The Old New Thing

Use the #error directive to check whether the compiler even sees you

April 9, 2008 Apr 9, 2008 04/9/08
Raymond Chen
You may find yourself in a twisty maze of s. Or you may be wondering why your macros aren't working. I have these lines in my header file: but when I try to use them, I get errors. Any idea why this is happening? First, make sure the compiler even sees you. Notice that for macros, generating a preprocessed file doesn't accomplish ...

How to tell which end of the Metro platform to stand on, and other survival tips for the Lisbon subway system

April 7, 2008 Apr 7, 2008 04/7/08
Raymond Chen
The Metropolitano de Lisboa includes an English-language list of tips for riding the Metro. Here are some more tips that all the locals know, but which no guide book tells you. In most subway systems, trains outside of peak hours are not full-length but rather fill only part of the station. In the subway systems I'm familiar with in the ...

What happened to winipcfg and netmon?

April 7, 2008 Apr 7, 2008 04/7/08
Raymond Chen
Commenter Michael Moulton asks: Back in the Win95 & 98 days, we had winipcfg to manage DHCP leases on the client. Additionally, we had an app (I think it was netmon) to let you view people currently accessing your shares. Now, we have ipconfig on the command line and nothing like netmon. I'd be interested in hearing why those tools ...

21: like 24 but three hours shorter

April 4, 2008 Apr 4, 2008 04/4/08
Raymond Chen
When I first heard that a new project titled 21 was coming out, I simply assumed it was the same as 24, except that Jack Bauer gets some sleep. Pre-emptive snarky comment: "Somebody was clearly sleeping when they designed Vista...

When a treehouse just isn't good enough

April 3, 2008 Apr 3, 2008 04/3/08
Raymond Chen
Not satisfied with a patio or treehouse, some people have built a monorail or a roller coaster in their backyard. And then there's this one guy who apparently has not yet run out of strange things to build in his backyard. Former projects include include a domed swimming pool, a garden accessible only from above, a carousel, and a forty-...

How do I force the ECHO command to echo?

April 3, 2008 Apr 3, 2008 04/3/08
Raymond Chen
The built-in command, how much simpler could it get? It takes whatever you put on the command line and prints it. And yet it's not that simple. For example, the must be careful not to compress whitespace, because people will write and when you execute this, the result had better be and not But what if you want to echo a blank ...