Yes. "Clean Code" by Robert C. Martin. His central point is that most of the time you READ code, so you have to write it in a way that you can read it easily. And he shows how to do this - and wrote the book in a way that you can read even the book easily.

Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard. Takes some time until you get used to it, but then it's much better for your health. And I use it daily, and it is about 15 years old, still no problems (okay, except for some dirt ;-)).

5. by now, task still open. Several hours asking her needs (daughter, at university), several hours comparing and finding a recommendation. Half a day going with her to a store, showing her the models I thought could be okay. No decision. This one has too small arrow keys, that one has the wrong look, ... Some more hours for more recommendations and discussions. Ongoing.

When your boss gives you more money he wants to get more value for it. I got my most significant raise when I took responsibility for a group of developers. Greetings, Martin 2B||!2B?

Hi all, I read data from a database, fill a datagrid with them and create an XML-File via datagrid.RenderControl() So I get an XML-file with extension xls, which Excel can read. But with some field values Excel gets lost. Example of such a file (save as test.xls): Text Date Value1 Value2 First 2006-01-26 0 0 +Second 2006-01-26 0 0 Third 2006-01-26 0 0 The first line shows okay in Excel, but after the '+'-Sign in the second line all date- and numberfields are shown as text fields. Now for calculations all first have to be converted. Does anyone know how to avoid this problem? Thank you! Martin 2B||!2B?

Hi Marco, no need to apologize ;) First: I had the implicit assumption the certification was for getting a job. When I have two candidates for a job, both beginners and one of them has a certification this one is the first I invite for an interview. With two experienced candidates the projects count and in the interview I try to find out if he or she is a hacker or a developer. Second: a certification is certainly no substitute for a theoretical background and understanding what one is doing. Martin

Hi leckey, I think a certification is good for beginners who don't have real project experience. For experienced developers it should be enough to show what they have done in the "real world". So when you're a beginner and you like databases it's fine to start with a database exam. Martin 2b||!2b?

Hi there, thank you very much for your help! You've led me to the right path. The LoadLibrary etc. is alright, the problem was the external resource DLL in conjunction with a custom control. I have to register the window class of the control with the WNDCLASS-structure. One element of this is the hInst, which most of the controls (Grid, BitmapViewer etc.) fill with AfxGetInstanceHandle(), which is okay in most cases. But: here I needed AfxGetResourceHandle(), as I have to register the control with the resource DLL!!! I still don't know why it worked with NT, but... Greetings, Martin :-)))))

Hi, I've got it!!! When using an external DLL, you have to register the window class for THAT DLL! So you have to set the hInst of the WNDCLASS-structure via AfxGetResourceHandle() instead of AfxGetInstanceHandle() as it is done most of the time... Happy greetings, Martin

Hello Paolo, thank you for your time. I got this code from MSDN, which should do the job: m_hInstDLL = ::LoadLibrary("ExtRes.dll"); if ( !m_hInstDLL ) { return FALSE; // failed to load the localized resources } else { AfxSetResourceHandle(m_hInstDLL); // get resources from the DLL } As I wrote, it works with simple elements, it only fails with custom controls and ActiveX-controls. Must I tell the DLL that it has to use these? Or the App, that the DLL uses it? HOW??? Martin

Hi, I am in a problem: An application works just fine, but: As soon as I extract my resources into a resource-only DLL only the dialogs with standard-controls continue to load. (Therefore it is clear, that at least the app finds its resource-DLL.) Every dialog containing CUSTOM CONTROLS fail to load: In CDialog::DoModal() the call to CreateDlgIndirect() returns FALSE, as a result the creation is simply stopped. I tried this with several examples from this site, the behaviour is the same... I assume that somehow the app must get to know there are custom controls in the DLL, but how? Any hints?? Greetings, Martin

Thanks, Alfadhly, but that's not the point, all the controls have other IDs. In the meantime I got another hint: The dialogs don't load when I put the ressources into an EXTERNAL DLL (as it is the case in this project)! You can do this with a minimal test app and you will get the same problems! Is there a way to tell the application, that it has to run with such an external DLL AND custom controls? Did I miss something important to do? Every other dialog works just fine, only the dialogs with custom controls in it refuse to load... Martin

Yes, I tried it, but with no success. In the meantime I got another hint: The dialogs don't load when I put the ressources into an external DLL (as it is the case in this project)! Is there a way to tell the application, that it has to run with such an external DLL AND custom controls? Did I miss something important to do? Every other dialog works just fine, only the dialogs with custom controls in it refuse to load... Martin

Hi, I am stuck... We use a custom control (yes, THE Grid Control ;-) in a big project . With NT4 everything is running fine, but now someone dared to run it with Win98 and W2k. The Result: every dialog with the grid in it refused to open!!! The samples provided with the grid run fine on the same machine, so it is nothing with the grid. When I setl the custom control in the resource editor to the classname EDIT, the dialog starts (but it looks terrible, of course ;-). So: what can be wrong in this project? ANY hints? Martin

Hi, I am stuck... We use a custom control (yes, THE Grid Control ;-) in a big project . With NT4 everything is running fine, but now someone dared to run it with Win98 and W2k. The Result: every dialog with the grid in it refused to open!!! The samples provided with the grid run fine on the same machine, so it is nothing with the grid. When I setl the custom control in the resource editor to the classname EDIT, the dialog starts (but it looks terrible, of course ;-). So: what can be wrong in this project? ANY hints? Martin

Hi, I am stuck... We use a custom control (yes, THE Grid Control ;-) in a big project . With NT4 everything is running fine, but now someone dared to run it with Win98 and W2k. The Result: every dialog with the grid in it refused to open!!! The samples provided with the grid run fine on the same machine, so it is nothing with the grid. When I setl the custom control in the resource editor to the classname EDIT, the dialog starts (but it looks terrible, of course ;-). So: what can be wrong in this project? ANY hints? Martin