Tape Drive access - C# Discussion Boards

Re: References and asambling?

31-Mar-04 14:33

First, you should use project references instead of assembly references when you have multiple projects in a solution. This ensures that dependencies are created and that the right versions of assemblies are used.

Second, don't use a version number like 1.0.*, the default for the AssemblyVersionAttribute. In larger development projects, this will burn you fast.

Finally, see the <assemblyBinding> section in the .NET Framework SDK - which you can use to redirect versions, as well as publisher policy assemblies - as well as How the Runtime Locates Assemblies[^]. This allows you to redirect assembly version and to know where exactly to put the assemblies, such as in the same directory together, in the GAC, use a custom private path (ex: ASP.NET uses "bin" as its private path), or using the <assemblyBinding> section to specify the codebase for assemblies you want to use no matter where they are.

You should also consider keeping a build directory when you have projects that don't reference other projects, such as a plugin-driven application. With VS.NET, you can do this easily using post-build actions in the project configuration. There's also the DEVPATH environment variable that's documented in the .NET Framework SDK that can be helpful as well. It pretty much works like the PATH environment variable used to locate executables (.exes, .dlls, .bats, etc.).

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Snowjim31-Mar-04 22:17

Snowjim

31-Mar-04 22:17

Hey thanks!

We have lookt throw the MSDN on this topic, but cant realy find what to do.

We dont understand what Asembling file is for? we think it haveing the information about what dll version is used and where to find it. But we cant find a file in our project that have this information.

We have added dll files to our Windows control Libararys this way.
move the dll file to /bin/debug
rightclick on the referens and added the dll file to the project. This works fine and we can worke against the dll file with no problem.

But when we then add all Windows control Librarys to the main project we get some dll varnings, and as a said the versions on some dll files is changed to older versions.

Pleas could you maby do a stepBYstep on this?

//Jimmy

Re: References and asambling?

Heath Stewart1-Apr-04 4:03

1-Apr-04 4:03

I already told you how to solve this: use project references, not assembly references, and do NOT use automatic versioning because you easily loose track of what versions of assemblies you're binding to.

If you don't know what an assembly is, you should pick up a book or two on .NET development. It's a basic unit of a .NET application. It contains the code in modules (which are more like native DLLs), resources, assembly attributes, and a manifest that lists them all.

When you compile an assembly, the versions of dependent assemblies are compiled into the assembly, so if you compile against version 1.0.0.0 of an assembly, then that version of the assembly has to be found, otherwise you have to use the <assemblyBinding> section of your app.config file, or use a publisher policy assembly, both of which can redirect the versions. This is meant primarily for upgrading applications without having to upgrade every existing assembly.

Also, don't add references to the bin/debug or bin/release directorys. Use project references primarily. If you're using a third-party control, it should install on the local filesystem and into the GAC. Don't change this. References are copied to the project target directory (bin/debug, bin/release, etc.) when you compile (by default, those in the GAC do not). That's why you don't include your dependent assemblies in the target directories. If you use project referneces like I've mentioned several times now, build dependencies are setup and the assemblies are copied to the target directory keeping the versions in sync.

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Tape Drive access

Shaun Becker31-Mar-04 9:38

Shaun Becker

31-Mar-04 9:38

Is it possible to read, write, and perform drive maintenance(cleaning, inventory, etc.) on a tape drive from C#? Thanks alot

Re: Tape Drive access

Heath Stewart31-Mar-04 9:53

Endless Mouse Move Events

31-Mar-04 9:53

Is it possible? Sure. Would anyone sane want to do it? Absolutely not. Tape drive access is a very low-level, huge set of operations. You'll need to P/Invoke so many functions and declare so many structs and consts/enums that you'll probably never get to the meat of the development, unless you can find some COM control to interop or a wrapper DLL that you can P/Invoke, but you probably won't since this is not something that consumers typically "play with". The software you use with your drive (Veritas Backup, et. al.) may have some undocumented APIs you could P/Invoke, but as they're most likely undocumented for a reason you'll have a REALLY tough time.

See the Windows DDK (driver development kit) for details. It's huge and it's ugly.

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Darryl Borden31-Mar-04 9:24

Darryl Borden

31-Mar-04 9:24

I have an object of type UserControl that I occasionally have problems with.

Normally, when I move the mouse over the object, windows will generate a mouse move event as advertized - only when the mouse moves.

Occasionally, however, windows goes crazy on me and generates a gazillion mouse move events for as long as the mouse is over the object and it is not even moving. I get so many of these events that it inhibits the application from performing until I move the mouse off the object.

Has anyone seen this type of behavior before and, if so, was there anything you could do about it?

Darryl Borden
Principal IT Analyst
darryl.borden@elpaso.com

Re: Endless Mouse Move Events

leppie31-Mar-04 9:49

leppie

31-Mar-04 9:49

You are probably doing a wrong invalidate during the event handling, I have seen the same behaviour on the PropertyGrids TypeConvertors.

^{top secret}

Re: Endless Mouse Move Events

Bryan White31-Mar-04 10:32

Bryan White

31-Mar-04 10:32

Yup - I've experienced it. It was an OpenGL control with mouse interaction, and didn't bother to work out WHY it happened - I just stopped it being a pain with following pseudocode:

PointOrWhatever savedPosition;
void HandleMouseEvent(whatever args)
{
if(args.position == savedPosition)
return;
DoMyMouseMovingStuff();
savedPosition = args.position;
}

Regards

Brewman

CreateProcess call....

RB@Emphasys31-Mar-04 8:27

31-Mar-04 8:27

I'm wondering if the codeproject guru's might have an answer to my little riddle. I have plenty of code to call the createprocess function of the coredll.Dll assembly. Here is my quandry, all of those api declerations along with the actual call itself use a part of the framework that is not included with the compact framework. For instance I know you can use the Process class to create process's, but not with the cf. I have some code that defines the function but defines various parameters through the System.Web namespace, also not included with the cf. Ill post my decleration, any help would be appreciated.

[DllImport("CoreDll.DLL", SetLastError=true)]
private extern static int CreateProcess(String imageName, String cmdLine, IntPtr lpProcessAttributes, IntPtr lpThreadAttributes,Int32 bool InheritHandles, Int32 dwCreationFlags,IntPtr lpEnvironment,
IntPtr lpszCurrentDir,byte [] si, ProcessInfo pi );

Thanks again,
Ryan

Heath Stewart31-Mar-04 8:57

31-Mar-04 8:57

Sorry, but I'm not really seeing a relevent problem statement there. Are you saying your P/Invoke declaration isn't working? And what do you mean you're defining various parameters through the System.Web namespace?

Your declaration look okay to me. You might want to add CharSet=CharSet.Unicode to your DllImportAttribute to be sure that strings are marshalled appropriately.

If you don't like calling this often from your code, encapsulate it in a public static method or something.

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RB@Emphasys31-Mar-04 9:07

31-Mar-04 9:07

I apoligize for not being more clear. I can't use the statement because the ProcessInfo class which is the last argument is part of the System.Web namespace which isnt included in the cf. I was curious if anyone knew of another way of declaring the function without using the ProcessInfo class for the last argument.

Thanks,
Ryan

Heath Stewart31-Mar-04 9:12

31-Mar-04 9:12

Just call the parameter as something else. The fact is that you have to define that struct that the P/Invoke statement takes. You could call it Asdf and it won't matter, so long as the struct matches the structure defined in Windows. If you like the name ProcessInfo, then define it yourself and just qualify it with the namespace you define it under.

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RB@Emphasys31-Mar-04 9:14

31-Mar-04 9:14

Thanks Heath

RB@Emphasys31-Mar-04 9:48