I am building an asp.net web form in visual studio.
In aspx page i hit some keys in keyboard by mistake.
Now an unknown mark added next one of lines.
Here is the image :
What is this mark and how can i remove it?
When i click on it nothing happens.
This is really annoting...
That is what we call a bookmark.
I often use these. Say you in a middle of a routine. You KNOW you want to go some other place in code - look at some code, maybe grab some code. Now, how to get back?
Bookmarks!!!
from menu you see this
edit->bookmarks:
so, I often will bookmark. Then go on some code rummage hunt, whatever.
Now, to get back? Well edit->bookmarks->next bookmark.
Or ctrl-k, n
So, you can "toggle" the book mark (make sure cursor is on same line).
(so it toggles - you can toggle again to get rid of one).
Or, you can clear all of them in your project:
edit->bookmarks->clear bookmarks.
In fact, I used bookmarks since the old Vb5 or even earlier days.
Even Access + VBA editor has them, and quite sure every IDE from Microsoft has had this feature - for a very long time.
(I don't point this out to be condescending, here and much apologies if I have come across this way - I "only" wanted to share this with readers and you - a long time feature)
So, some love this feature, some don't care.
But, it is handy, and this is especially the case if I have to go search, look at other code modules etc. It can be rather hard to get back to where you were!!!
And I often used them when in a routine that is WAY TOO long and there are way too many routines say in that one big monster class or whatever. so, late nights, pots of coffee going, mind is tired (we all been there!!).
So I can book mark, and now go say ctrl-f to find.. find what I am looking for, and now jump right back to the book mark.
So, for sure - what the heck is that thing if you not seen them before?
So, no worries! They are a really - but a really long time feature of all Microsoft IDE's - as noted going back to even pre-.net days, and pre-.net editors.
It still a great little feature - and one that I don't use a lot, but without question, when I'm in the middle of some hairy cat ball of code? Then yes, I still use them. And I used them for at least 20 years now, and even before I became a regular user of Visual Studio.
Related
I am reading some old posts on a web forum, and I guess they changed their code at some point because recent posts display correctly but old ones are often full of mojibake. Especially around the single curly quotemark which sometimes turns up used as an apostrophe.
Example, new post: "It’s a hard choice and I can see both sides..."
Example, old post: "I don’t think anyone has said that..."
I know this has to do with UTF-8 not being handled properly. What I'm wondering is, can I do anything in my own browser to automatically turn this '’' sequence back into a quotemark? It'd make everything a lot easier to read.
My ideas so far: maybe I could put some custom CSS in Stylebot? The other extension I use a lot is uBlock Origin but I don't think that'd help here. Can a CSS selector be used to replace text in the middle of a paragraph like that, or am I stuck with a 'run every page through Regexr before you try to read it' kind of situation?
Is it possible, within an asp.net page, to the get time at which point that page was last compiled?
I would like to distinguish between when a page has been delivered, and when that page has been updated, compiled, and then delivered (typically there's a slight delay, but a compile timestamp would make things a bit more concrete).
Ideally a simple solution exists, it's not particularly critical but a bit frustrating when during development we end up refreshing a page x times before the recompiled version appears.
cheers :)
As suggested in the comments, it's likely that this is not possible. I want to close the question but also feel it's useful in case someone searches for similar to know it's already been asked.
Especially Ctrl+I , which is "mail this page". I'm using wordpress self hosted. So far I've found this code, not sure how to implement it or if it's old.
Please no plethora of reasons as to why you find this attempt pointless.
Really, shouldn't answer, but:
There's no reason for this, because there's always a very easy way around it. It'll probably take a lot more work than whatever you end up with's worth. If somebody has half of a computer literate mind, they probably can get past this without a problem at all.
Summary:
Don't bother
Disabling hotkeys won't stop anyone from just selecting that option from the File menu.
People will always find ways around these kinds of hacks. Turning off JavaScript, hacking the source with Firebug, Option+Click on a Mac, taking a screenshot, etc. They are completely ineffective against anyone even slightly determined to do what you don't want them to do.
You can't really do that. See this page for really good information on the portability of various key events in JavaScript across multiple browsers. You will see for one that each browser handles/responds to various key events in many different ways.
Also, most of the default browser actions (e.g. Ctrl-F, Ctrl-S) cannot be canceled if you are capturing key events. You can still detect some of them and respond, but you can't actually stop the browser from displaying the search dialog or whatever specific action is to be performed by the key combination.
Also, if someone really wants to take your page's HTML/JavaScript code or content, these methods won't stop them. The disable right click code from the link you referenced can prevent right click, but all someone has to do is disable javascript and it no longer works.
I have been struggling with Xcode 3, and decided to jump directly to Xcode 4.
However, a big problem is that there is very little support like articles, videos, and projects I can use as templates.
Does there exist support like this at all?
Can I use Xcode 3 projects as templates?
Would it be easy to work from Xcode 3 tutorials?
I have now been using it for one day. Some things in the interface designer are quite different. For example, I can't get to subviews in the tab bar control (but mostly I manage, and can follow examples).
Thanks.
I'm doing the same thing. Xcode 4 is in pre-release, so there's not much in the way of tutorials while the tools are in a semi-NDA limbo and could be changed significantly before final release.
I highly recommend reading tutorials (I'm working my way through Aaron Hillegass' books on iPhone and OSX development) that use Xcode 3, and allowing extra time for learning where to map across to the new version.
Xcode 4 is much better organised, so it can be annoying but not impossible to find what you are looking for fairly quickly.
Resources you should go to first:
WWDC10 sessions 307, 308 and 315:
Introducing Xcode 4,
Developing your app with Xcode 4, and
Using Interface Builder in Xcode 4.
Access these through the developer portal. They are the definitive Apple guide to the new design and workflow.
In the Xcode 4 Help menu, the Xcode 4 Transition guide is the second choice. I skimmed it, then kept coming back to dive into topics when they came up.
Xcode 4, despite being "released", is an absolute disaster. I would wait for at least a couple of updates (beyond 4.01) before moving to it.
Basic functionality is severely broken. Breakpoints, syntax highlighting, basic functionality in the Interface Builder IU... I don't even know where to begin.
The document management, which was the towering defect of Xcode's design up to this point, has been changed but sadly not fixed. It might even be worse.
At first I had some good impressions. Early notes:
More-sensible defaults for debugging hotkeys.
There's now "Close project" in the File menu!
You can finally set up sounds for lots of build & search events, with a GUI. Nice.
There's a drop-down that shows files that are associated with the one you're editing. This might be useful, but any convenience this might add is ruined by the fact that there's no quick "counterpart" button like there used to be. You have to dig through a menu to go from header to source or vice versa.
Tabs are upside down, extending off the toolbar (WTF). Also, the "X" to close indicator is missing from each tab unless you roll over the tab. This kind of Easter-egg UI hides information from the user and should be abolished.
The tabs don't work well for a couple of reasons. First, there can be two editing panes under one tab with different documents; the tab only shows the name of one of them. You also can't move documents between panes, which you often want to do when referring to different objects and interfaces. Visual Studio solves both of those problems easily by having separate tab groups above each editing pane and letting you drag documents between the two groups.
A second editing pane is always referred to (and indicated in the toolbar) as an "Assistant" editor even if you didn't invoke the assistant (which is bafflingly denoted by a Batman icon button).
View options are under View, where they belong, instead of being incorrectly placed under the Window menu.
If you're typing a call to a function and you're using another function call as a parameter, Xcode's auto-completion appears to automatically prefer functions whose return type matches the parameter you're filling out. EXCELLENT.
But there are bugs aplenty. So many that it's very hard to get work done at times.
One particularly infuriating bug is Xcode's failure to indicate when and where it has stopped at a breakpoint. In many instances, it will stop and pull up the source file, but there's no execution point highlighted. The editor just shows the top of the file, and nothing happens as you step through. The current line is not highlighted, and nowhere does Xcode say, "Stopped at breakpoint." It just says "running."
There's no way to sort files your files in the treeview. NONE. Xcode 3 was bad enough in not sorting them automatically, making you go and sort them over and over and over through the life of a project. Now that's not even an option. WTF?
Xcode leaves your editor window littered with error highlights and messages even after you've fixed the code and recompiled. It turns out that these errors apply to a different target, even though you never built that target and the code they're complaining about doesn't exist anymore.
Xcode will overwrite your syntax-highlighting choices for specific symbol types. You can change them again and again, and Xcode will overwrite your settings inexplicably. You can watch it happen.
THERE'S NO "BUILD" BUTTON IN THE TOOLBAR, AND YOU CAN'T ADD ONE. In fact, the toolbar is not customizable at all, and there's only a "Run" button. What if you don't want to run? Yep, you have to look up the hotkey.
What did they do with all the extra space in the toolbar? Made the project-config dropdown NARROWER. It's so small that it can't show you WTF you're working on. Meanwhile, there's a vast strip of empty space right next to it. Unbelievable.
The Xcode team tried to clean up the mess that was project settings, adding the concept of "schemes." It's mostly an improvement, but buggy. But I'm out of time for this update...
I am not sure what kind of documentation they give you with Xcode 4, however there should be something in the help menu I imagine. WWDC also had a video on Xcode 4, it was their "State of Union" address. Here is a link to the iTunes videos.
Just to add to Luke's point, it all depends on how much code you know. I am going to stick with V3 as compile errors etc are not automatically fixed and I want to learn how the code works, this is going to help in the future.
Current tutorials (mostly about V3) will help you grasp the basics of Xcode, as V4 is easier overall but understanding the basics is the most important aspect.
Localization seems to be pretty significantly broken in 4.0, with constant crashes for me.
I would wait for 4.0.2, or something..
I just switched back to 3.2.6 after I tried out XCode 4. It has so many bugs and crashes, it was too frustrating. Also its updates are not included in the normal apple updates, you have to re install the whole software via the installer. Its ridiculous! Although the git integration and drop down syntax completion is cool, I think I will wait till 4.0.3 before updating again!
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Concerning pages that build a web application:
Lately, I have found myself creating web pages that are simpler than the ones I used to. Before, I would try to jam as much functionality into a single page as I could to prevent from having lots of pages.
I am starting to realize that this was just making things way more complex, convoluted, and confusing than it had to be. Why not have more pages? I think the reason that I was doing this was because I didn't want the user to have to browse to other pages; just to have all the functionality they needed on a single page.
Well, these good intentions turned into an overly confusing interface for the user and very unmanageable source code. I am a new developer and I am trying to be very reflective of what I am doing so that I can improve. If it makes a difference, I am developing in ASP.net (though these are probably considerations for any platform).
My questions are:
Am I overthinking these things?
Has anyone else found themselves doing this?
Where is the happy medium?
There is no expert who can give you a rule that works in all places at all times. I have been known in my industry for years for "easy" interfaces and we've won significant amounts of business for it (as well as 5 "Best in Class" awards). I have also had people within my company and outside of it tell me - for years - that they like my work but wish that I would "jazz it up" with more graphics and such. What always amazes me is how little connection people see between the two.
So...a few rules of thumb:
A page should do one main thing.
A page may well have multiple links related to the main thing
Menuing and link layout should be consistent across pages
Simpler is better than more complex
Pages should be visually appealing and inviting
Rule 4 is more important than rule 5.
For example, my product provides an interface that lets people define classes and events to be displayed in a calendar. I could have one page that lets you Review, Add, Update, Delete and Edit the classes. Indeed, in some simpler areas, I've used the gridview to let people manage everything in a grid. However, classes have too much information to do this and still follow the rules above.
So,
The main idea is: "Here is a list of classes for this location"
The links are "Add New" shown above and to the right of the grid, Change and Delete are links within each row. This is consistent across the app.
Menuing for the system as a whole is always across the right/top. Nothing else appears on the class/event page except for standard elements common to all pages (a logo, a header, a footer).
The grid is nicely styled but there are no spurious graphics (4,5,6)
A few last things about UIs and graphic design.
First, develop your own vision and be consistent across pages and apps.
Second, do not be afraid of simplicity.
Next, when soliciting advice from others keep in mind that you do not want their advice - you want their impressions: you want to understand the way they perceive the interface. Advice is sometimes good but, more often than not, actually harmful. In my experience, everyone thinks that they are a UI expert.
When you do your hallway (or formal) useability testing you should discount almost all advice to the effect that "you should make that stand out more." As you'll see, it will quickly become "and that," "and that," "and the other." If you follow this advice, you'll end up with a mess due to Brittingham's first rule of design: If everything is important than nothing is. (There you go: when explaining why you can't make someone stand out more, just tell them that "it violates Brittingham's first rule of design!")
Hope this helps!
You hit the nail on the head. Use the KISS principle. (Keep It Simple Stupid)
I've done this in the past as well and not only does it make for a hideous UI, but confusing as to what operations you can do on the page due to having too much functionality. I've often found in testing that I did not have enough checks to see if the user could perform a certain operation based on the state of the data.
It's easy enough in ASP.Net to write several pages that do simple tasks and then link them together with Response.Redirect or Server.Transfer. Now all I try to achieve on any given page is what the design specs say. So if my page is just a search page, that's all I give. If the user wants to see the details of an item that was returned in the search, then I send them to an itemDetails.aspx page.
You've broken a wall that most software developers have, the one that was blocking your view on usability before. A lot of developers don't really think about it and try to make it easier for them by stuffing functionality in one window, web page or whatever.
The thing is once you start designing software from the user's point of view, i.e. making it easier, several things start to become clear. One is the issue of code maintenance, that code is easily more managable to work on if you don't stuff everything in one giant class or whatever travesty you've been doing. The other is usability itself, that you start to think how the user is actually using your application through the graphical interface. Third is avoiding requirements or scope creep where you stop developing functionality that the user doesn't need.
We as users want simplicity partly because we don't want to spend most of our time muddling through a bad UI when we can get our work done faster with a simple and slick UI. That makes it for us software developers the right thing to do, to think through your design on all levels... that and specs always lie.
Definitely agree: most attempts at writing pages/forms that do too much have resulted in
bugs and rewrites. Problems occur with keeping all parts valid/synchronized,
excess managing of users' expectations ("I've entered a bill number here and clicked "find person" there but it gives an error message. Why?") when the two are logically separate. These questions cannot arise if only the valid options are visible,
Formatting/layout issues: In ASP.NET pages, trying to layout independent User Controls turns out to be a nightmare ("But we really want all the buttons vertically aligned!" in separate user controls. Good luck with that.)
I'd consider webpages with more than one functionality only if the target audience consists of domain experts, i.e. people that need lots of functionality on one page for better productivity (think data-entry or financial software with lots of variables).
Even then, most of the time, it's possible separate pages into single units.
No
Yes - me
I found the happy medium was to use Masterpages, and using it in a way that was familiar to IFrames. That I could have a lots of functionality combined well together. There is a more interesting way of doing this with WPF/Silverlight called Prism
The amount of functionality on a page is usually not determined by you but by your customer. If the customer demands a single page to update some VeryComplexObject, you're likely to end up with an aspx page that has a significant number of lines. Main reason is that you simply have a lot of event handlers for all actions on the page.
Whether that page is complex is entirely up to you. You should always attempt to make your code-behind file as simple and clean as possible. Some suggestions in that direction:
Move all business code to another application layer.
Use ObjectDataSource for providing data to data-bound controls such as ListView, GridView, Repeater, ... Delegating loading of data to a dedicated object prevents a lot of overhead in your aspx.cs file.
Another suggestion is to use user controls to implement portions of your page. You would usually only do this when you can reuse the user control, but it can also be of great help reducing page complexity (both of your code-behind file as well as your aspx).
Sometimes I think we are all guilty of forgetting just who it is that we develop our applications for. It isn't always easy as a developer to be able to take a step back and have a look at your application as a user might do so. This is why big companies employee hundreds of people to do this for them and they don't always get it right.
Usability is a massive subject but it is defiantly something that all developers need to keep in mind. It has taken me a long time to learn this but when tackling any development task I always try to think about how my users are going to interact with what I am writing. This will make a difference to all levels of your development.
I would suggest reading Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. This book won't take you an age to read and it puts across some fantastic ideas that can help you to develop applications that are much easier to use and understand.
I always find that once I have thought about the user experience the decisions about what my web pages are going to do and how they are going to interact are much easier to make.
Maybe you should ask the people who are using your site. Or better yet, just watch people use your site. I think that would tell you if your site is designed well, or if you need to change it.