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On sunday 20 June, i couldn't connect to site codeproject neither my friends in France !!
Was the site under reengineering ? Was the server shutdown ?
SYS DvptUml
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dvptUml wrote:
On sunday 20 June, i couldn't connect to site codeproject neither my friends in France !!
Twas me birthday and Bob and I went-a-hunting...
Jus' kidding. Site was down here in India too.
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Chris is on vacation - downtime is practically assured. 
You must be careful in the forest
Broken glass and rusty nails
If you're to bring back something for us
I have bullets for sale...
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I have posted an artile here on codeproject - a screensaver in C# and I LOVE code project, but after my latest episide with trying to edit the code snippets, has left me dreading the task of doing this more than having a root canal on ALL my teeth and unless there is some sort of alternative, I think this will be the last article I post here, and I wish it weren't so, but if anything defines a fool, it's a person who spends time fighting something that is so enraging that they become physically sick for hours afterwards.
I'm sorry to say, this because I don't like to post negative comments about a fine site like this, but using that code editor is fine except when it comes to trying to edit the snippets is so frustrating, exasperating that it takes a job that should take an hour at most into a five or six hour job!!
Trying to use the online editor is like trying to fight a rabid rogue elephant with a migraine. It leaves me feeling totally drained, hurting like I swallowed a burning road flare and litterally sick to the point of doubling over with frustration and on top of that I have ended up feeling ASHAMED of my article because I had to give up and let the editor do what IT wants to do instead of what I needed it to do. Here are the properties of the editor that is making it extremely difficult to work with ...
When it comes to editing, the editor is the master and dictator on what happens and what will result, not me ...
1. Inconsistant behavior ....
When trying to edit code snippets, if I need to break up a snippet I cannot when I want to - witness two or three snippets that span over a page or two, yet later on in the article, the editor left me with blank white lines in the middle of the snippet that I cannot get rid of without several tries of turning the snippets into normal text and spending another 90 minutes fighting to get the snippets back together.
2. Previewing your article CHANGES your snippets by randomly inserting carriage returns into the article you are editing so your work ends up corrupted and does not look like what you typed in or what you expected.
3. Randomly, comments end up in other colors than green, but code ends up colored green like comments.
4. The choice of language hint for the editor in my case C# does not stick but keep switching to none or to C++.
5. I cannot rejoin snippets. Dare I hit the Enter key and the editor breaks a snippet into two, it's all over and I have to convert it into normal text and start all over.
6. Despite the guidelines that an article's must not wider than 800 pixels, the editor at times, behaves like it was programmed to string the code lines together randomly, so that every other line is joined in such a manner that the lines are over 1200 pixels long!! This often happens to lines of code! How frustrating this is  when you are trying to follow the rules and guidelines while the editor is bound and determined to break them!
7. Lines vanish as well as entire sections of snippets. Four times, I was just typing into a snippet where I had room, only to have the font color of the top half of the snippet turn tan just like the background, thus rendering half the snippet invisible!!  I end up having to type it all in by hand to prevent this, and then I end up finding some line I missed or got reversed in the chaos and I'm in big trouble again. 
8. Sometimes, the chaos becomes so rampant that I have no choice but to turn the snippet into a regular section and when I do that IGetAMessLikeThisBecauseAllTheWhitespaceInMyCodeSnippetHasBeenRemoved!AndI'mGivenAnIronCladGuaranteeOfIntruducingErrorsWhenITryToFixThisUpAgain!
9. When I insert new snippets, I have to do something like this below or my code ends up like the issue just described ...
First line of snippet.
Second Line of snippet.
Third line of snippet.
10. I tried to copy my stuff into a file on my machine so I could see the tags and actually fix it up using notepad that is predictable and use IE to preview which by the way, unlike the editor does NOT mess up my source when I use it to view the results, but no matter what I do, when I try to copy the code I only get the text and sometimes the color, but no tags, at least not visible tags!
11. I note that I do not see the nice formatting options as I see below, the options like pre, code, etc etc in the editor.
12. I tried the template and none of the tags seemed to have any effect, and this isn't because of me, I'm not a rank beginner in html and asp.
There are several more issues that I have been experiencing with this editor that I can't remember, probably because the experience was so horrible that I have amnesia about these additional issues.
Now, I know there has GOT to be something folks are doing that is different than me because there are those who have survived posting several articles, and I think that I have found no article on this site that is formatted as ugly as mine is. I think the only reason I get a decent rating is that the info is in demand and difficult to find, however, I came within a hairs breath of giving myself a 1 rating after looking at my own article.
So, folks, what is it that you are all doing that I am not or vice versa? Is it that you are starting over every time, deleting and re-submitting instead of fighting to change snippets with an editor that is more a tool of self inflicted torture instead of a tool to make things easier? I suspect part of my problem is that there are invisible spurious tags that I cannot see or control, and so I'm locked out of being able to remove them.
I am astonished, that I am having such a horrible time with the snippets, compared to others. It's not like I'm trying to code in machine language, I've used editors before, it isn't that complicated and so it should not be this difficult. Something is wrong, and I think that something is ME! Where am I messing up? I have an article that is so ugly it can crack a mirror! I want to fix it, but I cannot do that by fighting something that has the mastery over me just like Pai Mae had over Kidow in kill bill Volume 2.
Been there, done that, forgot why!
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The simple answer is to use Frontpage or Visual Studio for editing your HTML then paste the HTML into the online editor. Or, you can hit "HTML" in the editor (far right button) and edit the HTML by hand.
The online code editor uses the built in IE editing component that is fickle. Point 3 is due to our syntax highlighter sometimes getting it wrong, but we have a new version of that we're hoping to have out soon (all previous articles will be recolorized).
I've never experienced problem 4, but for 5 try hitting the DEL key instead of backspace. Most of the problems you are describing are for pre-formatted blocks and I fully agree that there are a pain in the bum.
Point 10: when pasting HTML into the editor you have to ensure you put the editor into HTML mode, not design mode. Or, if pasting pure text, ensure the editor is in design mode, not HTML mode.
11. The paragraph style drop down has "Formatted" which is pre, and the "var" button is for inline variables (code tags).
I'm sorry this is so painful for you. Maybe I'm just used to it but the editor makes my life a hundred times easier.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
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Chris Maunder wrote:
The simple answer is to use Frontpage or Visual Studio for editing your HTML then paste the HTML into the online editor. Or, you can hit "HTML" in the editor (far right button) and edit the HTML by hand.
* Hmmm, How do you handle inserted graphics?
The online code editor uses the built in IE editing component that is fickle.
* Ah!, thanks for letting me know. I found it hard to belive that such a fine site, with such an abundance of great folks could have such an editor with such sadistic tendancies. Now that I know it's an editor based on Internet Exploder componants that explains it all.
Point 3 is due to our syntax highlighter sometimes getting it wrong, but we have a new version of that we're hoping to have out soon (all previous articles will be recolorized). * Yeah, I knew something was going wrong, I thought it was me.
I've never experienced problem 4, but for 5 try hitting the DEL key instead of backspace. * Yeah, I tried both DEL and Backspace, they do the same thing, I end up with the first line on the snippet below appended to the last line of the snippet above so I end up with something like this miniPreview.RunMeTillShutdown();break; which looks extremely ugly alright. In fact, I hit the DEL key about 40 times during about three tries to undo stuff.
Oh, I forgot, I've never seen the undo button have an effect. When I do something I didn't want to do, the undo doesn't undo it.
Most of the problems you are describing are for pre-formatted blocks and I fully agree that there are a pain in the bum.
* Yeah, the non-pre blocks are fine, in fact, I had forgotten, that when I first posted, the only way I could prevent getting a chaotic result was to completely remove all comments and keep them out of the pre sections.
Point 10: when pasting HTML into the editor you have to ensure you put the editor into HTML mode, not design mode. Or, if pasting pure text, ensure the editor is in design mode, not HTML mode. * Yep, Due to past blindness, I tend to miss stuff like that little HTML button and given just a little time of missing that button, my mind will blank it out, preventing me from seeing it again until some kind sould tells me it's there. This one point itself will make the difference between howling frustration and doubling over bleeding ulcers and being able to fix the issue.
11. The paragraph style drop down has "Formatted" which is pre, and the "var" button is for inline variables (code tags).
I'm sorry this is so painful for you. Maybe I'm just used to it but the editor makes my life a hundred times easier. * I think it would have been much easier for me too had I not blocked out the existance of that HTML button. Thanks again.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
Been there, done that, forgot why!
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Garry Freemyer wrote:
Oh, I forgot, I've never seen the undo button have an effect. When I do something I didn't want to do, the undo doesn't undo it.
You need to make sure you click inside the editor window when trying to use undo. Sometimes you have to hit Ctrl+Z twice. No idea why.
Garry Freemyer wrote:
the only way I could prevent getting a chaotic result was to completely remove all comments and keep them out of the pre sections.
Can you please give me an example of a comment that is being poorly formatted? I've edited thousands of code snippets and very rarely have I had problems. I'd like to know what's going on.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
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Chris Maunder wrote:
Can you please give me an example of a comment that is being poorly formatted? I've edited thousands of code snippets and very rarely have I had problems. I'd like to know what's going on.
Hmm, I have seen it a number of times. next time, I'll get a screenshot of green code and code colored comments.
Thanks for the HTML button reminder. I was able to get the snippets much better looking however ALL the snippets are now indented at least TWO spaces in my article. In design mode, there is no spaces that I can see in the snippets. I think if I went to html, might see but, still, what I am seeing in design mode is not what I'm getting. Those spaces should be visible so I can delete them, as it is now, I can't delete what I can't see, and the HTML thing is so cluttered, I'm absolutely sure that if I had to go to html mode to get rid of whatever is causing the spaces, I would create a number of grevious errors, and possibly make things worse. If you want to go see this issue, just search for screensaver and my article is the second from the top.
Have a fine weekend and thanks!
Been there, done that, forgot why!
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I think the search system should get redesigned to support kinda google syntax.
The NOT, ..., syntax is complicated and its very much to write.
It would be much easier to use a syntax like this: "grid control -MFC" instead of "grid control NOT MFC".
And I think there should be more options to select single sections.. not only MFC/C++, C#, ASP.NET...
The MFC/C++ section is so big, that a combo box with the subsections would be cool.
Don't try it, just do it!
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Expensive... and I think you can not select single sections with google.
Don't try it, just do it!
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Expensive? Are you buying? That's an enterprise solution so a company that rakes in 500 million a year I don't think would mind.
I don't think they are targeting hobbiest playing around with computers in their basements
8bc7c0ec02c0e404c0cc0680f7018827ebee
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to be honest I would be more happy that if I selected C++ I wouldn't get any other language articles. (or maybe I'm doing something wrong  )
No hurries, no worries.
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Plus, I'd be nice to be able to search the message board..
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Top-right of each message board, there's a "Search Comments" link.
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Directions indicate that the word "not" can be used to omit articles containing the specified word or phrase. However, this doesn't work with the following search query:
assembly not ".net"
where many articles containing both the word assembly and ".net" appear.
Cheers,
Tom Archer - Archer Consulting Group
"So look up ahead at times to come, despair is not for us. We have a world and more to see, while this remains behind." - James N. Rowe
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Hmm - that (obviously) shouldn't happen. And for the other comments the "-" has been implemented (eg Grid -MFC). It seems there's some leakage though - I will look into this ASAP.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
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Yep. I tested the example given. As the only difference is the period, I would think that the search engine is getting confused somewhere with that.
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I don't think this list (home page, left margin) has changed since I've become a member (1+ years ago)...
Thanks...
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This is probably true but its the right margin...
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It has - Dan G's ToDo list pipped my grid about a year ago.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
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This is how the list appears to me:
• ASP.NET Popup Control
• The Standalone Programmer: Tips from...
• Universal Table Editor
• SQL Server DO's and DONT's
• A Session Data Management Tool
This hasn't changed in a long time. I don't see the "ToDo list" (?)...
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