sourcecode.net.au

My website (www.sourcecode.net.au) is currently down due to a faulty Server.

Manifest Hell vs. DLL Hell

I never experienced DLL hell - not really. However, it occurs to me Microsoft have created a new kind of hell, by replacing the System Registry with Manifest files.

I've been avoiding manifest files for quite some time, but tonight was forced to learn [almost] all about them in an effort to debug a faulty manifest file.

Activation context generation failed for "
.Manifest". 
        Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC80.DebugCRT,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="8.0.50727.762" 
        could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.

If you are actually desperate enough to try running the sxstrace.exe tool - then my advice is to forget it! That's a tool for the Microsoft developers only (as far as I can tell). It just spits out page after page of useless crap, which in the end, is basically the same as the error above.

 It turns out, my C++ linker was incorrectly [bug?] creating a reference to an assembly I didn't even have installed on my computer: 'Microsoft.VC80.DebugCRT'
I simply removed the reference... although even that requires a trick. Don't
embed the manifest. Use the external file so you can edit it.

 This part was correct!

<assemblyidentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.DebugCRT" version="9.0.21022.8" processorarchitecture="x86" publickeytoken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b">

This part was wrong so I deleted it.

 <assemblyidentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC80.DebugCRT" version="8.0.50727.762" processorarchitecture="x86" publickeytoken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b">

I found the following link from Microsoft the most helpful and concise:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms235342.aspx

3D OpenGL Image Viewer

Video 1 - I'm working on a new software project, and this video represents my progress so far. I've only got the basic plumbing done, so this video is just a quick test to make sure it all worked.

Multithreaded C++ application.

I'm working on a new multithreaded project. Here's a list of API's I've been using a lot this week:

• InitializeCriticalSectionAndSpinCount()
• ReadDirectoryChangesW()
• CreateThread()

Let's just say I'm working on something fun.

Phun Phonts v1.0

Unofficial True Type font support for the Phun application. I created this application because I wanted small amounts of text within the Phun application (such as 'On' & 'Off'), however as of August 2008 Phun does not provide any text support.

Phun Phonts v1.0 ( 1.87 MB - Win32 )
Unofficial True Type font support for the Phun application.

Linear Algebra

For the last few weeks I've been doing nothing but Linear Algebra in my spare time.