Manifest files

A nice explanation on those pesky manifest files, and how to embedde dthem in dlls and whatnot:
http://www.grimes.demon.co.uk/workshops/fusWSThirteen.htm

Also WinFX Beta 1:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CE888B4C-CCBD-452F-9D90-F4B7190CCA24&displaylang=en

And a lame article on whats new in VC8:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/bw65k95a(en-us,vs.80).aspx

More VC8 Notes

Heres a nice error:

Error while trying to run project: Unable to start debugging.

Unable to start program 'C:\yourprogram.exe'.

This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

How do you fix it? Delete the manifest files, rebuild, or for some reason, be written with the wrong encoding. Convert it to UTF-8 and everythigns goes. Wieerd.

More items:
How to build CRT to support unicode DLL's:
http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/articles/478235.aspx

Performance boost for CRT (I haven't tried this yet):
http://www.codeproject.com/cpp/improved2005crt.asp
(same guy wrote a callstack walking example, might replace my old one for VC6 with this - dont know yet..)
http://www.codeproject.com/threads/StackWalker.asp

Here is the S2003 Platform SDK:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=D8EECD75-1FC4-49E5-BC66-9DA2B03D9B92

MSVC8

Okay, so when VC8 beta 1 came out, I was very excited - the new compiler was awesome, very close to standards compliance, pushing the envelope in terms of security, nice new compiler options, and the IDE - well it didn't suck.

Microsoft obviously learnt from thier MSVC6 hardcore crowd, that "real" programmers prefer the VC6 interface. Well, at least now VC8 interface mimics the VC6 IDE and also brings onboard the best of the VC7 interface. The intellisense/scanner/parser has also been impressively improved. The interface is still a little slow in terms of response times, so some of the oldskool c++ coders might not upgarde.

All in all, VC8 had me very happy. Couldn't wait for the final thing - a bug free version. I was disapointed.

So far, after installing VC8 on 5 different machines, I've had more problems with it than I did with the VC8 Beta 1! I know the products good so I'm going to keep sinking time into it, but I'm very disapointed that the final version is worse than the first beta. Ohwell.

Heres the first bug fix :
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/productfeedback/viewfeedback.aspx?feedbackid=90a3c883-6f86-4dd4-aef9-d28a8e4c37c9

On other compiler news, I discovered Pelles C the other day, which joins Digital Mars as my favourite 'alternative' compilers. Pelles has this wonderfull import feature and is closely compatible with MSVC, but either it or my code seems to have issues in it since I keep getting wierd problems in the binary. Shame.

Events : Pendulum , Judge Jules

Went to Pendulum, was really pretty good. The DJ beforehand was doing some kind of prodigy tribute - an dit was really, really bad. Although the guy might have been doing it on purpose to make Pendulum look good.. They started the set with the Voodoo people remix and it really just got more intense from there. Hornet was just showing off a little and mixing and mashing things together without leaving any real progression. It was pritty much all energy-energy-energy. Couldn't fault them technically though. I think I caught maybe 3 'wierd' sounding patches, but no 'mistakes'.
Thumbs up.

I also saw Judge Jules a wihle back. It was actually almost ridiculously inmpressive - he started his set with a bit of a big-famous-tunes-flashback session, and he was mixing without headphones or monitors as far as I could tell. One record, next record and crossfade. (Well, CD's actually, so he might have been cheating a little). In any case I was quite impressed. The whole thing was quite alright, but nothing to yak on about. I guess it was just nice to see him again after all these years.

U7 Game Maps

I asked Ian to make some game maps for me. He kindly did this; have a look here:
Game Maps: Ultima 7 Part ii - Serpents Isle. He's got a number of other maps, awesome stuff.

Wikipedia

Here is a
false wiki entry story. Funny how people are SUPRISED to find wikipedia is wrong. I'll probably use this as ammunition in an upcomming dont-trust-anyone/everyone-is-an-idiot rant.

Microsoft Patches

George Ou asks Why can't Microsoft just patch everything?, in response to the recent known-bug exploit. There are obviously some good answers to this question, the most likely being that a new patch is likely to introduce new bugs, and ugly legacy code is hard to patch. However, Microsoft really does have the resources to tackle this if they wanted to.

I guess people just need to remember Microsoft is a shove-it-out-the-door programming outfit run as a marketing/sales company. (Unlike google which is a shove-it-out-the-door programming outfit run as a elite-programmers company). Patching and security just isn't very microsoft, its going to take a while for them to adjust.