The Old New Thing

What does LockWindowUpdate do?

February 19, 2007 Feb 19, 2007 02/19/07
Raymond Chen
Poor misunderstood . This is the first in a series on , what it does, what it's for and (perhaps most important) what it's not for. What does is pretty simple. When a window is locked, all attempt to draw into it or its children fail. Instead of drawing, the window manager remembers which parts of the window the application tried to draw...

News flash: Professional athletes do it for the money

February 16, 2007 Feb 16, 2007 02/16/07
Raymond Chen
This weekend is NBA All-Star Weekend 2007, because just having a game isn't enough; you need to make it a weekend-long festival. Tyrus Thomas, invited to paricipate in the slam dunk contest, which comes with a top prize of $35,000, was quoted as saying I'm just going to go out there, get my check and call it a day. ... I'm just into the ...

Why don't I use any class libraries in my sample code?

February 16, 2007 Feb 16, 2007 02/16/07
Raymond Chen
As a general rule, I avoid using any class libraries in my sample code. This isn't because I'm opposed to class libraries, but rather because I don't want to narrow my audience to "people who use MFC" (to choose one popular class library). If I were to start using MFC for all of my samples, I'd probably lose all the people who don't use MFC...

There's not much luggage space, unless you dump the snow

February 15, 2007 Feb 15, 2007 02/15/07
Raymond Chen
Every year, Road and Track magazine reviews a strange vehicle in their April edition. Last year, it was the 1949 MG TC. But my favorite is their 2005 review of the Zamboni 500. [T]he Zamboni leaves the line with alacrity (revved to its 3000-rpm redline), rockets up to 9.7 mph and then stays at exactly that speed for the full 200-ft. ...

Why can't you set the command prompt's current directory to a UNC?

February 15, 2007 Feb 15, 2007 02/15/07
Raymond Chen
If you try to set the current directory of a command prompt, you get the error message "CMD does not support UNC paths as current directories." What's going on here? It's MS-DOS backwards compatibility. If the current directory were a UNC, there wouldn't be anything to return to MS-DOS programs when they call function 19h (Get current drive...

Technology hypochondriacs

February 14, 2007 Feb 14, 2007 02/14/07
Raymond Chen
One phenomenon I've noticed quite a bit is something I'm going to call "technology hypochondria", the belief that you are suffering from whatever problem you just read about. It reminds me of this joke: A man goes to his doctor. "Doctor," he says, "I'm pretty sure I've got this disease here. All the symptoms match. I'm suffering from ...

Email tip: Don't add people to a thread without saying why

February 13, 2007 Feb 13, 2007 02/13/07
Raymond Chen
If you add me to an existing discussion, you have to say why. Do you have a specific question for me? Do you want my opinion on something? Are you just sharing a funny joke? Sometimes, I'll get a piece of mail that goes like this: From: Xxxxx To: Aaaaa; Bbbbb; Ccccc; Raymond Adding Raymond. --- Original Message --- ... Gee, that's very...

Performance evaluation euphemisms invading everyday speech (ironically)

February 12, 2007 Feb 12, 2007 02/12/07
Raymond Chen
There was a morning meeting event at which donuts were provided as an enticement. Someone commented on the food thus: "These donuts failed to meet expectations." Peter Sagal remarked that the phrase "emerging to standard" has entered currency in his family as a euphemism for "substandard". (Opening panel round, final question, time code 1:20...