Various coding &c. stuff · Sat Nov 19, 12:08 PM

Handy Enhanced DataTips Debugger Tip (VS2005): you can follow a variable declaration with a comment indicating the preferred formatting for the debugger to use to show that variable’s data. Example:

HRESULT result = S_OK; // result,hr

(Courtesy of Jeff Stong.)

Visual Studio 2005 does not officially support developing for Windows 95 or Windows NT 4 (since those are past End of Life, presumably), and there are some things that can break on NT 4. However, there is apparently a workaround for the unavailability of GetLongPathName, to wit:

#define COMPILE_NEWAPIS_STUBS #define WANT_GETLONGPATHNAME_WRAPPER #include "NewAPIs.h"

You may need to edit the header file slightly.

Len Holgate has posted some useful-looking tools for measuring TCP/IP server performance.

W L Weller Antique is a very tasty bourbon.

There’s an excellent article called Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years by Peter Norvig. A quote:
bq. Researchers (Hayes, Bloom) have shown it takes about ten years to develop expertise in any of a wide variety of areas, including chess playing, music composition, painting, piano playing, swimming, tennis, and research in neuropsychology and topology. There appear to be no real shortcuts: even Mozart, who was a musical prodigy at age 4, took 13 more years before he began to produce world-class music.

Len Holgate posted an article on sensible use of TDD, making several good points on using it “in the real world.”

Jason Yip has an interesting post about speaking up when things are wrong. I occasionally discuss with people why I bother taking a stand on issues involving doing the right thing, even if it doesn’t really matter in the particular case, or even if I can’t actually make a difference. This helps explain why I do it.

-- David --

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Fixed archive by date...     Hilarious quote from Aaron Skonnard