Hi, Wondering if anybody out there in Code Project land has a suggestion for a good chm viewer. In this case "Good" is defined as having good (perhaps great?) search functionality. I am using the default chm viewer that comes with Windows Vista and I am annoyed by the fact that it does not report sub string matches. I've also tried the Firefox plug in, but as far as I can tell that only searches the page currently loaded, so its functionality is not tolerable either. Thanks! - Jason

Using VS2005 I often find myself making incremental changes to an app then finding that it will start crashing in some weird way. In the general, the weirder that it crashes - the better - because then I know to just clean the solution and rebuild it. Just wondering what the general rule is on the optimal frequency of "build solution," "clean solution," and "rebuild solution." ? As for me, as the first paragraph suggests - I just use "build" repeatedly until I start getting some weird heap corruption thingie that I'm pretty sure I'm not causing, by then I know it's time to "clean solution" and build again.... But that's just me - an amateur hack who's copy of Ivor Horton was stolen in Ecuador. -@LRG

Uh, hrrmmm, no I don't have an entry in DDX for that. I guess I thought I didn't need one, because it's a graphics control (running an openGL instance) not a regular control exchanging values from input. The only input it takes is mouse clicks to orient the view. I guess I'll put one in (for DDX_CUSTOM(), eh?) and see what happens. Thanks - @LRG

Wow you ask the tough questions... :) It's a custom (CWnd derived) class I found on this web site for doing OpenGL in an MFC Window. It's called a COpenGLControl. Not trying to get folks to debug some random code I found on the interwebs, so that's why I was speaking in generalities. :) Thanks - @LRG

DavidCrow wrote:

How many dialogs are we talking about here? The first sentence in this post implies one dialog with several controls on it. Is there more to it than that?

Yes, you're right - one dialog with several controls. One particular control is causing the problem. @LRG

Ok, Let me answer my own question - I just found that if I put EndWaitCursor() in the OnInitDialog memeber after creating the problem CWnd it works. Wondering, is this a bit of a kluge? Thanks - @LRG

Hi, I am creating a dialog based application in MFC, and I am having a weird problem with one of the CWnd derived objects on my dialog. Basically when starting the application, if it starts up such that the mouse pointer is over one particular dialog (which I created...) the hourglass doesn't go away until I move the mouse off that part of the dialog. As soon as I move it off the dialog it goes away. If it starts up such that the mouse over another part of the dialog it goes away just fine. However, it's kind of annoying (and unprofessional) because that part of the dialog that causes the mouse the hourglass to hang is quite large. Strange! Is there any way to programatically tell the hour glass to go away? Thanks - @LRG

Hi Mark, Thanks again for your help. My question would be why can't VS figure out that if I am creating a project in a certain directory, that particular directory should be included in the list of paths to search? Eh! Thanks - @LRG

Yes - all of my includes are as such: In "Joint.h" -- #include "DOF.h" If DOF.h and Joint.h are not in the same directory then VS will not find them... Thanks - @LRG

Hi, I am creating a dialog based app in VS2005 and I am having an annoying problem: Visual Studio can't see some of my include files, even though they are in the same directory as others it can see. Basically, I am using includes from three locations: [1] System headers [2] headers in the project directory [3] headers in a seperate directory common to a family of projects. I have listed [3] under Properties->General->Additional Include Directories" What it seems like is if VS2005 is working on a header file in place [3] and the file specifies an include located in [2] it won't be able to find it -- unless I move it to [3]. Any help appreciated! @LRG

Mark Salsbery wrote:

Another alternative in this case, is to use one resource and show or hide the two buttons depending on if the dialog is used modal or modeless.

Kaboom! That's why you're the MVP... and I'm just glad we're on the same team. :) Thanks Mark, I will implement that.

Hi, I am creating a class for a dialog that can be used either in modal or modeless form, and I would like to use them both at the same time in a dialog-based app. The complication is that the modal form and the modeless form use different resources (modal form has an 'OK' and 'Cancel' button, modeless does not) wondering if it's possible to use them in the same application since VS2005 puts the following line in CDialog-derived classes: [code] // Dialog Data enum { IDD = IDD_DX9MATERIAL_DIALOG }; [/code] which seems to tie the class to the dialog, no? Is it not possible to the use the same class for two dialogs? Or should I just create another version of the class for the two types of docs? Thanks - @LRG

Thanks for the insights you guys. Will, I think you're right... in either case the only way for the dialog to be sure that the D3DMATERIAL9 structure is valid is if it maintains one locally and copies it's value to one supplied by a client on request. Sucks, 'cuz that will slow everything down a bit, but I can't see a way around it. -@LRG

Hi, I am creating an MFC app as well as learning about design patterns and good coding practices, and so I've got a question for you whizzes... I am creating a class to control a dialog which fills in a DirectX materials structure: typedef struct _D3DMATERIAL9 { D3DCOLORVALUE Diffuse; D3DCOLORVALUE Ambient; D3DCOLORVALUE Specular; D3DCOLORVALUE Emissive; float Power; } D3DMATERIAL9; My question is thus: The class I am creating for this control should take a pointer to a struct (as above) as an argument for it's constructor. This is not a problem if the control is being used as a modal dialog: D3DMATERIAL9 Mat; CDX9MaterialDialog dlg(&Mat); INT_PTR nResponse = dlg.DoModal(); But when the dialog is being used as a child, I have to declare the class as a member of the parent dialog, right? How can I ensure that the my class is initialized with a valid pointer, when the parent dialog class will use the default no argument constructor for the class? I would like to make sure that the dialog is initialized with a pointer so that the dialog class is not responsible for creating (and deleting) a new material structure. Thanks - @LG

hi, i am learning mfc, and having a good time doing so. i currently stuck on how to approach a particular problem: i am trying to create a control a color picker control that has four parts for self contained use in multiple projects. the four (rather simple, i know...) parts are: 1) a static box for showing the color selected 2) three separate spin controls that allow you to select the R,G, B components of the color i know that there are several color pickers avail that do this, but i would like to create my own for use in my own projects, partly as an exercise in how to create self contained controls. problems that i am having: 1) it is my understanding that there is no way to save a dialog as a resource by itself... the resource file is for the whole project. no importing/exporting of individual dialog resources. 2) so that's ok - i will just create a dialog class and include all of the elements that i want as memebers therein and init them in the dialog class in OnInitDialog using their individual ::Create() methods. uh, but wait a minute... when it comes time to listening for events, don't i have to give a resource ID for the call to DDX_Control(, , )... ? Uh, I seem to be chasing my tail here... Any help appreciated. - @LRG

ok, thanks... so it would seem that creating an owner drawn control is useful when you need to customize the appearance of the control. hmm... that's not what i need to do, so i will start another thread with my next question. :)

hi, i am just learning mfc and finding good inspiration with this excellent site. a question i have is that many of the dialogs and controls listed on this site are described as "owner drawn". what the heck does that mean? is that like when you attach a control to a dialog with out using a resource? thanks - @lrg

Hi Judy, Thanks for your reply. The trouble I was having with that approach is that the compiler would give me an error stating that I was multiply defining the struct in question. So, poking around on the net a bit I found this great page on the preprocessor and "header file etiquette"... http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/tic/tic0056.shtml and it explained how to use an "include guard" (#ifdef) to protect from the problem that I was having. -@LG

Hi, Just a basic question: How do you define a struct so that it's visible over multiple files? For example, for a function I know you would create a header file and include the forward declaration, there... while implementing the function in a .cpp file. Is there a similar forward declaration for a struct, or do I have to create a namespace ? Thanks - @LG

OK, So I seem to be one of those rare people that actually converts *back* from Mac to PC. But, what the heck, ya gotta make a living, right? :) Over in Mac-land I used to enjoy using Applescript as a way to write simple programs that could automate a lot of mundane tasks. Wondering if it's possible to do some of the same stuff on my new PC. Specifically, is it possible to: 1) Automate Explorer (or Firefox) to browse the web and download weather images so they're on my machine when i wake up in the morning? 2) Create back ups of specific local folders and ftp them to my web server? Any suggestions on where to start - books/web sites/etc.. appreciated. Thanks!