I've been really busy with the debugger at work, getting all sorts of awesomeness done. We haven't even put out the first alpha yet, and I'm already most of the way down my list! Granted, I know full well that there is more work to be done on the items I've already started (UI tweaks, and whatnot). But it's still nice to know that I've gotten a major chunk of functionality out of the way relatively quickly.
However, I must admit that I am running out of steam with regards to blog topics. I sat down this afternoon to write a topic and spent more time staring at the screen wondering what to write about. Most of the topics which are interesting to me have been covered. This seems totally crazy to me -- I've been at this since 2004 (and if you count the old ramblings before that, much longer still). You'd think I couldn't run out of things to say in just three short years. But alas and alack, I'm starting to wonder if I have!
So if you have idea, feel free to let me know. ;-)
Today's factoid for the day comes from the forums. It appears that at least a few people didn't know this, so it seems like a good idea to be explicit. The PagePanel control has *no* runtime UI to it. The little switcher dealie you see at the bottom of the control is an IDE-only thing. I've heard that a few people have skipped using the PagePanel for their applications because they thought that the UI was a permanent part of the control, and they didn't like it (understandably so). If you're in that camp, you can breathe easier knowing that the page panel is an entirely transparent container.
When all else fails, just post a picture of Pixel. Can't go wrong.
What about a guest blogger? (You deserve a week off.)
topics ?
- things you've read you liked / found useful / intersting humours and WHY
- quick tips and techniques like the one you posted about the DLL the other day
- handy code snips
- what the weather is up to
- pictures, just make sure to remove the information that would tell a stalker how to find you :)
And it doesn't have to be daily either
I spose the only thing to be careful of is how much you reveal of any upcoming versions and the risk that some one would say "Yeah but Aaron said on his bog ...."
From all the notices that I've been receiving about things fixed in the next version I'm looking forward to getting a hold of it
First, I really appreciate your indepth articles and the coverage. I especially enjoyed the recent series on new features in RB. I'd encourage you to do more on them. A little dose a day has been very nice, plus some of these new features are buried.
As a suggestion, a series on better use of the current debugging features would be very nice. I have read some material, but they all seem to be the basics, not the reality of real life debugging.
Finally, I'd be curious about your perspectives on RB's built in database functionality.
Chris
P.S. While I'm at it, maybe reviewing some of the lesson common used or understood controls would be nice.
Hey, my train gets in at 12:40, I just checked. You can also go to the amtrak website and see the current status of the train. No ideas for the blog huh? Maybe we should just turn it into an open discussion for wedding ideas! I'm sure all your programming friends would looove that!
I don’t know if this is blogable material or if you've covered it before but I'd be interested to know how you first got interested in programming. What sort of things inspired you? What languages you have learnt? What you like about it so much (if indeed you do)?
Maybe an occasional post about some program that you found especially interesting. Like a Featured Program. Commercial, Open Source, freeware, comes with the OS... Some program that you found especially interesting recently.
Weddings !
Have an open bar and nothing else will matter :)
Although I don't comment a lot, I always read your posts and I always learn something new, even with the ones not related with RB, so thanks a lot!
About the topics, there were already great suggestions (including the wedding ideas), and here are two more:
- From your experience what suggestions can you give on how to organize classes, subclasses, modules and so on, for somewhat big apps on the project tab. I always use folders to organize them, but I often have a folder for classes, modules, interfaces and then some classes have also interfaces and modules and I create a different folder for this and in the end it starts to become a really mess :(
- Using APIs to add some features to native controls not present on RB - I remember for example the one you wrote about the line spacing for the editfield... a nice one.
BTW, I found very interesting your column on last RBD "Bitwise operations for noobs" and the use of a bitmask. Do you frequently use this "trick" when developing on RB? In what situations? Maybe this can give another idea for a post :-)
These ideas are really good -- I'm cataloging a lot of them for things to post about in the future. Thanks for all of the great feedback!