August 31, 2012Aug 31, 201208/31/12A customer encountered the following problem:
class Shape
{
public:
virtual bool Is2D() { return false; }
};
class Shape2D : public Shape
{
public:
virtual bool Is2D() { return true; }
};
Shape *FindShape(Cookie cookie);
void BuyPaint(Cookie cookie)
{
Shape2D *shape = static_cast<Shape2D *>(FindShape(cookie));
August 30, 2012Aug 30, 201208/30/12Some time ago, I described what __purecall is for: It’s to detect the cases where you call a virtual method with no implementation (a so-called pure virtual method). This can happen during object constructor or destruction, since those are times when you can validly have a partially-implemented object.
August 29, 2012Aug 29, 201208/29/12Here’s a walkthrough of an actual case of psychic debugging.
I’m using the internal XYZ table-generating tool, but it appears to be useless in my case. Does this tool work? Right now, I’m just resorting to the manual method of generating my data table (Chinese and English).
August 28, 2012Aug 28, 201208/28/12A customer asked if there was a command-line tool for
managing Windows 7 Libraries
so that they could create and deploy libraries across their
organization.
Not only is there such a tool, it even comes with source code.
The
Shell Library Command Line Sample
shows how to manage Windows 7 libraries programmatically
via the
IShellLibrary interface.
August 28, 2012Aug 28, 201208/28/12There is a field next to the Microsoft building I used to work in, and for a time, people parked their cars out on the field, presumably because finding a proper parking space in the garage became difficult due to overcrowding.
August 27, 2012Aug 27, 201208/27/12Some jump lists show Recent documents, and others show Frequent documents.
(Images stolen from Sasha Goldshtein.)
Our friend xpclient wanted to know how the taskbar decides which one to use, because it seemed random. (Ironically, xpclient is asking a question about the Window 7 client.)
The default is to show Recent documents.
August 24, 2012Aug 24, 201208/24/12I was doing some crash dump debugging, as I am often called upon to do,
and one of the data structure I had to grovel through was something
that operated basically like an atom table, so that’s what I’ll call
it.
August 23, 2012Aug 23, 201208/23/12A customer reported that they were having trouble creating
slim reader/writer locks
at runtime.
They simplified the issue to a short program:
#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std; // this is just a quick test app
int a = 10;
August 22, 2012Aug 22, 201208/22/12A customer liaison asked the following question on behalf of his customer.
When I do a shift-right-click on a shortcut to a program, I see the following:
On Windows Server 2008, shift-right-click does not offer the option Run as different user.
August 21, 2012Aug 21, 201208/21/12Some time ago, I was on the phone when the connection suddenly cut out. I looked at the my phone display and it said, Auto-restart in 7 seconds. The seconds counted down, and then the phone rebooted, and after about ten more seconds,
