access. The cool part is that the original files stay where they are, safe forever in their perfectly organized location. So your collection of most often-opened files can – and should – become a collection of shortcuts! If you’re still not convinced of the utility of shortcuts, consider the following well-known areas of a typical Windows computer: The Start Menu (and all the programs that live within it) The Quick Launch bar (or the Superbar in Windows 7) The “Favorite folders” area in the top-left corner of the Windows Explorer window (in Windows Vista or Windows 7) Your Internet Explorer Favorites or Firefox Bookmarks Each item in each of these areas is a shortcut! Each of those areas exist for one purpose only: For convenience – to provide you with a collection of the files and folders you access most often. It should be easy to see by now that shortcuts are designed for one single purpose: To make accessing your files more convenient. Each time you double-click on a shortcut, you are saved the hassle of locating the file (or folder, or program, or drive, or control panel icon) that it represents. Shortcuts allow us to invent a golden rule of file and folder organization: “Only ever have one copy of a file – never have two copies of the same file. Use a shortcut instead” (this rule doesn’t apply to copies created for backup purposes, of course!) There are also lesser rules, like “don’t move a file into your work area – create a shortcut there instead”, and “any time you find yourself frustrated with how long it takes to locate a file, create a shortcut to it and place that shortcut in a convenient location.” So how to we create these massively useful shortcuts? There are two main ways: “Copy” the original file or folder (click on it and type Ctrl-C, or right-click on it and select Copy): Then right-click in an empty area of the destination folder (the place where you want the shortcut to go) and select Paste shortcut: Right-drag (drag with the right mouse button) the file from the source folder to the destination folder. When you let go of the mouse button at the destination folder, a menu pops up: Select Create shortcuts here. Note that when shortcuts are created, they are often named something like Shortcut to Budget Detail.doc (windows XP) or Budget Detail – Shortcut.doc (Windows 7). If you don’t like those extra words, you can easily rename the shortcuts after they’re created, or you can configure Windows to never insert the extra words in the first place (see our article on how to do this). And of course, you can create shortcuts to folders too, not just to files! Bottom line: Whenever you have a file that you’d like to access from somewhere else (whether it’s convenience you’re after, or because the file simply belongs in two places), create a shortcut to the original file in the new location. Tip #10. Separate Application Files from Data Files Any digital organization guru will drum this rule into you. Application files are the components of the software you’ve installed (e.g. Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop or Internet Explorer). Data files are the files that you’ve created for yourself using that software (e.g. Word Documents, digital photos, emails or playlists). Software gets installed, uninstalled and upgraded all the time. Hopefully you always have the original installation media (or downloaded set-up file) kept somewhere safe, and can thus reinstall your software at any time. This means that the software component files are of little importance. Whereas the files you have created with that software is, by definition, important. It’s a good rule to always separate unimportant files from important files. So when your software prompts you to save a file you’ve just created, take a moment and check out where it’s suggesting that you save the file. If it’s suggesting that you save the file into the same folder as the software itself, then definitely don’t follow that suggestion. File it in your own folder! In fact, see if you can find the program’s configuration option that determines where files are saved by default (if it has one), and change it. Tip #11. Organize Files Based on Purpose, Not on File Type If you have, for example a folder called Work\Clients\Johnson, and within that folder you have two sub-folders, Word Documents and Spreadsheets (in other words, you’re separating “.doc” files from “.xls” files), then chances are that you’re not optimally organized. It makes little sense to organize your files based on the program that created them. Instead, create your sub-folders based on the purpose of the file. For example, it would make more sense to create sub-folders called Correspondence and Financials. It may well be that all the files in a given sub-folder are of the same file-type, but this should be more of a coincidence and less of a design feature of your organization system. Tip #12. Maintain the Same Folder Structure on All Your Computers In other words, whatever organizational system you create, apply it to every computer that you can. There are several benefits to this: There’s less to remember. No matter where you are, you always know where to look for your files If you copy or synchronize files from one computer to another, then setting up the synchronization job becomes very simple Shortcuts can be copied or moved from one computer to another with ease (assuming the original files are also copied/moved). There’s no need to find the target of the shortcut all over again on the second computer Ditto for linked files (e.g Word documents that link to data in a separate Excel file), playlists, and any files that reference the exact file locations of other files. This applies even to the drive that your files are stored on. If your files are stored on C: on one computer, make sure they’re stored on C: on all your computers. Otherwise all your shortcuts, playlists and linked files will stop working! Tip #13. Create an “Inbox” Folder Create yourself a folder where you store all files that you’re currently working on, or that you haven’t gotten around to filing yet. You can think of this folder as your “to-do” list. You can call it “Inbox” (making it the same metaphor as your email system), or “Work”, or “To-Do”, or “Scratch”, or whatever name makes sense to you. It doesn’t matter what you call it – just make sure you have one! Once you have finished working on a file, you then move it from the “Inbox” to its correct location within your organizational structure. You may want to use your Desktop as this “Inbox” folder. Rightly or wrongly, most people do. It’s not a bad place to put such files, but be careful: If you do decide that your Desktop represents your “to-do” list, then make sure that no other files find their way there. In other words, make sure that your “Inbox”, wherever it is, Desktop or otherwise, is kept free of junk – stray files that don’t belong there. So where should you put this folder, which, almost by definition, lives outside the structure of the rest of your filing system? Well, first and foremost, it has to be somewhere handy. This will be one of your most-visited folders, so convenience is key. Putting it on the Desktop is a great option – especially if you don’t have any other folders on your Desktop: the folder then becomes supremely easy to find in Windows Explorer: You would then create shortcuts to this folder in convenient spots all over your computer (“Favorite Links”, “Quick Launch”, etc). Tip #14. Ensure You have Only One “Inbox” Folder Once you’ve created your “Inbox” folder, don’t use any other folder location as your “to-do list”. Throw every incoming or created file into the Inbox folder as you create/receive it. This keeps the rest of your computer pristine and free of randomly created or downloaded junk. The last thing you want to be doing is checking multiple folders to see all your current tasks and projects. Gather them all together into one folder. Here are some tips to help ensure you only have one Inbox: Set the default “save” location of all your programs to this folder. Set the default “download” location for your browser to this folder. If this folder is not your desktop (recommended) then also see if you can make a point of not putting “to-do” files on your desktop. This keeps your desktop uncluttered and Zen-like: (the Inbox folder is in the bottom-right corner) Tip #15. Be Vigilant about Clearing Your “Inbox” Folder This is one of the keys to staying organized. If you let your “Inbox” overflow (i.e. allow there to be more than, say, 30 files or folders in there), then you’re probably going to start feeling like you’re overwhelmed: You’re not keeping up with your to-do list. Once your Inbox gets beyond a certain point (around 30 files, studies have shown), then you’ll simply start to avoid it. You may continue to put files in there, but you’ll be scared to look at it, fearing the “out of control” feeling that all overworked, chaotic or just plain disorganized people regularly feel. So, here’s what you can do: Visit your Inbox/to-do folder regularly (at least five times per day). Scan the folder regularly for files that you have completed working on and are ready for filing. File them immediately. Make it a source of pride to keep the number of files in this folder as small as possible. If you value peace of mind, then make the emptiness of this folder one of your highest (computer) priorities If you know that a particular file has been in the folder for more than, say, six weeks, then admit that you’re not actually going to get around to processing it, and move it to its final resting place. Tip #16. File Everything Immediately, and Use Shortcuts for Your Active Projects As soon as you create, receive or download a new file, store it away in its “correct” folder immediately. Then, whenever you need to work on it (possibly straight away), create a shortcut to it in your “Inbox” (“to-do”) folder or your desktop. That way, all your files are always in their “correct” locations, yet you still have immediate, convenient access to your current, active files. When you finish working on a file, simply delete the shortcut. Ideally, your “Inbox” folder – and your Desktop – should contain no actual files or folders. They should simply contain shortcuts. Tip #17. Use Directory Symbolic Links (or Junctions) to Maintain One Unified Folder Structure Using this tip, we can get around a potential hiccup that we can run into when creating our organizational structure – the issue of having more than one drive on our computer (C:, D:, etc). We might have files we need to store on the D: drive for space reasons, and yet want to base our organized folder structure on the C: drive (or vice-versa). Your chosen organizational structure may dictate that all your files must be accessed from the C: drive (for example, the root folder of all your files may be something like C:\Files). And yet you may still have a D: drive and wish to take advantage of the hundreds of spare Gigabytes that it offers. Did you know that it’s actually possible to store your files on the D: drive and yet access them as if they were on the C: drive? And no, we’re not talking about shortcuts here (although the concept is very similar). By using the shell command mklink, you can essentially take a folder that lives on one drive and create an alias for it on a different drive (you can do lots more than that with mklink – for a full rundown on this programs capabilities, see our dedicated article). These aliases are called directory symbolic links (and used to be known as junctions). You can think of them as “virtual” folders. They function exactly like regular folders, except they’re physically located somewhere else. For example, you may decide that your entire D: drive contains your complete organizational file structure, but that you need to reference all those files as if they were on the C: drive, under C:\Files. If that was the case you could create C:\Files as a directory symbolic link – a link to D:, as follows: mklink /d c:\files d:\ Or it may be that the only files you wish to store on the D: drive are your movie collection. You could locate all your movie files in the root of your D: drive, and then link it to C:\Files\Media\Movies, as follows: mklink /d c:\files\media\movies d:\ (Needless to say, you must run these commands from a command prompt – click the Start button, type cmd and press Enter) Tip #18. Customize Your Folder Icons This is not strictly speaking an organizational tip, but having unique icons for each folder does allow you to more quickly visually identify which folder is which, and thus saves you time when you’re finding files. An example is below (from my folder that contains all files downloaded from the Internet): To learn how to change your folder icons, please refer to our dedicated article on the subject. Tip #19. Tidy Your Start Menu The Windows Start Menu is usually one of the messiest parts of any Windows computer. Every program you install seems to adopt a completely different approach to placing icons in this menu. Some simply put a single program icon. Others create a folder based on the name of the software. And others create a folder based on the name of the software manufacturer. It’s chaos, and can make it hard to find the software you want to run. Thankfully we can avoid this chaos with useful operating system features like Quick Launch, the Superbar or pinned start menu items. Even so, it would make a lot of sense to get into the guts of the Start Menu itself and give it a good once-over. All you really need to decide is how you’re going to organize your applications. A structure based on the purpose of the application is an obvious candidate. Below is an example of one such structure: In this structure, Utilities means software whose job it is to keep the computer itself running smoothly (configuration tools, backup software, Zip programs, etc). Applications refers to any productivity software that doesn’t fit under the headings Multimedia, Graphics, Internet, etc. In case you’re not aware, every icon in your Start Menu is a shortcut and can be manipulated like any other shortcut (copied, moved, deleted, etc). With the Windows Start Menu (all version of Windows), Microsoft has decided that there be two parallel folder structures to store your Start Menu shortcuts. One for you (the logged-in user of the computer) and one for all users of the computer. Having two parallel structures can often be redundant: If you are the only user of the computer, then having two parallel structures is totally redundant. Even if you have several users that regularly log into the computer, most of your installed software will need to be made available to all users, and should thus be moved out of the “just you” version of the Start Menu and into the “all users” area. To take control of your Start Menu, so you can start organizing it, you’ll need to know how to access the actual folders and shortcut files that make up the Start Menu (both versions of it). To find these folders and files, click the Start button and then right-click on the All Programs text (Windows XP users should right-click on the Start button itself): The Open option refers to the “just you” version of the Start Menu, while the Open All Users option refers to the “all users” version. Click on the one you want to organize. A Windows Explorer window then opens with your chosen version of the Start Menu selected. From there it’s easy. Double-click on the Programs folder and you’ll see all your folders and shortcuts. Now you can delete/rename/move until it’s just the way you want it. Note: When you’re reorganizing your Start Menu, you may want to have two Explorer windows open at the same time – one showing the “just you” version and one showing the “all users” version. You can drag-and-drop between the windows. Tip #20. Keep Your Start Menu Tidy Once you have a perfectly organized Start Menu, try to be a little vigilant about keeping it that way. Every time you install a new piece of software, the icons that get created will almost certainly violate your organizational structure. So to keep your Start Menu pristine and organized, make sure you do the following whenever you install a new piece of software: Check whether the software was installed into the “just you” area of the Start Menu, or the “all users” area, and then move it to the correct area. Remove all the unnecessary icons (like the “Read me” icon, the “Help” icon (you can always open the help from within the software itself when it’s running), the “Uninstall” icon, the link(s)to the manufacturer’s website, etc) Rename the main icon(s) of the software to something brief that makes sense to you. For example, you might like to rename Microsoft Office Word 2010 to simply Word Move the icon(s) into the correct folder based on your Start Menu organizational structure And don’t forget: when you uninstall a piece of software, the software’s uninstall routine is no longer going to be able to remove the software’s icon from the Start Menu (because you moved and/or renamed it), so you’ll need to remove that icon manually. Tip #21. Tidy C:\ The root of your C: drive (C:\) is a common dumping ground for files and folders – both by the users of your computer and by the software that you install on your computer. It can become a mess. There’s almost no software these days that requires itself to be installed in C:\. 99% of the time it can and should be installed into C:\Program Files. And as for your own files, well, it’s clear that they can (and almost always should) be stored somewhere else. In an ideal world, your C:\ folder should look like this (on Windows 7): Note that there are some system files and folders in C:\ that are usually and deliberately “hidden” (such as the Windows virtual memory file pagefile.sys, the boot loader file bootmgr, and the System Volume Information folder). Hiding these files and folders is a good idea, as they need to stay where they are and are almost never needed to be opened or even seen by you, the user. Hiding them prevents you from accidentally messing with them, and enhances your sense of order and well-being when you look at your C: drive folder. Tip #22. Tidy Your Desktop The Desktop is probably the most abused part of a Windows computer (from an organization point of view). It usually serves as a dumping ground for all incoming files, as well as holding icons to oft-used applications, plus some regularly opened files and folders. It often ends up becoming an uncontrolled mess. See if you can avoid this. Here’s why… Application icons (Word, Internet Explorer, etc) are often found on the Desktop, but it’s unlikely that this is the optimum place for them. The “Quick Launch” bar (or the Superbar in Windows 7) is always visible and so represents a perfect location to put your icons. You’ll only be able to see the icons on your Desktop when all your programs are minimized. It might be time to get your application icons off your desktop… You may have decided that the Inbox/To-do folder on your computer (see tip #13, above) should be your Desktop. If so, then enough said. Simply be vigilant about clearing it and preventing it from being polluted by junk files (see tip #15, above). On the other hand, if your Desktop is not acting as your “Inbox” folder, then there’s no reason for it to have any data files or folders on it at all, except perhaps a couple of shortcuts to often-opened files and folders (either ongoing or current projects). Everything else should be moved to your “Inbox” folder. In an ideal world, it might look like this: Tip #23. Move Permanent Items on Your Desktop Away from the Top-Left Corner When files/folders are dragged onto your desktop in a Windows Explorer window, or when shortcuts are created on your Desktop from Internet Explorer, those icons are always placed in the top-left corner – or as close as they can get. If you have other files, folders or shortcuts that you keep on the Desktop permanently, then it’s a good idea to separate these permanent icons from the transient ones, so that you can quickly identify which ones the transients are. An easy way to do this is to move all your permanent icons to the right-hand side of your Desktop. That should keep them separated from incoming items. Tip #24. Synchronize If you have more than one computer, you’ll almost certainly want to share files between them. If the computers are permanently attached to the same local network, then there’s no need to store multiple copies of any one file or folder – shortcuts will suffice. However, if the computers are not always on the same network, then you will at some point need to copy files between them. For files that need to permanently live on both computers, the ideal way to do this is to synchronize the files, as opposed to simply copying them. We only have room here to write a brief summary of synchronization, not a full article. In short, there are several different types of synchronization: Where the contents of one folder are accessible anywhere, such as with Dropbox Where the contents of any number of folders are accessible anywhere, such as with Windows Live Mesh Where any files or folders from anywhere on your computer are synchronized with exactly one other computer, such as with the Windows “Briefcase”, Microsoft SyncToy, or (much more powerful, yet still free) SyncBack from 2BrightSparks. This only works when both computers are on the same local network, at least temporarily. A great advantage of synchronization solutions is that once you’ve got it configured the way you want it, then the sync process happens automatically, every time. Click a button (or schedule it to happen automatically) and all your files are automagically put where they’re supposed to be. If you maintain the same file and folder structure on both computers, then you can also sync files depend upon the correct location of other files, like shortcuts, playlists and office documents that link to other office documents, and the synchronized files still work on the other computer! Tip #25. Hide Files You Never Need to See If you have your files well organized, you will often be able to tell if a file is out of place just by glancing at the contents of a folder (for example, it should be pretty obvious if you look in a folder that contains all the MP3s from one music CD and see a Word document in there). This is a good thing – it allows you to determine if there are files out of place with a quick glance. Yet sometimes there are files in a folder that seem out of place but actually need to be there, such as the “folder art” JPEGs in music folders, and various files in the root of the C: drive. If such files never need to be opened by you, then a good idea is to simply hide them. Then, the next time you glance at the folder, you won’t have to remember whether that file was supposed to be there or not, because you won’t see it at all! To hide a file, simply right-click on it and choose Properties: Then simply tick the Hidden tick-box: Tip #26. Keep Every Setup File These days most software is downloaded from the Internet. Whenever you download a piece of software, keep it. You’ll never know when you need to reinstall the software. Further, keep with it an Internet shortcut that links back to the website where you originally downloaded it, in case you ever need to check for updates. See tip #33 below for a full description of the excellence of organizing your setup files. Tip #27. Try to Minimize the Number of Folders that Contain Both Files and Sub-folders Some of the folders in your organizational structure will contain only files. Others will contain only sub-folders. And you will also have some folders that contain both files and sub-folders. You will notice slight improvements in how long it takes you to locate a file if you try to avoid this third type of folder. It’s not always possible, of course – you’ll always have some of these folders, but see if you can avoid it. One way of doing this is to take all the leftover files that didn’t end up getting stored in a sub-folder and create a special “Miscellaneous” or “Other” folder for them. Tip #28. Starting a Filename with an Underscore Brings it to the Top of a List Further to the previous tip, if you name that “Miscellaneous” or “Other” folder in such a way that its name begins with an underscore “_”, then it will appear at the top of the list of files/folders. The screenshot below is an example of this. Each folder in the list contains a set of digital photos. The folder at the top of the list, _Misc, contains random photos that didn’t deserve their own dedicated folder: Tip #29. Clean Up those CD-ROMs and (shudder!) Floppy Disks Have you got a pile of CD-ROMs stacked on a shelf of your office? Old photos, or files you archived off onto CD-ROM (or even worse, floppy disks!) because you didn’t have enough disk space at the time? In the meantime have you upgraded your computer and now have 500 Gigabytes of space you don’t know what to do with? If so, isn’t it time you tidied up that stack of disks and filed them into your gorgeous new folder structure? So what are you waiting for? Bite the bullet, copy them all back onto your computer, file them in their appropriate folders, and then back the whole lot up onto a shiny new 1000Gig external hard drive! Useful Folders to Create This next section suggests some useful folders that you might want to create within your folder structure. I’ve personally found them to be indispensable. The first three are all about convenience – handy folders to create and then put somewhere that you can always access instantly. For each one, it’s not so important where the actual folder is located, but it’s very important where you put the shortcut(s) to the folder. You might want to locate the shortcuts: On your Desktop In your “Quick Launch” area (or pinned to your Windows 7 Superbar) In your Windows Explorer “Favorite Links” area Tip #30. Create an “Inbox” (“To-Do”) Folder This has already been mentioned in depth (see tip #13), but we wanted to reiterate its importance here. This folder contains all the recently created, received or downloaded files that you have not yet had a chance to file away properly, and it also may contain files that you have yet to process. In effect, it becomes a sort of “to-do list”. It doesn’t have to be called “Inbox” – you can call it whatever you want. Tip #31. Create a Folder where Your Current Projects are Collected Rather than going hunting for them all the time, or dumping them all on your desktop, create a special folder where you put links (or work folders) for each of the projects you’re currently working on. You can locate this folder in your “Inbox” folder, on your desktop, or anywhere at all – just so long as there’s a way of getting to it quickly, such as putting a link to it in Windows Explorer’s “Favorite Links” area: Tip #32. Create a Folder for Files and Folders that You Regularly Open You will always have a few files that you open regularly, whether it be a spreadsheet of your current accounts, or a favorite playlist. These are not necessarily “current projects”, rather they’re simply files that you always find yourself opening. Typically such files would be located on your desktop (or even better, shortcuts to those files). Why not collect all such shortcuts together and put them in their own special folder? As with the “Current Projects” folder (above), you would want to locate that folder somewhere convenient. Below is an example of a folder called “Quick links”, with about seven files (shortcuts) in it, that is accessible through the Windows Quick Launch bar: See tip #37 below for a full explanation of the power of the Quick Launch bar. Tip #33. Create a “Set-ups” Folder A typical computer has dozens of applications installed on it. For each piece of software, there are often many different pieces of information you need to keep track of, including: The original installation setup file(s). This can be anything from a simple 100Kb setup.exe file you downloaded from a website, all the way up to a 4Gig ISO file that you copied from a DVD-ROM that you purchased. The home page of the software manufacturer (in case you need to look up something on their support pages, their forum or their online help) The page containing the download link for your actual file (in case you need to re-download it, or download an upgraded version) The serial number Your proof-of-purchase documentation Any other template files, plug-ins, themes, etc that also need to get installed For each piece of software, it’s a great idea to gather all of these files together and put them in a single folder. The folder can be the name of the software (plus possibly a very brief description of what it’s for – in case you can’t remember what the software does based in its name). Then you would gather all of these folders together into one place, and call it something like “Software” or “Setups”. If you have enough of these folders (I have several hundred, being a geek, collected over 20 years), then you may want to further categorize them. My own categorization structure is based on “platform” (operating system): The last seven folders each represents one platform/operating system, while _Operating Systems contains set-up files for installing the operating systems themselves. _Hardware contains ROMs for hardware I own, such as routers. Within the Windows folder (above), you can see the beginnings of the vast library of software I’ve compiled over the years: An example of a typical application folder looks like this: Tip #34. Have a “Settings” Folder We all know that our documents are important. So are our photos and music files. We save all of these files into folders, and then locate them afterwards and double-click on them to open them. But there are many files that are important to us that can’t be saved into folders, and then searched for and double-clicked later on. These files certainly contain important information that we need, but are often created internally by an application, and saved wherever that application feels is appropriate. A good example of this is the “PST” file that Outlook creates for us and uses to store all our emails, contacts, appointments and so forth. Another example would be the collection of Bookmarks that Firefox stores on your behalf. And yet another example would be the customized settings and configuration files of our all our software. Granted, most Windows programs store their configuration in the Registry, but there are still many programs that use configuration files to store their settings. Imagine if you lost all of the above files! And yet, when people are backing up their computers, they typically only back up the files they know about – those that are stored in the “My Documents” folder, etc. If they had a hard disk failure or their computer was lost or stolen, their backup files would not include some of the most vital files they owned. Also, when migrating to a new computer, it’s vital to ensure that these files make the journey. It can be a very useful idea to create yourself a folder to store all your “settings” – files that are important to you but which you never actually search for by name and double-click on to open them. Otherwise, next time you go to set up a new computer just the way you want it, you’ll need to spend hours recreating the configuration of your previous computer! So how to we get our important files into this folder? Well, we have a few options: Some programs (such as Outlook and its PST files) allow you to place these files wherever you want. If you delve into the program’s options, you will find a setting somewhere that controls the location of the important settings files (or “personal storage” – PST – when it comes to Outlook) Some programs do not allow you to change such locations in any easy way, but if you get into the Registry, you can sometimes find a registry key that refers to the location of the file(s). Simply move the file into your Settings folder and adjust the registry key to refer to the new location. Some programs stubbornly refuse to allow their settings files to be placed anywhere other then where they stipulate. When faced with programs like these, you have three choices: (1) You can ignore those files, (2) You can copy the files into your Settings folder (let’s face it – settings don’t change very often), or (3) you can use synchronization software, such as the Windows Briefcase, to make synchronized copies of all your files in your Settings folder. All you then have to do is to remember to run your sync software periodically (perhaps just before you run your backup software!). There are some other things you may decide to locate inside this new “Settings” folder: Exports of registry keys (from the many applications that store their configurations in the Registry). This is useful for backup purposes or for migrating to a new computer Notes you’ve made about all the specific customizations you have made to a particular piece of software (so that you’ll know how to do it all again on your next computer) Shortcuts to webpages that detail how to tweak certain aspects of your operating system or applications so they are just the way you like them (such as how to remove the words “Shortcut to” from the beginning of newly created shortcuts). In other words, you’d want to create shortcuts to half the pages on the How-To Geek website! Here’s an example of a “Settings” folder: Windows Features that Help with Organization This section details some of the features of Microsoft Windows that are a boon to anyone hoping to stay optimally organized. Tip #35. Use the “Favorite Links” Area to Access Oft-Used Folders Once you’ve created your great new filing system, work out which folders you access most regularly, or which serve as great starting points for locating the rest of the files in your folder structure, and then put links to those folders in your “Favorite Links” area of the left-hand side of the Windows Explorer window (simply called “Favorites” in Windows 7): Some ideas for folders you might want to add there include: Your “Inbox” folder (or whatever you’ve called it) – most important! The base of your filing structure (e.g. C:\Files) A folder containing shortcuts to often-accessed folders on other computers around the network (shown above as Network Folders) A folder containing shortcuts to your current projects (unless that folder is in your “Inbox” folder) Getting folders into this area is very simple – just locate the folder you’re interested in and drag it there! Tip #36. Customize the Places Bar in the File/Open and File/Save Boxes Consider the screenshot below: The highlighted icons (collectively known as the “Places Bar”) can be customized to refer to any folder location you want, allowing instant access to any part of your organizational structure. Note: These File/Open and File/Save boxes have been superseded by new versions that use the Windows Vista/Windows 7 “Favorite Links”, but the older versions (shown above) are still used by a surprisingly large number of applications. The easiest way to customize these icons is to use the Group Policy Editor, but not everyone has access to this program. If you do, open it up and navigate to: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer > Common Open File Dialog If you don’t have access to the Group Policy Editor, then you’ll need to get into the Registry. Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ comdlg32 \ Placesbar It should then be easy to make the desired changes. Log off and log on again to allow the changes to take effect. Tip #37. Use the Quick Launch Bar as a Application and File Launcher That Quick Launch bar (to the right of the Start button) is a lot more useful than people give it credit for. Most people simply have half a dozen icons in it, and use it to start just those programs. But it can actually be used to instantly access just about anything in your filing system: For complete instructions on how to set this up, visit our dedicated article on this topic. Tip #38. Put a Shortcut to Windows Explorer into Your Quick Launch Bar This is only necessary in Windows Vista and Windows XP. The Microsoft boffins finally got wise and added it to the Windows 7 Superbar by default. Windows Explorer – the program used for managing your files and folders – is one of the most useful programs in Windows. Anyone who considers themselves serious about being organized needs instant access to this program at any time. A great place to create a shortcut to this program is in the Windows XP and Windows Vista “Quick Launch” bar: To get it there, locate it in your Start Menu (usually under “Accessories”) and then right-drag it down into your Quick Launch bar (and create a copy). Tip #39. Customize the Starting Folder for Your Windows 7 Explorer Superbar Icon If you’re on Windows 7, your Superbar will include a Windows Explorer icon. Clicking on the icon will launch Windows Explorer (of course), and will start you off in your “Libraries” folder. Libraries may be fine as a starting point, but if you have created yourself an “Inbox” folder, then it would probably make more sense to start off in this folder every time you launch Windows Explorer. To change this default/starting folder location, then first right-click the Explorer icon in the Superbar, and then right-click Properties:Then, in Target field of the Windows Explorer Properties box that appears, type %windir%\explorer.exe followed by the path of the folder you wish to start in. For example: %windir%\explorer.exe C:\Files If that folder happened to be on the Desktop (and called, say, “Inbox”), then you would use the following cleverness: %windir%\explorer.exe shell:desktop\Inbox Then click OK and test it out. Tip #40. Ummmmm…. No, that’s it. I can’t think of another one. That’s all of the tips I can come up with. I only created this one because 40 is such a nice round number… Case Study – An Organized PC To finish off the article, I have included a few screenshots of my (main) computer (running Vista). The aim here is twofold: To give you a sense of what it looks like when the above, sometimes abstract, tips are applied to a real-life computer, and To offer some ideas about folders and structure that you may want to steal to use on your own PC. Let’s start with the C: drive itself. Very minimal. All my files are contained within C:\Files. I’ll confine the rest of the case study to this folder: That folder contains the following: Mark: My personal files VC: My business (Virtual Creations, Australia) Others contains files created by friends and family Data contains files from the rest of the world (can be thought of as “public” files, usually downloaded from the Net) Settings is described above in tip #34 The Data folder contains the following sub-folders: Audio: Radio plays, audio books, podcasts, etc Development: Programmer and developer resources, sample source code, etc (see below) Humour: Jokes, funnies (those emails that we all receive) Movies: Downloaded and ripped movies (all legal, of course!), their scripts, DVD covers, etc. Music: (see below) Setups: Installation files for software (explained in full in tip #33) System: (see below) TV: Downloaded TV shows Writings: Books, instruction manuals, etc (see below) The Music folder contains the following sub-folders: Album covers: JPEG scans Guitar tabs: Text files of guitar sheet music Lists: e.g. “Top 1000 songs of all time” Lyrics: Text files MIDI: Electronic music files MP3 (representing 99% of the Music folder): MP3s, either ripped from CDs or downloaded, sorted by artist/album name Music Video: Video clips Sheet Music: usually PDFs The Data\Writings folder contains the following sub-folders: (all pretty self-explanatory) The Data\Development folder contains the following sub-folders: Again, all pretty self-explanatory (if you’re a geek) The Data\System folder contains the following sub-folders: These are usually themes, plug-ins and other downloadable program-specific resources. The Mark folder contains the following sub-folders: From Others: Usually letters that other people (friends, family, etc) have written to me For Others: Letters and other things I have created for other people Green Book: None of your business Playlists: M3U files that I have compiled of my favorite songs (plus one M3U playlist file for every album I own) Writing: Fiction, philosophy and other musings of mine Mark Docs: Shortcut to C:\Users\Mark Settings: Shortcut to C:\Files\Settings\Mark The Others folder contains the following sub-folders: The VC (Virtual Creations, my business – I develop websites) folder contains the following sub-folders: And again, all of those are pretty self-explanatory. Conclusion These tips have saved my sanity and helped keep me a productive geek, but what about you? What tips and tricks do you have to keep your files organized? Please share them with us in the comments. Come on, don’t be shy… Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Fix For When Windows Explorer in Vista Stops Showing File NamesWhy Did Windows Vista’s Music Folder Icon Turn Yellow?Print or Create a Text File List of the Contents in a Directory the Easy WayCustomize the Windows 7 or Vista Send To MenuAdd Copy To / Move To on Windows 7 or Vista Right-Click Menu TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows Track Daily Goals With 42Goals Video Toolbox is a Superb Online Video Editor Fun with 47 charts and graphs Tomorrow is Mother’s Day Check the Average Speed of YouTube Videos You’ve Watched OutlookStatView Scans and Displays General Usage Statistics

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Agile Development

- by James Oloo Onyango

Alot of literature has and is being written about agile developement and its surrounding philosophies. In my quest to find the best way to express the importance of agile methodologies, i have found Robert C. Martin's "A Satire Of Two Companies" to be both the most concise and thorough! Enjoy the read! Rufus Inc Project Kick Off Your name is Bob. The date is January 3, 2001, and your head still aches from the recent millennial revelry. You are sitting in a conference room with several managers and a group of your peers. You are a project team leader. Your boss is there, and he has brought along all of his team leaders. His boss called the meeting. "We have a new project to develop," says your boss's boss. Call him BB. The points in his hair are so long that they scrape the ceiling. Your boss's points are just starting to grow, but he eagerly awaits the day when he can leave Brylcream stains on the acoustic tiles. BB describes the essence of the new market they have identified and the product they want to develop to exploit this market. "We must have this new project up and working by fourth quarter October 1," BB demands. "Nothing is of higher priority, so we are cancelling your current project." The reaction in the room is stunned silence. Months of work are simply going to be thrown away. Slowly, a murmur of objection begins to circulate around the conference table. His points give off an evil green glow as BB meets the eyes of everyone in the room. One by one, that insidious stare reduces each attendee to quivering lumps of protoplasm. It is clear that he will brook no discussion on this matter. Once silence has been restored, BB says, "We need to begin immediately. How long will it take you to do the analysis?" You raise your hand. Your boss tries to stop you, but his spitwad misses you and you are unaware of his efforts. "Sir, we can't tell you how long the analysis will take until we have some requirements." "The requirements document won't be ready for 3 or 4 weeks," BB says, his points vibrating with frustration. "So, pretend that you have the requirements in front of you now. How long will you require for analysis?" No one breathes. Everyone looks around to see whether anyone has some idea. "If analysis goes beyond April 1, we have a problem. Can you finish the analysis by then?" Your boss visibly gathers his courage: "We'll find a way, sir!" His points grow 3 mm, and your headache increases by two Tylenol. "Good." BB smiles. "Now, how long will it take to do the design?" "Sir," you say. Your boss visibly pales. He is clearly worried that his 3 mms are at risk. "Without an analysis, it will not be possible to tell you how long design will take." BB's expression shifts beyond austere. "PRETEND you have the analysis already!" he says, while fixing you with his vacant, beady little eyes. "How long will it take you to do the design?" Two Tylenol are not going to cut it. Your boss, in a desperate attempt to save his new growth, babbles: "Well, sir, with only six months left to complete the project, design had better take no longer than 3 months." "I'm glad you agree, Smithers!" BB says, beaming. Your boss relaxes. He knows his points are secure. After a while, he starts lightly humming the Brylcream jingle. BB continues, "So, analysis will be complete by April 1, design will be complete by July 1, and that gives you 3 months to implement the project. This meeting is an example of how well our new consensus and empowerment policies are working. Now, get out there and start working. I'll expect to see TQM plans and QIT assignments on my desk by next week. Oh, and don't forget that your crossfunctional team meetings and reports will be needed for next month's quality audit." "Forget the Tylenol," you think to yourself as you return to your cubicle. "I need bourbon." Visibly excited, your boss comes over to you and says, "Gosh, what a great meeting. I think we're really going to do some world shaking with this project." You nod in agreement, too disgusted to do anything else. "Oh," your boss continues, "I almost forgot." He hands you a 30-page document. "Remember that the SEI is coming to do an evaluation next week. This is the evaluation guide. You need to read through it, memorize it, and then shred it. It tells you how to answer any questions that the SEI auditors ask you. It also tells you what parts of the building you are allowed to take them to and what parts to avoid. We are determined to be a CMM level 3 organization by June!" You and your peers start working on the analysis of the new project. This is difficult because you have no requirements. But from the 10-minute introduction given by BB on that fateful morning, you have some idea of what the product is supposed to do. Corporate process demands that you begin by creating a use case document. You and your team begin enumerating use cases and drawing oval and stick diagrams. Philosophical debates break out among the team members. There is disagreement as to whether certain use cases should be connected with <<extends>> or <<includes>> relationships. Competing models are created, but nobody knows how to evaluate them. The debate continues, effectively paralyzing progress. After a week, somebody finds the iceberg.com Web site, which recommends disposing entirely of <<extends>> and <<includes>> and replacing them with <<precedes>> and <<uses>>. The documents on this Web site, authored by Don Sengroiux, describes a method known as stalwart-analysis, which claims to be a step-by-step method for translating use cases into design diagrams. More competing use case models are created using this new scheme, but again, people can't agree on how to evaluate them. The thrashing continues. More and more, the use case meetings are driven by emotion rather than by reason. If it weren't for the fact that you don't have requirements, you'd be pretty upset by the lack of progress you are making. The requirements document arrives on February 15. And then again on February 20, 25, and every week thereafter. Each new version contradicts the previous one. Clearly, the marketing folks who are writing the requirements, empowered though they might be, are not finding consensus. At the same time, several new competing use case templates have been proposed by the various team members. Each template presents its own particularly creative way of delaying progress. The debates rage on. On March 1, Prudence Putrigence, the process proctor, succeeds in integrating all the competing use case forms and templates into a single, all-encompassing form. Just the blank form is 15 pages long. She has managed to include every field that appeared on all the competing templates. She also presents a 159- page document describing how to fill out the use case form. All current use cases must be rewritten according to the new standard. You marvel to yourself that it now requires 15 pages of fill-in-the-blank and essay questions to answer the question: What should the system do when the user presses Return? The corporate process (authored by L. E. Ott, famed author of "Holistic Analysis: A Progressive Dialectic for Software Engineers") insists that you discover all primary use cases, 87 percent of all secondary use cases, and 36.274 percent of all tertiary use cases before you can complete analysis and enter the design phase. You have no idea what a tertiary use case is. So in an attempt to meet this requirement, you try to get your use case document reviewed by the marketing department, which you hope will know what a tertiary use case is. Unfortunately, the marketing folks are too busy with sales support to talk to you. Indeed, since the project started, you have not been able to get a single meeting with marketing, which has provided a never-ending stream of changing and contradictory requirements documents. While one team has been spinning endlessly on the use case document, another team has been working out the domain model. Endless variations of UML documents are pouring out of this team. Every week, the model is reworked. The team members can't decide whether to use <<interfaces>> or <<types>> in the model. A huge disagreement has been raging on the proper syntax and application of OCL. Others on the team just got back from a 5-day class on catabolism, and have been producing incredibly detailed and arcane diagrams that nobody else can fathom. On March 27, with one week to go before analysis is to be complete, you have produced a sea of documents and diagrams but are no closer to a cogent analysis of the problem than you were on January 3. **** And then, a miracle happens. **** On Saturday, April 1, you check your e-mail from home. You see a memo from your boss to BB. It states unequivocally that you are done with the analysis! You phone your boss and complain. "How could you have told BB that we were done with the analysis?" "Have you looked at a calendar lately?" he responds. "It's April 1!" The irony of that date does not escape you. "But we have so much more to think about. So much more to analyze! We haven't even decided whether to use <<extends>> or <<precedes>>!" "Where is your evidence that you are not done?" inquires your boss, impatiently. "Whaaa . . . ." But he cuts you off. "Analysis can go on forever; it has to be stopped at some point. And since this is the date it was scheduled to stop, it has been stopped. Now, on Monday, I want you to gather up all existing analysis materials and put them into a public folder. Release that folder to Prudence so that she can log it in the CM system by Monday afternoon. Then get busy and start designing." As you hang up the phone, you begin to consider the benefits of keeping a bottle of bourbon in your bottom desk drawer. They threw a party to celebrate the on-time completion of the analysis phase. BB gave a colon-stirring speech on empowerment. And your boss, another 3 mm taller, congratulated his team on the incredible show of unity and teamwork. Finally, the CIO takes the stage to tell everyone that the SEI audit went very well and to thank everyone for studying and shredding the evaluation guides that were passed out. Level 3 now seems assured and will be awarded by June. (Scuttlebutt has it that managers at the level of BB and above are to receive significant bonuses once the SEI awards level 3.) As the weeks flow by, you and your team work on the design of the system. Of course, you find that the analysis that the design is supposedly based on is flawedno, useless; no, worse than useless. But when you tell your boss that you need to go back and work some more on the analysis to shore up its weaker sections, he simply states, "The analysis phase is over. The only allowable activity is design. Now get back to it." So, you and your team hack the design as best you can, unsure of whether the requirements have been properly analyzed. Of course, it really doesn't matter much, since the requirements document is still thrashing with weekly revisions, and the marketing department still refuses to meet with you. The design is a nightmare. Your boss recently misread a book named The Finish Line in which the author, Mark DeThomaso, blithely suggested that design documents should be taken down to code-level detail. "If we are going to be working at that level of detail," you ask, "why don't we simply write the code instead?" "Because then you wouldn't be designing, of course. And the only allowable activity in the design phase is design!" "Besides," he continues, "we have just purchased a companywide license for Dandelion! This tool enables 'Round the Horn Engineering!' You are to transfer all design diagrams into this tool. It will automatically generate our code for us! It will also keep the design diagrams in sync with the code!" Your boss hands you a brightly colored shrinkwrapped box containing the Dandelion distribution. You accept it numbly and shuffle off to your cubicle. Twelve hours, eight crashes, one disk reformatting, and eight shots of 151 later, you finally have the tool installed on your server. You consider the week your team will lose while attending Dandelion training. Then you smile and think, "Any week I'm not here is a good week." Design diagram after design diagram is created by your team. Dandelion makes it very difficult to draw these diagrams. There are dozens and dozens of deeply nested dialog boxes with funny text fields and check boxes that must all be filled in correctly. And then there's the problem of moving classes between packages. At first, these diagram are driven from the use cases. But the requirements are changing so often that the use cases rapidly become meaningless. Debates rage about whether VISITOR or DECORATOR design patterns should be used. One developer refuses to use VISITOR in any form, claiming that it's not a properly object-oriented construct. Someone refuses to use multiple inheritance, since it is the spawn of the devil. Review meetings rapidly degenerate into debates about the meaning of object orientation, the definition of analysis versus design, or when to use aggregation versus association. Midway through the design cycle, the marketing folks announce that they have rethought the focus of the system. Their new requirements document is completely restructured. They have eliminated several major feature areas and replaced them with feature areas that they anticipate customer surveys will show to be more appropriate. You tell your boss that these changes mean that you need to reanalyze and redesign much of the system. But he says, "The analysis phase is system. But he says, "The analysis phase is over. The only allowable activity is design. Now get back to it." You suggest that it might be better to create a simple prototype to show to the marketing folks and even some potential customers. But your boss says, "The analysis phase is over. The only allowable activity is design. Now get back to it." Hack, hack, hack, hack. You try to create some kind of a design document that might reflect the new requirements documents. However, the revolution of the requirements has not caused them to stop thrashing. Indeed, if anything, the wild oscillations of the requirements document have only increased in frequency and amplitude. You slog your way through them. On June 15, the Dandelion database gets corrupted. Apparently, the corruption has been progressive. Small errors in the DB accumulated over the months into bigger and bigger errors. Eventually, the CASE tool just stopped working. Of course, the slowly encroaching corruption is present on all the backups. Calls to the Dandelion technical support line go unanswered for several days. Finally, you receive a brief e-mail from Dandelion, informing you that this is a known problem and that the solution is to purchase the new version, which they promise will be ready some time next quarter, and then reenter all the diagrams by hand. **** Then, on July 1 another miracle happens! You are done with the design! Rather than go to your boss and complain, you stock your middle desk drawer with some vodka. **** They threw a party to celebrate the on-time completion of the design phase and their graduation to CMM level 3. This time, you find BB's speech so stirring that you have to use the restroom before it begins. New banners and plaques are all over your workplace. They show pictures of eagles and mountain climbers, and they talk about teamwork and empowerment. They read better after a few scotches. That reminds you that you need to clear out your file cabinet to make room for the brandy. You and your team begin to code. But you rapidly discover that the design is lacking in some significant areas. Actually, it's lacking any significance at all. You convene a design session in one of the conference rooms to try to work through some of the nastier problems. But your boss catches you at it and disbands the meeting, saying, "The design phase is over. The only allowable activity is coding. Now get back to it." **** The code generated by Dandelion is really hideous. It turns out that you and your team were using association and aggregation the wrong way, after all. All the generated code has to be edited to correct these flaws. Editing this code is extremely difficult because it has been instrumented with ugly comment blocks that have special syntax that Dandelion needs in order to keep the diagrams in sync with the code. If you accidentally alter one of these comments, the diagrams will be regenerated incorrectly. It turns out that "Round the Horn Engineering" requires an awful lot of effort. The more you try to keep the code compatible with Dandelion, the more errors Dandelion generates. In the end, you give up and decide to keep the diagrams up to date manually. A second later, you decide that there's no point in keeping the diagrams up to date at all. Besides, who has time? Your boss hires a consultant to build tools to count the number of lines of code that are being produced. He puts a big thermometer graph on the wall with the number 1,000,000 on the top. Every day, he extends the red line to show how many lines have been added. Three days after the thermometer appears on the wall, your boss stops you in the hall. "That graph isn't growing quickly enough. We need to have a million lines done by October 1." "We aren't even sh-sh-sure that the proshect will require a m-million linezh," you blather. "We have to have a million lines done by October 1," your boss reiterates. His points have grown again, and the Grecian formula he uses on them creates an aura of authority and competence. "Are you sure your comment blocks are big enough?" Then, in a flash of managerial insight, he says, "I have it! I want you to institute a new policy among the engineers. No line of code is to be longer than 20 characters. Any such line must be split into two or more preferably more. All existing code needs to be reworked to this standard. That'll get our line count up!" You decide not to tell him that this will require two unscheduled work months. You decide not to tell him anything at all. You decide that intravenous injections of pure ethanol are the only solution. You make the appropriate arrangements. Hack, hack, hack, and hack. You and your team madly code away. By August 1, your boss, frowning at the thermometer on the wall, institutes a mandatory 50-hour workweek. Hack, hack, hack, and hack. By September 1st, the thermometer is at 1.2 million lines and your boss asks you to write a report describing why you exceeded the coding budget by 20 percent. He institutes mandatory Saturdays and demands that the project be brought back down to a million lines. You start a campaign of remerging lines. Hack, hack, hack, and hack. Tempers are flaring; people are quitting; QA is raining trouble reports down on you. Customers are demanding installation and user manuals; salespeople are demanding advance demonstrations for special customers; the requirements document is still thrashing, the marketing folks are complaining that the product isn't anything like they specified, and the liquor store won't accept your credit card anymore. Something has to give. On September 15, BB calls a meeting. As he enters the room, his points are emitting clouds of steam. When he speaks, the bass overtones of his carefully manicured voice cause the pit of your stomach to roll over. "The QA manager has told me that this project has less than 50 percent of the required features implemented. He has also informed me that the system crashes all the time, yields wrong results, and is hideously slow. He has also complained that he cannot keep up with the continuous train of daily releases, each more buggy than the last!" He stops for a few seconds, visibly trying to compose himself. "The QA manager estimates that, at this rate of development, we won't be able to ship the product until December!" Actually, you think it's more like March, but you don't say anything. "December!" BB roars with such derision that people duck their heads as though he were pointing an assault rifle at them. "December is absolutely out of the question. Team leaders, I want new estimates on my desk in the morning. I am hereby mandating 65-hour work weeks until this project is complete. And it better be complete by November 1." As he leaves the conference room, he is heard to mutter: "Empowermentbah!" * * * Your boss is bald; his points are mounted on BB's wall. The fluorescent lights reflecting off his pate momentarily dazzle you. "Do you have anything to drink?" he asks. Having just finished your last bottle of Boone's Farm, you pull a bottle of Thunderbird from your bookshelf and pour it into his coffee mug. "What's it going to take to get this project done? " he asks. "We need to freeze the requirements, analyze them, design them, and then implement them," you say callously. "By November 1?" your boss exclaims incredulously. "No way! Just get back to coding the damned thing." He storms out, scratching his vacant head. A few days later, you find that your boss has been transferred to the corporate research division. Turnover has skyrocketed. Customers, informed at the last minute that their orders cannot be fulfilled on time, have begun to cancel their orders. Marketing is re-evaluating whether this product aligns with the overall goals of the company. Memos fly, heads roll, policies change, and things are, overall, pretty grim. Finally, by March, after far too many sixty-five hour weeks, a very shaky version of the software is ready. In the field, bug-discovery rates are high, and the technical support staff are at their wits' end, trying to cope with the complaints and demands of the irate customers. Nobody is happy. In April, BB decides to buy his way out of the problem by licensing a product produced by Rupert Industries and redistributing it. The customers are mollified, the marketing folks are smug, and you are laid off. Rupert Industries: Project Alpha Your name is Robert. The date is January 3, 2001. The quiet hours spent with your family this holiday have left you refreshed and ready for work. You are sitting in a conference room with your team of professionals. The manager of the division called the meeting. "We have some ideas for a new project," says the division manager. Call him Russ. He is a high-strung British chap with more energy than a fusion reactor. He is ambitious and driven but understands the value of a team. Russ describes the essence of the new market opportunity the company has identified and introduces you to Jane, the marketing manager, who is responsible for defining the products that will address it. Addressing you, Jane says, "We'd like to start defining our first product offering as soon as possible. When can you and your team meet with me?" You reply, "We'll be done with the current iteration of our project this Friday. We can spare a few hours for you between now and then. After that, we'll take a few people from the team and dedicate them to you. We'll begin hiring their replacements and the new people for your team immediately." "Great," says Russ, "but I want you to understand that it is critical that we have something to exhibit at the trade show coming up this July. If we can't be there with something significant, we'll lose the opportunity." "I understand," you reply. "I don't yet know what it is that you have in mind, but I'm sure we can have something by July. I just can't tell you what that something will be right now. In any case, you and Jane are going to have complete control over what we developers do, so you can rest assured that by July, you'll have the most important things that can be accomplished in that time ready to exhibit." Russ nods in satisfaction. He knows how this works. Your team has always kept him advised and allowed him to steer their development. He has the utmost confidence that your team will work on the most important things first and will produce a high-quality product. * * * "So, Robert," says Jane at their first meeting, "How does your team feel about being split up?" "We'll miss working with each other," you answer, "but some of us were getting pretty tired of that last project and are looking forward to a change. So, what are you people cooking up?" Jane beams. "You know how much trouble our customers currently have . . ." And she spends a half hour or so describing the problem and possible solution. "OK, wait a second" you respond. "I need to be clear about this." And so you and Jane talk about how this system might work. Some of her ideas aren't fully formed. You suggest possible solutions. She likes some of them. You continue discussing. During the discussion, as each new topic is addressed, Jane writes user story cards. Each card represents something that the new system has to do. The cards accumulate on the table and are spread out in front of you. Both you and Jane point at them, pick them up, and make notes on them as you discuss the stories. The cards are powerful mnemonic devices that you can use to represent complex ideas that are barely formed. At the end of the meeting, you say, "OK, I've got a general idea of what you want. I'm going to talk to the team about it. I imagine they'll want to run some experiments with various database structures and presentation formats. Next time we meet, it'll be as a group, and we'll start identifying the most important features of the system." A week later, your nascent team meets with Jane. They spread the existing user story cards out on the table and begin to get into some of the details of the system. The meeting is very dynamic. Jane presents the stories in the order of their importance. There is much discussion about each one. The developers are concerned about keeping the stories small enough to estimate and test. So they continually ask Jane to split one story into several smaller stories. Jane is concerned that each story have a clear business value and priority, so as she splits them, she makes sure that this stays true. The stories accumulate on the table. Jane writes them, but the developers make notes on them as needed. Nobody tries to capture everything that is said; the cards are not meant to capture everything but are simply reminders of the conversation. As the developers become more comfortable with the stories, they begin writing estimates on them. These estimates are crude and budgetary, but they give Jane an idea of what the story will cost. At the end of the meeting, it is clear that many more stories could be discussed. It is also clear that the most important stories have been addressed and that they represent several months worth of work. Jane closes the meeting by taking the cards with her and promising to have a proposal for the first release in the morning. * * * The next morning, you reconvene the meeting. Jane chooses five cards and places them on the table. "According to your estimates, these cards represent about one perfect team-week's worth of work. The last iteration of the previous project managed to get one perfect team-week done in 3 real weeks. If we can get these five stories done in 3 weeks, we'll be able to demonstrate them to Russ. That will make him feel very comfortable about our progress." Jane is pushing it. The sheepish look on her face lets you know that she knows it too. You reply, "Jane, this is a new team, working on a new project. It's a bit presumptuous to expect that our velocity will be the same as the previous team's. However, I met with the team yesterday afternoon, and we all agreed that our initial velocity should, in fact, be set to one perfectweek for every 3 real-weeks. So you've lucked out on this one." "Just remember," you continue, "that the story estimates and the story velocity are very tentative at this point. We'll learn more when we plan the iteration and even more when we implement it." Jane looks over her glasses at you as if to say "Who's the boss around here, anyway?" and then smiles and says, "Yeah, don't worry. I know the drill by now."Jane then puts 15 more cards on the table. She says, "If we can get all these cards done by the end of March, we can turn the system over to our beta test customers. And we'll get good feedback from them." You reply, "OK, so we've got our first iteration defined, and we have the stories for the next three iterations after that. These four iterations will make our first release." "So," says Jane, can you really do these five stories in the next 3 weeks?" "I don't know for sure, Jane," you reply. "Let's break them down into tasks and see what we get." So Jane, you, and your team spend the next several hours taking each of the five stories that Jane chose for the first iteration and breaking them down into small tasks. The developers quickly realize that some of the tasks can be shared between stories and that other tasks have commonalities that can probably be taken advantage of. It is clear that potential designs are popping into the developers' heads. From time to time, they form little discussion knots and scribble UML diagrams on some cards. Soon, the whiteboard is filled with the tasks that, once completed, will implement the five stories for this iteration. You start the sign-up process by saying, "OK, let's sign up for these tasks." "I'll take the initial database generation." Says Pete. "That's what I did on the last project, and this doesn't look very different. I estimate it at two of my perfect workdays." "OK, well, then, I'll take the login screen," says Joe. "Aw, darn," says Elaine, the junior member of the team, "I've never done a GUI, and kinda wanted to try that one." "Ah, the impatience of youth," Joe says sagely, with a wink in your direction. "You can assist me with it, young Jedi." To Jane: "I think it'll take me about three of my perfect workdays." One by one, the developers sign up for tasks and estimate them in terms of their own perfect workdays. Both you and Jane know that it is best to let the developers volunteer for tasks than to assign the tasks to them. You also know full well that you daren't challenge any of the developers' estimates. You know these people, and you trust them. You know that they are going to do the very best they can. The developers know that they can't sign up for more perfect workdays than they finished in the last iteration they worked on. Once each developer has filled his or her schedule for the iteration, they stop signing up for tasks. Eventually, all the developers have stopped signing up for tasks. But, of course, tasks are still left on the board. "I was worried that that might happen," you say, "OK, there's only one thing to do, Jane. We've got too much to do in this iteration. What stories or tasks can we remove?" Jane sighs. She knows that this is the only option. Working overtime at the beginning of a project is insane, and projects where she's tried it have not fared well. So Jane starts to remove the least-important functionality. "Well, we really don't need the login screen just yet. We can simply start the system in the logged-in state." "Rats!" cries Elaine. "I really wanted to do that." "Patience, grasshopper." says Joe. "Those who wait for the bees to leave the hive will not have lips too swollen to relish the honey." Elaine looks confused. Everyone looks confused. "So . . .," Jane continues, "I think we can also do away with . . ." And so, bit by bit, the list of tasks shrinks. Developers who lose a task sign up for one of the remaining ones. The negotiation is not painless. Several times, Jane exhibits obvious frustration and impatience. Once, when tensions are especially high, Elaine volunteers, "I'll work extra hard to make up some of the missing time." You are about to correct her when, fortunately, Joe looks her in the eye and says, "When once you proceed down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny." In the end, an iteration acceptable to Jane is reached. It's not what Jane wanted. Indeed, it is significantly less. But it's something the team feels that can be achieved in the next 3 weeks. And, after all, it still addresses the most important things that Jane wanted in the iteration. "So, Jane," you say when things had quieted down a bit, "when can we expect acceptance tests from you?" Jane sighs. This is the other side of the coin. For every story the development team implements, Jane must supply a suite of acceptance tests that prove that it works. And the team needs these long before the end of the iteration, since they will certainly point out differences in the way Jane and the developers imagine the system's behaviour. "I'll get you some example test scripts today," Jane promises. "I'll add to them every day after that. You'll have the entire suite by the middle of the iteration." * * * The iteration begins on Monday morning with a flurry of Class, Responsibilities, Collaborators sessions. By midmorning, all the developers have assembled into pairs and are rapidly coding away. "And now, my young apprentice," Joe says to Elaine, "you shall learn the mysteries of test-first design!" "Wow, that sounds pretty rad," Elaine replies. "How do you do it?" Joe beams. It's clear that he has been anticipating this moment. "OK, what does the code do right now?" "Huh?" replied Elaine, "It doesn't do anything at all; there is no code." "So, consider our task; can you think of something the code should do?" "Sure," Elaine said with youthful assurance, "First, it should connect to the database." "And thereupon, what must needs be required to connecteth the database?" "You sure talk weird," laughed Elaine. "I think we'd have to get the database object from some registry and call the Connect() method. "Ah, astute young wizard. Thou perceives correctly that we requireth an object within which we can cacheth the database object." "Is 'cacheth' really a word?" "It is when I say it! So, what test can we write that we know the database registry should pass?" Elaine sighs. She knows she'll just have to play along. "We should be able to create a database object and pass it to the registry in a Store() method. And then we should be able to pull it out of the registry with a Get() method and make sure it's the same object." "Oh, well said, my prepubescent sprite!" "Hay!" "So, now, let's write a test function that proves your case." "But shouldn't we write the database object and registry object first?" "Ah, you've much to learn, my young impatient one. Just write the test first." "But it won't even compile!" "Are you sure? What if it did?" "Uh . . ." "Just write the test, Elaine. Trust me." And so Joe, Elaine, and all the other developers began to code their tasks, one test case at a time. The room in which they worked was abuzz with the conversations between the pairs. The murmur was punctuated by an occasional high five when a pair managed to finish a task or a difficult test case. As development proceeded, the developers changed partners once or twice a day. Each developer got to see what all the others were doing, and so knowledge of the code spread generally throughout the team. Whenever a pair finished something significant whether a whole task or simply an important part of a task they integrated what they had with the rest of the system. Thus, the code base grew daily, and integration difficulties were minimized. The developers communicated with Jane on a daily basis. They'd go to her whenever they had a question about the functionality of the system or the interpretation of an acceptance test case. Jane, good as her word, supplied the team with a steady stream of acceptance test scripts. The team read these carefully and thereby gained a much better understanding of what Jane expected the system to do. By the beginning of the second week, there was enough functionality to demonstrate to Jane. She watched eagerly as the demonstration passed test case after test case. "This is really cool," Jane said as the demonstration finally ended. "But this doesn't seem like one-third of the tasks. Is your velocity slower than anticipated?" You grimace. You'd been waiting for a good time to mention this to Jane but now she was forcing the issue. "Yes, unfortunately, we are going more slowly than we had expected. The new application server we are using is turning out to be a pain to configure. Also, it takes forever to reboot, and we have to reboot it whenever we make even the slightest change to its configuration." Jane eyes you with suspicion. The stress of last Monday's negotiations had still not entirely dissipated. She says, "And what does this mean to our schedule? We can't slip it again, we just can't. Russ will have a fit! He'll haul us all into the woodshed and ream us some new ones." You look Jane right in the eyes. There's no pleasant way to give someone news like this. So you just blurt out, "Look, if things keep going like they're going, we're not going to be done with everything by next Friday. Now it's possible that we'll figure out a way to go faster. But, frankly, I wouldn't depend on that. You should start thinking about one or two tasks that could be removed from the iteration without ruining the demonstration for Russ. Come hell or high water, we are going to give that demonstration on Friday, and I don't think you want us to choose which tasks to omit." "Aw forchrisakes!" Jane barely manages to stifle yelling that last word as she stalks away, shaking her head. Not for the first time, you say to yourself, "Nobody ever promised me project management would be easy." You are pretty sure it won't be the last time, either. Actually, things went a bit better than you had hoped. The team did, in fact, have to drop one task from the iteration, but Jane had chosen wisely, and the demonstration for Russ went without a hitch. Russ was not impressed with the progress, but neither was he dismayed. He simply said, "This is pretty good. But remember, we have to be able to demonstrate this system at the trade show in July, and at this rate, it doesn't look like you'll have all that much to show." Jane, whose attitude had improved dramatically with the completion of the iteration, responded to Russ by saying, "Russ, this team is working hard, and well. When July comes around, I am confident that we'll have something significant to demonstrate. It won't be everything, and some of it may be smoke and mirrors, but we'll have something." Painful though the last iteration was, it had calibrated your velocity numbers. The next iteration went much better. Not because your team got more done than in the last iteration but simply because the team didn't have to remove any tasks or stories in the middle of the iteration. By the start of the fourth iteration, a natural rhythm has been established. Jane, you, and the team know exactly what to expect from one another. The team is running hard, but the pace is sustainable. You are confident that the team can keep up this pace for a year or more. The number of surprises in the schedule diminishes to near zero; however, the number of surprises in the requirements does not. Jane and Russ frequently look over the growing system and make recommendations or changes to the existing functionality. But all parties realize that these changes take time and must be scheduled. So the changes do not cause anyone's expectations to be violated. In March, there is a major demonstration of the system to the board of directors. The system is very limited and is not yet in a form good enough to take to the trade show, but progress is steady, and the board is reasonably impressed. The second release goes even more smoothly than the first. By now, the team has figured out a way to automate Jane's acceptance test scripts. The team has also refactored the design of the system to the point that it is really easy to add new features and change old ones. The second release was done by the end of June and was taken to the trade show. It had less in it than Jane and Russ would have liked, but it did demonstrate the most important features of the system. Although customers at the trade show noticed that certain features were missing, they were very impressed overall. You, Russ, and Jane all returned from the trade show with smiles on your faces. You all felt as though this project was a winner. Indeed, many months later, you are contacted by Rufus Inc. That company had been working on a system like this for its internal operations. Rufus has canceled the development of that system after a death-march project and is negotiating to license your technology for its environment. Indeed, things are looking up!

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