Code Retard » Programming

QOTD: Where Should I Start For A Good Career?

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:42:33 +0000

Every so often, Code Retard features a QOTD or “question of the day” post on various topics we find interesting. Hope you enjoy today’s question!

I am very interested in computers. I have worked on a few, just to tinker around with them. This year, I am taking a course in school to go for my A+ certification. I want a good career in the computer industry.
So the Question is, what are some suggestions of things I can do to have a good career working on computers?
Thanks a lot!

What Formation I Need To Be Computer Scientist?

admin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:41:43 +0000

Hi, I want be a computer scientist (Like the Geek Squad) but I but know what formation i need to do. I live at montreal and a search a formation near of me.
Thanks for help.

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Do Computer Science Majors Have To Be Good At Programming?

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:40:29 +0000

I feel like i’m struggling in programming, but I’m good with computers in general.
Maybe this is a question about degrees in general – do you have to be an expert at every part of your degree?

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What Programming Language Should I Start Learning First?

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:45:39 +0000

I’m an Electrical Engineering student that want’s improve my basic familiarity with C++ and Java into average skills or even better. I’m not going into programming but I want to learn more about programming simple programs or make my own budgeting programs or something.

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Microsoft DreamSpark: Free software for students

Son Riku — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:04:02 +0000

Microsoft DreamSpark continues to offer select high school and university students free use of select Microsoft Software. Choose from SQL Server Developer 2008, Visual Studio Professional 2008, Expression Studio 2, Windows Server 2008, and more. To obtain this software, you must first log in with or create a Windows Live ID and then verify that you’re a student by choosing your school from a list and logging in with your student information. Once verified, you will be prompted to download an ISO image of the software of your choice.

Link: https://www.dreamspark.com/default.aspx?SID=934849-2-0-ARTICLE-0

SharePoint Template Error: The template you have chosen is invalid or cannot be found.

Son Riku — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:17:31 +0000

sharepoint logo

The template you have chosen is invalid or cannot be found. at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.ApplyWebTemplate(String bstrUrl, String& bstrWebTemplate, Int32& plWebTemplateId)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.ApplyWebTemplate(String bstrUrl, String& bstrWebTemplate, Int32& plWebTemplateId)

How to solve?

Go to CodePlex and find then download STP Inspector. Unzip and then run that app with the STP file you are trying to debug on the server you are trying to deploy the template file to

“STPInspectorWin.exe” will tell you the error. If it says you are missing a feature, export the stp file, then rename it to a CAB file and modfiy the manifest.xml file inside the CAB. Use the STP Inspector to find the missing GUID and do a search then remove that line from the xml manifest.

Repack up all the files in the STP file and the new manifest.
You should google and then use CABARC.EXE. Its a free ms tool. What I did was extract everything in the cab into a folder called test, then go to the command prompt and type in
cabarc N

Example:
C:\stp\BIN>cabarc N test1.cab C:\stp\BIN\Test\*.*

If your Template file is too large, you can change the size limit by using this command:
stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname max-template-document-size -propertyvalue 524288000

Generate a .lib from a DLL with Visual Studio

adm_snackbar — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:43:00 +0000

Oftentimes programmers have to deal with external third party DLLs that their software rely on to function. This is both smart and useful because as long as the DLL interface remains the same, externally linked DLLs can be easily swapped in and out without having to recompile and rebuild code. However, linking code in Visual Studio with an external library requires that a .lib file exist – the DLL is actually not sufficient for this task. Fortunately, there is a way to generate a .lib from a DLL with Visual Studio. Creating the .lib file is a bit like reverse engineering the DLL’s symbols.

Regardless of your Visual Studio version, whether it’s for 2003, 2005, or 2008 .NET, open up the Visual Studio Tools command promopt (something like Start -> Program Files -> Microsoft Visual Studio -> Visual Studio Tools -> Visual Studio Command Prompt).
If you have a .def file for your DLL, you can skip this step. Otherwise if your DLL did not ship with a .def file, you have a bit of work ahead of you. You cannot generate a .lib without a .def file first, sorry. To generate a .def file from a DLL, execute the dumpbin command to extract the function names from your DLL. In our example, we will be building from sqlite3.dll.
dumpbin /exports C:\path\to\sqlite3.dllThe output appears below:
The function names boxed in red are what you need to care about. Copy just the function name text into a new file with .def extension. Start the new file with "EXPORTS” without the quotes and then have each function on its own line like this:
EXPORTS sqlite3_aggregate_context sqlite3_aggregate_count sqlite3_auto_extension sqlite3_bind_blob sqlite3_bind_double sqlite3_bind_int sqlite3_bind_int64 ...
With your new definition file in tow, in the command prompt you can execute the lib command to finally generate the .lib file:lib /def:C:\path\to\sqlite3.def /out:C:\path\to\sqlite3.lib /machine:x86
This generates the .lib file you can use to link with in your project file. Note that the /machine argument can take any number of machine configuration so be sure to choose the correct one. To get a list of all machine types, simply type “lib” by itself. Here is the usage below for your edification:
usage: LIB [options] [files] options: /DEF[:filename] /EXPORT:symbol /EXTRACT:membername /INCLUDE:symbol /LIBPATH:dir /LIST[:filename]
/MACHINE:{AM33|ARM|EBC|IA64|M32R|MIPS|MIPS16|MIPSFPU|MIPSFPU16|MIPSR41XX| SH3|SH3DSP|SH4|SH5|THUMB|X86} /NAME:filename /NODEFAULTLIB[:library] /NOLOGO /OUT:filename /REMOVE:membername /SUBSYSTEM:{CONSOLE|EFI_APPLICATION|EFI_BOOT_SERVICE_DRIVER| EFI_ROM|EFI_RUNTIME_DRIVER|NATIVE|POSIX|WINDOWS| WINDOWSCE}[,#[.##]] /VERBOSE

And if you came looking for sqlite3.lib we just saved you a lot of time.

SharePoint Error and Resolution: SharePoint, Failed to connect to the configuration database.

Son Riku — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:25:11 +0000

I was getting this error in SharePoint and tried searching on it with no answers.

12/23/2008 14:41:17 6 ERR Failed to connect to the configuration database. An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPUpgradeException was thrown. Additional exception information: An error has occurred on the server.http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=96177 Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPUpgradeException: An error has occurred on the server.http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=96177 at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPContentDatabase.ValidateDatabaseSchemaCompatibility() at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite.PreinitializeServer(SPRequest request) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.InitializeSPRequest() at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.EnsureSPRequest() at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.get_Request() at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListCollection.EnsureListsData(Guid webId, String strListName) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListCollection.EnsureListsData(String strListName) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListCollection.Undirty() at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPBaseCollection.System.Collections.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication.get_AdministrativeTasks() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication.EnsureSystemTask(String title, String description, Int32 priority, String actionTitle, String actionUrl, String service, String systemId) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication.Provision() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebServiceInstance.Provision() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.Join() at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.CreateOrConnectConfigDb() at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.Run() at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

If you are in a Server Farm, make sure all SharePoint Servers are updated to the same level.
(Add/Remove Programs, Check the show updates on the top)

If not find SharePoint Updates.

How to Get Exit Status Codes from Linux Command Prompt

adm_snackbar — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:15:00 +0000

Whenever you execute a command in Linux, the command actually returns an exit status code which is useful when you need information on how the execution went like if it failed or succeeded. An exit status code of:

0 means the command executed properly without any errors
1 means the command executed but there may have been some minor issues (think of these as warnings)
2 means the command executed and there was a major problem (think of these as errors)

Getting the exit codes is easy, simply execute any command in Linux. Immediately after, to check its exit status, type

echo $?

and you will see a number printed, which will be 0, 1, or 2. For example, check out this procession:

% whoami coderetard % echo $? 0

This means the command ‘whoami’ ran with an exit code of 0, meaning its exit status was OK. Now check this out:

% cd dir_that_does_not_exist dir_that_does_not_exist: No such file or directory. % echo $? 1

It looks like that didn’t go too smoothly!

To take it even further, make sure your own programs are returning accurate status codes to reflect the exit status. In C, you would do something like this:

#include void func_ok() { // exit code = 0 exit(EXIT_SUCCESS); } void func_fail() { // exit code = 1 exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } int main() { func_ok(); //func_fail(); }

And basically you would exit with EXIT_SUCCESS if everything ran OK, otherwise you would exit with EXIT_FAILURE. This method is preferred over giving an integer value directly into the exit() function as using stdlib macros are more portable across platforms.

Image/Flickr/Biappi

SQLite with C++ Example: A Compact Serverless Database Alternative

adm_snackbar — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:26:17 +0000

Have you got an application you’re working on that requires the power to store and query data of a SQL database but don’t need the hassle of setting up a client and server solution? Today, let us introduce you to SQLite which was made just for you. Besides being complete free, it’s a small and fast library that acts as a SQL database wrapper to a plain text file that sits locally in your application. What this means is you can create and enforce all the great structured tables in your database design as well as construct intricate data queries just like you do with any server-backed SQL database, except your database is just a local file – no server or client architecture needed. From the SQLite website:

SQLite is a in-process library that implements a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine. The code for SQLite is in the public domain and is thus free for use for any purpose, commercial or private. SQLite is currently found in more applications than we can count, including several high-profile projects

SQLite is easy to set up with Tcl and C/C++ interfaces and boasts a powerhouse of a user base including Adobe, Firefox, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and McAfee, just to name a few.

Just to show how easy SQLite is to use in a C++ program, here are a few lines of code that will help you understand how easy SQLite is to use and how it might be a good fit for your needs:

#include sqlite3* db; char* db_err; int main() { sqlite3_open(“my_db.sql3”, &db); sqlite3_exec(db, "create table 'helloworld' (id integer);", NULL, 0, &db_err) sqlite3_close(db); }

And that’s a wrap. You pass any valid SQL query to the sqlite3_exec() function to do all your database manipulation. Data retrieval is passed via the parameters in a user-specified a callback function (in this example it was not used and was thus NULL). At any rate this simple example should be enough to help you get started with SQLite for your new project.