Denaes

I have relationships in my .mdb file. I also see that schema seem to be about defining relationships. Will the Jet Ole data connector take care of the existing relationships, or do you need to create a schema with the relationships to use them?

I know my way around a bit with datasets, but I'm working on a rather large project, so I figured I'd do things the easier way, more professional way, which is to create a Typed Dataset. I have a book (ADO.Net by Microsoft), which is... well half the book doesn't apply to me. I know MS wants to sell their SQL Server, but I don't want to spend 2000 on some program to augment my VB database programming. Thats silly. The book mentions Visual Studio having its own SQL server of a sorts, but it doesn't work with the examples in the book (maybe because I'm using VB.net, not VS.net?). So I'm stuck in the Jet 4.0 Ole database world. I'm following this example in the book, which works. Then I try to do it myself and it doesn't. It actually REVERSES itself and undoes what I need! Here is what I did: 1. I added the Dataconnection and data adapters for each of the tables in my database. 2. Data -> Generate Dataset. Choose New "dsSchema". 3. Choose the tables I want to add to the dataset. I choose one. 4. Click Ok. It works perfectly. It adds dsSchema to the designer and the .xsd file for it to the project. Wow, thats pretty useless. I need to make sure it actually has the data I need on it. I add the other 7 tables to it. The dsSchema is now removed from my designer!!? Why? I try to add a dataset to the designer. I still have the dsSchema.xsd Schema, but its not on my designer, just in my project, so I can't use that. I'm more used to datasets in code and using xml. This working with an actual database went from a pleasant experience in vb6 to a down and out pain in the butt. I have the .xsd file, is there a way, maybe programatically to create the typed dataset? I don't really NEED it, unless this ADO.Net is a REAL pain. But I'll ask another question in another post to tell if I really require it, or if ADO.Net is cool. Thank you for your help :)

Alright. So I guess its a good practice to start using them, even when not needed. Makes for easier Copy/Pasting of code and reinforces the habit so you don't go accidently referring to something you didn't want to.

I got this ADO.Net book (by microsoft, its not that great) and a LOT of the examples are using Me and This like there was no tomorrow. Me.Textbox1.Text This.DataAdaptor.Connection are these really required, or was the author just anal? I want to keep up good OOP programming habits and I wasn't sure if this is something that would be more helpful/vital in the future with classes?

First off, I'm using the standard callender component that came with .net. I seem to have two issues in doing a scheduling program. 1. You can only seem to select one week at a time. 2. Non-Standard Selection method. In windows, if you select one object (file, word, etc) then hit shift and click on another object, everything in between should be selected. This works fine. But the important part (I use it ALL the time) is that if you have 50 items selected (by manually selecting, shift selecting or select all), you're supposed to be able to hit Ctrl and click on an object and deselect it, or even just hold down on Ctrl and select whatever you want only. This almost seems trivial, but actually its vital. If you've got a callender, and you want to select a whole month except for the last weekend, first off, it only lets you select one week. Second, it won't let you select multiple non consecutive days. I know ComponantOne made some REALLY kick improvements to most of the standard componants (available for FREE in the VB Resource Kit), maybe there might be a 'fixed' version of the callander component somewhere? Or maybe just a workaround someone might know of? I'll feel really stupid if its just a property I'm not setting :p

It looks like Microsoft is realizing a few shortcommings, or fuzzy areas in .Net and bought out the tools this other company made. Probobly be in the next version of .Net: ".Net 2003 Fall edition" :D

Zip!!!!? Damn! I just spent a few days working with that C# zip .dll and creating the methods I needed for it to back everything up and now theres a .Net component for it?

Actually I put 23 on the poll, but now that I think of it, when I was 13, my grandfather got a mac plus. I was all into the hypercard writing scripts and games on that thing... heck it was about all there was to do, there were like 4 shareware games on it and no internet access. Then it was nothing until I got a vb disc with my vb class in college. I couldn't figure it out. I took two classes and finished the book at about the halfway point of the semister (the book is for two semisters!). Since the teacher was just keeping up one lesson at a time (she wasn't a programmer) me and one other guy had to correct all of her mistakes and help out on the lessong :) I only wish I had opportunities to start programming earlier... I feel like its been time wasted. people always say "find work that you're happy doing" and programming is it for me. I never knew that until I was 23.

You're talking about moving the window around the screen and not just resizing right? Set the property FormBorderStyle to None and the 'grabbar' on top dissapears. This also means so does the min/max and X (close) button are gone. I'd like to see a way to just dim it out, so you couldn't move, but it still looks like a normal form (but maybe muted)

Ok, I gave converting it a try. It looks very good with one problem. What is RecList? did you forget to dim it? Well this is what I got out of converting it: Public Function GetAllFiles(ByVal Dir As String) As ArrayList Dim e() As String = Directory.GetFileSystemEntries(Dir) Dim iCounter As Integer For iCounter = 0 To e.Length If Directory.Exists(e(iCounter)) Then GetAllFiles(e(iCounter)) Else reclist.Add(e(iCounter)) End If Next Return reclist End Function RecList is the error I got. That was some pretty crunchy stuff you threw down. I've never used Directory.Exists or Directory.GetFileSystemEntries before, they look more useful. Any help with the RecList? Is it another array?

Oh, my god. C# really does remind me of Java. I'm getting flashbacks of my java class now... Actually Java was pretty cool, our IDE was crap though. I've heard that there were better (JCreator). If C# looks this much like Java, then what is J#? Well your method looks better to me, less 'patched'. I'm going to translate this to VB and try this :) >>Edit<< Whoops, Forgot my manors :p Thank you very much for this code :)

Well I managed to Jigger Rig it... Its pretty sad but it works. I'd like to use a more efficient method. Public astrFileNames(10000) As String Public Sub zipWholeDirectory(ByVal SourceDirectory As String) Dim directory As String Dim File As String Dim iCounter As Integer = 0 For Each directory In IO.Directory.GetDirectories(SourceDirectory) For Each File In IO.Directory.GetFiles(directory) astrFileNames(iCounter) = File iCounter += 1 Next Next End Sub Then I have to test my zipping procedure for a blank line (which would cause an error) and tell it that when it got a blank line, its over. If I were to use this hodgepodge method, I'd realisitically have to create another sub, just to count out how many files there are, just so I can dim my array to the right length.

I'm trying to create something to Zip up all files within a directory and its' sub directory using SharpZipLib. Simply put, you type the name of a directory into a text box and its passed into the creation of an array like so: Dim strFilesToCompress() as string = IO.Directory.GetFiles(inputbox.text) That gets all of the files in a single directory and throws them into a string array. This string array is passed to another procedure which actually does the zipping based on the paths and filenames in this array. Now to add subdirectories, it should be as simple as creating a recursive procedure to get all the directories and add their files to the strFilesToCompress() array. Unfortunately I don't know my array technique in this way very well and the code: For Each directory In IO.Directory.GetDirectories(SourceDirectory) strFilesToCompress() += IO.Directory.GetFiles(directory) zipDirectory(directory) 'The recursive part Next Gives an error. Apparently you can only do this when first Dimming it? what syntax would I use to keep adding more files after its first created? Would I have to break down and use a For...Next loop to assign each filepath a specific spot in the array?

Its a big bonus that you can just upload the file and run over the web also. its not a terribly complicated application, all it needs is to read/write XML datascructures (for datastorage), other than that, perform some math functions. Its mostly a Role Playing Game Assistant. (tabletop, not computer RPGs). Lets the Gamemaster (person in charge) keep track of locations, plot points, adventures, characters, notes, random plot/adventure generation, die rolling (with statistical info based on die type), NPC and villian storage. With flash I can also (way more easier than with VB) add in a way to create maps, combat representations. Its also going to have a logon, so players can view and update their stuff without seeing the GM's secrets. Just like that, lickity split, you can put it up on a server and your players can get their information from the internet. I KNOW vb.Net can do all the things I want, but some of them (anything involving graphics for instance) is just another realm of complexity. So like I say, ActionScript 2.0 seems to be the best tool for my job right now. For all I know, there are other languages/scripts that would work better, but for graphics WITH programming, Flash is the easiest I've seen. Not the most efficient, just easiest :)

I never said I was building a webserver or asp site. I said I was going to use Flash as an alternative to VB.Net for creating an application, which also could be thrown up on a web server (which is a bonus) as well as being run on client computers. I already weighed the fact of speed of programming vs speed of use. And Portability is very important. It doesn't matter if you're just running something off a server, but I"m not. I'm still creating an application for use on computers. You guys brought up ASP.Net, I'm using Flash ActionScript as an alternative to VB.Net. I'm sure I'll try ASP.Net soon now that I found a program that acts as the server (a few posts up)

This sounds interesting. I'll have to check out this Web Matrix IDE :D

It was done :p I can and did compare them. You can compare any simularities and differences, so long as you explain them. You can't just say "Flash is better than .Net" because thats Apple and Oranges. Why is it better, for what jobs? You can explain what sort of functions one can perform and if it can be performed by the other, and if so, how easy, how many features, how optimised, etc. I can say that both Flash/ActionScript and .Net can be run off of web pages. Then I can compare that feature: Flash requires no special serverside software .Net requires .net compatable software I've heard .Net is much quicker and can be used for high traffic programming. Flash is fairly good at this, but I wouldn't even say its in .Net's league. Flash is more portable, probobly because there isn't a requirement for a server, just a flashplayer and webbrowser. .Net is portable to handheld devices (flash just began this about a month ago I believe), though currently is only Microsoft compatable. Can you just run a .Net web app on any computer without recoding or compiling? (i'm not sure about this) There I compared something about the two. This is what you do when you figure out which tool you want to use for a job. You look at what features you need to use, compare the two and figure the trade-offs. Is the extra speed needed? Do you need the nitty gritty detail of .Net? Do you have access to a .Net compatable server? Now, I'm pretty sure if you compare features, .Net is going to have many more ways to get something done and in better speed with specialized customizations (just streamreader has like 100 variations of streaming) Best tool for the best job. My server isn't .Net compatable, so its a moot point. Fire is the greatest way to keep warm, but it won't help you underwater. You'll need a heater or those underwater flames. I don't even want to deal with playing with it on my own PC, you have to install some server software? Thats just extra complexity right now. Oh, I'll get to it sooner or later. I'm interested in ASP.Net, but right now I have to focus on the tools that I can use to get the job done, not what i'm missing out because they're not the proper tools.

Is ASP.Net a fully seperate language like vb.net or c#.net? I only have VB.Net standard. If its just a part of the framework, then I could probobly use it. Also, can you test it on your machine without a server? Or do you have to install a server on your machine? Sorry, I'm not all that knowledgeable about ASP.Net and it sounds pretty neat

The right tool for the right job/audience Confused? .Net is much more robust than ActionScript is. It has many more features, its more customizable, etc. Its also more complex. What takes one line of code in ActionScript, may have 5 different ways in .Net, better for different solutions, each requiring multiple parameters. I wrote a program in ActionScript that was like a page of code in 4 lines in .Net. I love VB, I love .Net. But its not the best tool for every job, and some jobs it'll do very quickly, others it won't. ActionScript isn't a full featured programming language. It kind of gives you the broad scope of programming, but with like 1/10th the detail of VB. Then again VB has like 1/10th the detail of C and C has like 1/100th the detail of assembler. The lower the level of programming, the more complex it gets and the longer it takes. It took me like some insane coding to get my Assembly program to take input text and evaluate it. I havn't done C, but I can compare VB.Net and VB6. VB6 is just so easy to do some things, but .Net made others infinately easier. .Net also gave vb more functionality, but also added to the complexity. My college doesn't even know what to do. VB was the introductary programming language and Java the OOP, advanced language. Honestly I don't see the poing in teaching basics with an OO language, then teach advanced features with a less feature rich language (Java can do a LOT, but only with addon classes. You'd have to program your own classes for string input. Thats not nearly the out-of-the-box features that .Net has). Then again, the third chapter in the .Net book deals with text files. in vb6, it was easy. In .Net, its sure more enhanced and optimised, but takes a few more lines of code. "Ok, this is a variable, this is a string, this is an integer, ok, now this is the instance of a class method" Even though vb6 is out of date, technologically speaking, the professors still want to teach the basics on it, because its basic. The point? Don't assume that .Net is going to always be the easiest, fastest and best way of doing something. I'm sure it'll get the job done 99.9% of the time, it may take some work and effort, but it works. There will be other scripting languages out there that can take 10 steps and roll them into one, for the sake of simplicity and ease of use, but at the sacrafice of finer detail. Sometimes, even in this case, the best tool may even be .Net, but thats if you can afford a microsoft only solution (this may change in the near future from what I'm seeing on the Mac and Linux front). I'm honestly not 'up to snuff' on .Net internet programming (web forms or asp.Net) mostly because I don't have any access. My server doesn't supply .Net compatability. I have vb.net, not studio.net. I'm not sure how interchangable something written in vb for the web is, or ASP.Net is for that matter either. What I do know, is that I can make a form with any sorts of graphics in like 1/10th the time I could think of doing so in VB. Its honestly as easy as using photoshop to make any type, color or style of button you want, background or whatever. I also know that whatever I do in ActionScript can be put up on the web, on any server, and can run off of virtually any machine, be it Unix, Linux, Windows or Mac. This will work fine. It won't approach .Net's speed, and I'm not sure about Java's speed. For all of the projects dealing with a Microsoft Solution to a Microsoft World populated with Microsoft Minions (ie, any project where I work), the best tool is most definately .Net. But those are the digs. You use the best tool for the job. If you don't have that tool, you have to klunk with another tool and hope it comes out decent (like a high quality video game using vb.net instead of C) or you may have to sit it out and say "Well I don't have a tool to fix this solution". Like I said, .Net is great, but I'm not going to stick all my eggs in this one basket.

Randomly, someone is doing a Java version of the .Net Framework for Mac. How does that fit in the Java vs .Net war? It seems good for .Net, you can finally use it on mac, but through java which would slow it down. Unfortunately it costs money. I'm not even using flash for web applications. You can use Flash applications on any computer with Flash Player (I think that requires a browser). It seems, from what I've seen, Flash 2004 is object oriented, now has database connectivity, XML support... The main thing I can think of that it doesn't have is Overloading. Its all about the right tool for the job. In most cases I figure .Net is going to be more robust, but also more complicated and take longer to code. AS 2.0 is suprisingly quick to code. If you want cross platform, you have a choice between Flash and Java. I've made my choice there.

Well... I still do vb.net programming, but I think I need to move away from .net as a focus. At least for my recreation. Professionally, there isn't a match. I do lots of datamanipulation either through database, reading 1000's of text files for text and file management. C would be faster running I'm quite sure (as would assembler), but would not dare to come close to the time it takes to write this in VB.Net. C'mon, 2 screens of code to create and manage a minor xml database? What .Net does, it does well and with a short development time. Personally... well, I get annoyed. How many people own mac's? like 2% of the whole worlds computer market? More mac's than Linux. Yet on the internet, amongst my collegues and friends, I'd say that number is up around 15%. Anyone hears about a program and gets annoyed when its for the PC. To make matters more annoying, of 10 people to download an application made using vb.net 2003, 2 people could run it. I'm sure some people got pissed that you have to download a 20mb file to run a 10k program. I had 3 people who did download .net framework 1.1 and still could not run the program. My webserver laughed at me when I asked if they had any .Net capability, mostly because they're too professional for people who want performance and reliability. Thats what they say. As sad as it sounds, I actually have a solution. I took a semister of HTML in college and spent most of that time programming in ActionScript for Macromedia Flash (I was the only one getting that in depth). In fact when our final web page was due, I did a Flash Webpage. I'm still looking into how functional Actionscript is. I know theres not a snowballs chance in hell of it being functional enough to do what I need done at work (running speed, disc access, database or other features might be lacking or VERY SLOW), but I'm not doing anything terribly complicated at home. So long as it can create and read from a data (text file) I'll be happly. any XML support would make me excited. As far as compatability, anyone with a web browser and the plugin can run the program, be it PC, Mac or Linux (probobly unix and other OS's as well). Maybe .Net will actually become cross platform someday, I won't put the Java Runtimes on my computer, they always cause conflicts and try to take things over... So it looks like Flash (animation software) is the best looking programming tool I have personally. I don't know if ANYONE in the world, besides me, thinks that Flash/Actionscript would be a viable alternative to a REAL programming language. I may change my mind when I get into more detail with its limitations. But I'll still be using VB.Net and maybe someday they'll finish .Net and I can use it for real. I'm thinking when they come out with a .Net native OS, things will be a LOT better. I don't even know if Microsoft even cares about actually getting the .Net ported over to Linux or Mac. Sorry, I just had to get that off my mind :) >>Edit<< Hmm, Just hit up the Macromedia website and found Flash MX 2004 Professional! Forms, datacontrols... I always considered Flash like VB lite. I'm not so sure anymore... I'll have to check this out.

I used to just take the default name "Windows App..." for junk projects. You know, when you just want to try something new out without getting a project involved. It just got too messy and I started calling things names because WIndowsApplication 1 to 9 was taken up. Then things really got to be a mess. So then I just created a Solution called Windows Experiments and kept everything in there

I'm not at work until monday again, but that looks logically sound to me. Set the WorkingDirectory, exe and start it. I'll try that, thank you :)

I just got it and its beautiful. Even has REAL Revelent sample code to learn from!

When you're in the New Project window, where you choose the name for your project and project type, theres a combobox below where you choose your name called "Location:". You can click the "Browse..." button and choose another directory for all your projects to default into. Pretty sure this works with each version, but I have VB.Net Standard in front of me