How to identify visual studio symbols? - visual-studio

I'm new to the use of MVS, I'm used with the symbols in Eclipse since I programm java already. My question is, where can I find a guideline to identify which code the IDE is suggesting?
For example: BlendAdd has a white symbol that I dont know what does that means (if its a member function, data or whatever)..To blend mode there is another symbol, for Circle shape another and so on.
In eclipse I know the difference just looking what is a method or a constant. This is a completely beginner question but since yesterday I didn't find anything to clearfy my mind cos maybe I'm searching for the wrong concept.
Thanks in advance for the support

There is a page on MSDN that explains all of it, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/y47ychfe%28v=vs.110%29.aspx
- constant
- enum
- class

Related

Proper syntax of Direct2D Chroma-Key effect

I'm trying to implement a Croma-Key effect on a bitmap, and i'm following the page: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn890715(v=vs.85).aspx
first i noticed the syntax was incorrect in the implementation of an array as an argument, when i fixed this, the proper way to get the processed image was incorrect and needed some poling around to solve, in the end, i'm still unable to find what m_d2dContext is. i would assume it's the ID2D1HwndRenderTarget but the intelesense says there's no method definition for: CreateEffect i was wondering if anyone has had success with this, and could show and explain their code.
I do, as I already replied to the same question you posted 4 days ago: what's the proper implementation of the Chroma-key Effect in Microsoft visual studio c++?

Synthesisable Fixed/Floating points in VHDL's IEEE Library

I'm creating a VHDL project (Xilinx ISE for Spartan-6) that will be required to use decimal "real-style" numbers in either fixed/floating point (I'm hoping fixed point will be sufficient).
Being quite new to VHDL, I found out the hard way that the non-constant real types are not supported for synthesis, so I set about searching for a IP core or library to redress this.
So far I've found 3 options;
1) A floating point IP core provided by Xilinx
2) A downloadable "ieee_proposed" library written by a David Bishop found here
3) After spending a fair while attempting to work out how to "create" a new library with David Bishops files in, I took a quick look through the default IEEE library and saw it contains ieee.fixed_generic_pkg and ieee.fixed_pkg packages.
My question is - of the two libraries - which one would be sensible to use? Is one adapted for synthesis and one not, or one older than the other? And then if floating point is provided, is there any real point to the floating point IP core provided by Xilinx?
I've trawled through many questions of people attempting to add the ieee_proposed libraries, but none seem to have referenced the fact they they already seem to exist in the existing IEEE.
Thanks very much for any help!
============UPDATE (Essentially my own efforts to resolve)==================
I can't actually use the ieee.fixed_pkg - and attempting to do so gives me the error Cannot find <fixed_pkg> in library <ieee>.
After finding the ieee library at C:\Xilinx\14.7\ISE_DS\ISE\vhdl\xst\nt I've found that the fixed_pkg actually resides in ieee_proposed. However, this still throws up the same errors!
Dumb question, but when you downloaded the ieee_proposed did you also remember to compile it?
edit: And also remember to map the library to you simulation as well. Maybe you did all this already but these are the mistakes I make often.
I've been battling with the same problems for days.
The way I solved it is:
1. Add fixed_float_types_c, fixed_pkg_c and float_pkg_c vhdl files to project.
2. Declare them as belonging to work library (Properties in Quartus files window)
3. Compile project and call library using:
Library work;
use work.fixed_pkg.all;
To my annoyance, they don't come up in the nice red writing I want them to but it works!

Browsing Ruby code a la Smalltalk?

What's the closest equivalent of the Smalltalk Class Hierarchy Browser?
I've seen some workarounds like this, but it seems not scriptable.
There really isn't one, at least not with a Smalltalk-like UI including static and dynamic behaviors.
Eclipse and IntelliJ both have some structural insight. Eclipse has a view sort-of similar to a browser. The biggest issue with either is that unless you're working on live objects (e.g., debugging) you won't necessarily know all of an object's behavior since some is defined at runtime. A static view without an image or partial runtime cannot give a complete picture.
IntelliJ does a decent job of figuring things out. For example, a class with an attr_accessor :foo will show the #foo instance variable in the structure pane. I'm not sure you can configure the UI around to be more browser-like, though; Eclipse is better in this regard–each "level" can be added separately.
(Since 1994-95ish I've felt we kept taking steps backwards, it's only recently that IDEs have gotten smart enough to give me back some of the productivity I had with Smalltalk/Lisp. Smalltalk's image-based runtime confers a lot of advantages in this regard.)
For more fun, you could take a Moose image, write a Ruby parser with PetitParser and a Glamour code browser. That would provide a Smalltalk UI :)
[edit] Oh, someone didn't like the answer. Care to explain why? It is a perfectly good solution.

Automating Excel 2010 using F#

I have been searching for a FAQ to tell me how to open a Excel Workbook/Worksheet and also how to Save the File once I have finished.
I notice that in most FAQ and all the books I have purchased on F# one is show how to create a new Workbook/Worksheet but is never shown how to either open or Save it.
Being a newbie to F# I would very much appreciate it if anyone could kindly provide me with either an answer or perhaps a few pointers?
Update
As for why F# and not C# or VB?
I am pleased to say that inspite of being a newbie (with the exception of Forth, VBA & Excel 2003, 2007 & 2010 and Visual Basic) I can do this in both VB, VBA & C# and since I've been retired on medical grounds, with plenty of time unfortunately on my hands, I like to continually set myself challenges to keep my little grey cells active and being a sucker for trying new languages....well!
F# is now an intergral part of Visual Studio 2010 so I thought - why not. Consider this - if we are not willing to use or at least try a new languages - I would always be wonder if I might have prefer it to VBA, VB, C# ..... and if you look at it from another point of view, if no one is going to use it - why create it in the first place? I suppose you can say if cave men hadn't experimented and made fire by rubbing two sticks together - where would we be now and would matches have been invented?
Although an complete answer would be good, I prefer a few pointers, to keep my challenge going.
And lastly but not least - thank you for taking the trouble to respond!
I don't think their is a specific F# library for Office, so you will just use the exact same .NET library that you use in VB.NET/C#. F# is a .NET language, so anything that can be done in C# can be done in F# (but you probably already knew that :) ). The API call will be exactly the same, it just that they will be done using the F# syntax instead of the VB/C# one. So for example something that look like this
public void SaveMyWorkbook() {
string filePath = #"C:\failworkbooks\catfail.xlsx";
workbook.Save(filepath);
}
Will be expressed in F# as
let filePath = "C:\\failworkbooks\\catfail.xlsx";
let saveWorkbook() = workbook.Save(filePath) |> ignore //if the Save method return something
Now, what you will soon realize is that the API isn't exactly designed to be easily used from a functional language. It can be done, but this task in particuliar is much more tailored to C#/VB.NET.
If you really want to enjoy F#, I suggest you use in area where its strength really show. My personal experience is that functional language are awesome when a lot of math is involved. It is also marvellous if you want to easily introduce parallelism in your application (since F# code is usually side effect free). So anything that require data crunching on a lot of data is perfect for it. But for task that consist mainly of putting together a bunch of API call to an external library, F# is kind of meh. You could say that F# is kind of like a graphic card programming language, while C# a general purpose CPU programming language. A lot of thing run better with C#, but the stuff that run better on F# run really better on it.
But if you really want to go that route, my suggestion is to try to use the Office API as you already know it, but with a F# syntax. If at some point you really have no idea how to do a specific task, ask a question about it on stackoverflow with your code and exactly want you want to do. Those question get answered ridiculously fast compared to broad all-encompassing question, so you won't wait long. (Programmer seem to love precise question with a specific answer ^^)
I hope that it helped a little.
I found this http://iouri-khramtsov.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/automating-excel-with-f.html helpful advice. Briefly, you'd use something like this:
#r "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel" // Assuming it's a script
let excel = ApplicationClass(Visible = true)
let openFileName = #"C:\MyDir\MyFilenameToOpen.xls"
excel.Workbooks.Open(openFileName)
// Do stuff
let savedFileName = #"C:\MyDir\MyFilename.xls"
workbook.SaveAs(savedFileName)
Using F# with Excel seems like a natural fit.
Getting to a result in Excel requires the use of several immutable values, each driven by formulas. Excel has a brilliant user interface, a lovely model of the world - I love rows, columns and cells - but to automate or customise things requires macros. Why learn this when you can use F#? Formulas and immutable values are fundamental to its design.
Ideally you'd write formulas yourself as a User Defined Function (UDFs) also in F# - see http://excel-dna.net/ . Then, perhaps, you'd want to do something interesting with objects/types - Look for "github com mndrake ExcelObjectHandler" (I don't have enough reputation to post a 3rd link).
Jack

Is there a systematic way to discover which implicit defs are in scope, and which one is bound at a particular point?

Often there's no need to pay any attention to implicit arguments in Scala, but sometimes it's very helpful to understand how the compiler is automatically providing them. Unfortunately, this understanding seems to be hard to obtain!
Is there a general method to discover how an implicit parameter has been provided, in a given piece of code?
Ideally, one day IDE integration would provide this information in some way, but I expect for now I'll have to dig deeper. Is there some way to ask the compiler to explain exactly which implicit definition it chooses at any given point? Can this be deciphered indirectly from other compiler output?
As an example, I'd like to know how to work out on my own where the implicit bf: CanBuildFrom[Repr, B, That] argument to TraversableLike.map comes from, without reading questions like this one on Stack Overflow!
Add the option -Xprint:typer to the scalac command line. This prints the program tree just after the typer compiler phase. This works best with a short, self contained example. You can also pass this to scalac. This is a really huge step towards self-reliance in Scala!
As mentioned by Randall, IntelliJ shows in-scope and the selected Implicit View with CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-I. Wait a month or two and implicit arguments are likely to have similar support.
Ideally, one day IDE integration would provide this information in some way, ...
That day is today in with JetBrains' IDEA. If you run the latest EAP of IDEA version 9 (9.0.3 EA #95.289) with a recent nightly release of the Scala plug-in, this capability is present. Every value expression may be selected and a command issued that displays a pop-up showing all applicable implicit conversions with the one the compiler will select highlighted.
And since there are apparently a few out there who don't yet know it, there is a free and open-source Community Edition of IDEA and it does support the Scala plug-in.

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