Hi- I have some source code (samples) that will be distributed with an API. I'd like the samples to be in source control of course, but I'm not sure the proper way to remove source control for distribution. (So customers don't get a message like: "This project appears to be under source control, but ...") Can this process be easily automated with an installer such as Nullsoft's NSIS? It should be clear, but I don't want to remove source control entirely, just for the distributed code.

Hello- I've been investigating DirectSound for an app for a couple days and still a bit confused. What I would like to do is stream an MP3 from an Icecast/Shoutcast server to my machine and run that through DirectSound. To me, this would be done by writing the code to connect to the server, start streaming the MP3, then shovel that data into a DirectSound buffer which is configured to connect (via a filter graph) to an MP3 decoder. There are streaming examples with the DirectX SDK, but they don't talk about MP3s -- they're just for PCM. Am I approaching this correctly? Are there better examples for me to look at? I also want to incorporate my own FIR filter into the DirectSound stream -- I'm assuming this will be possible. Cheers, Jake

Hello- I would like to use a very simple XML description to layout some customizable dialogs in an application. I was hoping I could find a relatively simple XML parser available as open source. I looked at Xerces and although it would certainly do the job, it is far more complicated than necessary. Any suggestions? Jake

Hello- I would like to build an interface with dockable pieces to it. These pieces probably most closely resemble a dialog box. That is, they have several controls as components. I would like to construct the pieces by code -- without the dialog editor. I'm quite new to all of this, so I may be attacking this the wrong way, but I am looking at the CDialogBar class which is at least a start for dockable dialogs, but doesn't allow creation without a resource ID. Is there a better approach? How can I create a CDialogBar without a resource ID?

Yes, you're correct in my misuse of the term. I'm actually referring to development (and implementation). Jake

In high school, we learned that you can raise numbers to non-integer powers. Although your 'algorithm' would be applicable if the request was for double pow(double x, int y), things become more complicated for double y, typically involving logarithms.

How are GUIs designed these days? I've dabbled in programming for over a decade with lots of GUI work, but nothing ever serious and under enough direction to learn the -right- way to do it. I've always hand-placed widgets or used the dialog editors and what not. This strikes me as a somewhat archaic way to do things. So can someone tell me how GUIs are designed? I'm talking about relatively simple programs (not advanced skin-based things) that may use owner-drawn elements (and so can't reliably be done with dialog editors). What do you use to do GUI design? Cheers, Jake

You'd think that with open source, there would be someone willing to write a program that just writes a high-color .ico file with alpha channel and submit it for free. But no... So, I have Paint Shop Pro ($55) and it doesn't write .ico files. Why not? I could use Adobe Photoshop for making icons, too, but it doesn't write .ico files either. Is this a conspiracy? I could buy something like Icon Forge ($40 -- why on earth is this only $15 cheaper than PSP???), but it does everything I don't really want it to do. I just want to take a .PNG file (created with GIMP, PSP, or Photoshop) and convert it to an .ico file. So -- what do you folks do if you want to create nice-looking icons (for buttons and the like) with 8-bit transparency? Cheers, Jake