Saturday, November 24, 2018

Thursday, November 22, 2018

Monday, September 3, 2018

Friday, July 20, 2018

Saturday, July 7, 2018

PE format and viewers

PE File Format
wine-3.11/include/winnt.h
PE Format
x86 Disassembly/Windows Executable Files
Operating System Development Series

this article is very detailed. please look further.

perating Systems Development - Portable Executable (PE)
Operating Systems Development - MSVC++ 2005, 2008, 2010
Five PE Analysis Tools Worth Looking At
Exeinfo PE for Windows by A.S.L.
Advance PE Viewer - NikPEViewer 0.4v (beta)

Friday, June 29, 2018

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Saturday, June 9, 2018

Windows folder & path

Windows folder & path. very good tricks to find short path names.

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Friday, May 11, 2018

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Saturday, April 7, 2018

Friday, March 30, 2018

WinForm

Easily Add a Ribbon into a WinForms Application

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Friday, March 9, 2018

raid 1 set up

I bought HD enclosure: NST-27253-BK. it is from www.vantecusa.com. v1.01. Dual 2.5inch SATA SSD/HDD RAID enclsoure. serial number:0664400409.

specification from box: NexStarGX usb3.0 SATA SSD/HDD RAID enclsoure

model: NST-27253-BK
device support:SATA I/II/III SSD/HDD/SDHD
device size:2 bay for 2.5" 7mm and 9.5mm SSD/HDD/SDHDs
internal interface: SATA
external interface: usb3.0 micro-B
HDD capacity: 2 TB per bay, for a combined total of 4TB.
power supply: USB AC adapter 5V/2A; micro USB to A, length :23 inches
weight: 300g
dimension:130x83x25mm
system requirements: windows 7/8/10, MACX 10.6 or above. Linux ubuten 10.4(kernel 2.6.38)

Features:

support Dual 2.5" SATA/I/II/III/SSD/HDD/SDHD
support JBOD/RAID 0 /RAID 1
Auto RAID 1 rebuild
support UASP
SATA interface support SATA III specification up to 6Gps

instruction to set up:

power up unit
wait for the drive to spin up speed
press and hold the reset button for 3 seconds(HDD LEDS will turn off)
release the reset button and the built-in controller will activate the RAID or normal mode based on the dip switch setting.

all new USB storage device need to be intialized, partition and formatted for the operating system you are using before it can store data.
for windows operating system, use Disk Management
for OS X, use disk utility to prepare this storage device
note: on Windows 10, plug in usb to computer, power up. the HDD LED lights are on. it shows current setting(JBOFS). now press reset button for 3 seconds. new drives get disconnected and then connected to computers based on sounds. and then new RAID 1 setting is enabled based on light below RAID 1 setting.
start Disk Management tool. PC automatically recognizes the uninitialized hard drive. it prompts you to format it. follow the prompts and format the hard drive. no quick format and no enable compression.

Hard Drive specifications:HGST TRAVELSTAR hard drive. o=bought on 03/08/2018.

1TB. 5400 RPM. 8MB/Mo Cache. 9.5mm.
S/N: 1V2EYNEM (0S03508)
12-2017. made in China
Bar-code: 05487 18982

Saturday, March 3, 2018

research on class design

research on class design. if we have a legacy software, how to improve it? this article gives some thoughts, then follow these threads, we can move on broader view.

Discovering Hidden Design

Choosing Structure over Naming

There are many qualities that can make designs better. One that really helps names that have clear meaning in the domain. We can use those names to help us determine the relationship between different parts of our code. Beyond that, we can fall back on the classical ideas of coupling and cohesion — a design is good when it maximizes cohesion and minimizes coupling. Although the justification is rarely noted, it's likely that the concepts of coupling and cohesion are useful to us because they are cognitive aids for understanding unfamiliar things [1]. We can understand only so much at a time, so the pieces we attempt to understand should be small and their dependencies should be clear and few. We should be able to understand a chunk of code by itself. Good naming helps us by giving us a mental handle for the other chunks of code that a particular chunk depends upon. It helps us build up a web of understanding.

There are times, however, when our code has internal clustering in its graph and we can't conceive of good names for the clusters. If that is the case, is it acceptable to choose a poor name and move forward with class extraction? Aren't we making our code a little worse if we do that? Again, everyone has to make their own judgment on a situation-by-situation basis, but it's worth considering that naming is only one aspect of program understanding. Code, in general, becomes more understandable when we are looking at chunks that don't have many dependencies on externals. When we can look at a piece and feel that we can understand it locally, we are more likely to be able to change it correctly. The fact that we don't have a good name for it is regrettable, but there is always the chance that we might find a good name later, or that we might eventually merge the the extracted class back into its original class and find a better to way to refactor. In the meantime, we get the benefit of local understanding. If that understanding is constructive relative to the original state of the code, the refactoring might be worthwhile.

Coupling and Cohesion
Structured Design
Writing code for other people: cognitive psychology and the fundamentals of good software design principles
code of damned: good website
How to avoid temporal coupling in C#
Design for change: Coupling and cohesion in object oriented systems
All You Need to Know About UASP
Identifying Object-Oriented Classes
High Cohesion & Low Coupling using SOLID Principles -- Part 1
High Cohesion & Low Coupling Using SOLID Principles -- Part 2
Adaptive Code via C#:

Friday, March 2, 2018

research on scale

research on scale. plan is: plotting, zoom, pan on cp.com. chart engine on Devx. Gigasoft on scale and zoom design.

ProEssentials v8 Help

look at alphabetical listing. focus on "S" section: scale. especially on "scale Symbols".

.NET C++ MFC Delphi ActiveX Charting Download
Chapter 2: C# .NET WinForm Walk-Through VS2010

user's manual=>Chapter 2 WPF WinForm ASP.NET =>

WinForm C# 2010 Walkthrough or WinForm C# 2012 Walkthrough
.NET example code is good place to review too
.NET deployment is good place to review too
.NET installation

Build a Reusable Graphical Charting Engine with C#

extract class design. study the required minimal property and methods to be a charting component.

Welcome To JFreeChart!
Scientific charting control
n MFC Chart Control with Enhanced User Interface
High-speed Charting Control
Scientific charting control
A simple C# library for graph plotting
Plot Graphic Library
Drawing Recurrence Plots with C#
FPlot, a .NET library for plotting functions and measurement data
AderPlotter
Oscilloscope/StripChart Control
Line Graph Component in C#
Graphing Calculator in C# with LES
A Simple Graph Control
Graph Library
Autoscaling Graph Control
A 2D Graph Component With Zoom Capability
Realtime Chart and Graph in One
C# 2.0 Graphing Control
Building a Graph control in 7 easy steps.
Drawing a Line Graph in GDI+
GraphDisplay: a Bezier based control for graphing functions and curves
Graph control
Tracker - A Windows Form graph control

need to search graph on cp.com

Bullet Graphs - A Custom Control - WPF vs. Windows Forms

Saturday, February 24, 2018

fix internet connection issue

Windows 10 PC will not connect to Internet

As an ISP tech support rep, I have had a large number of calls since 12/9/16 reporting the same issue. Appears to be relate to the TCP/IP stack. Try the following, I have had a lot of success with it:

open command prompt (admin)
Type: netsh int ip reset then Enter
Restart PC

Resetting TCP/IP to Default
How to reset TCP/IP by using the NetShell utility
The Nuclear Option: Resetting The Crap Out Of Your Network Adapters in Vista
Reset TCP/IP or Internet Protocol in Windows 10/8/7
How to reset your network adapter in Windows 10
How to permanently disable Windows Defender on Windows 10

Friday, February 23, 2018

set up Visual Studio 2008 for assembler

How to compile assembly files using vs2008?

Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer window, Custom Build Rules, tick "Microsoft Macro Assembler". This ensures that any .asm files you add to your project get compiled with the custom build rule for .asm files.

it works only when you create Windows 32 project in Visual Studio 2008: select console application, then empty project. after empty project is created, then remove all folders. in this case, no need to set up Entry Point in the Linker property tab.

The basic question is more or less answered, but what if you want to do just assembly language in your Visual Studio project? Here is the answer:

Start with a General - Empty project.
Right-clicking on the project name in the solution explorer, set Custom Build Rules so that the Microsoft Macro Assembler is used.
Next, go to Project - Properties. Find the Linker in the dialog box and expand it (click on the +).
Under the Linker, select System.
On the top line, Subsystem, click the down arrow and choose "Console (/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE)."
In the same dialog box under Linker, select Advanced.
Edit the top line, Entry Point, so that it is the label you used as the starting point of your code. Note: You should not enter the underscore when filling
in the Entry Point. VS apparently adds an underscore.

The procedure works also in Microsoft's free Visual C++ 2008 Express edition which is still downloadable from MS as of the date of this posting. Good luck and have fun!

How to run Assembly Programs in Visual Studio
How to run Assembly Programs in Visual Studio
Guide to Using Assembly in Visual Studio .NET

decorator patterns

Saturday, February 10, 2018

dllmain example

tips and tricks on pre-compiled header

tips and tricks on pre-compiled header. my note is taken from the following posts.

Precompiled headers

Preparations

With Visual C++ 6.0 you have to run devenv.exe with the undocumented /y3 option.
In Visual Studio .Net you can get similar functionality by going to Tools->Options->Projects->VC++ Build and setting Build Timing to Yes.

add some variation on this line to all copies of windows.h on my machine:
#pragma message("Compiling windows.h - this should happen just once per project.\n")

Setting up precompiled headers

The only precompiled header settings that are efficient to use are the Create/Use pair of settings.( The documentation for these settings tells you what each setting does, but it fails to give you the big picture - it doesn't tell you how to setup a project to use these two together.)

The basic idea is that one cpp file is specified as creating the precompiled header file and the other cpp files uses that precompiled header file. Because only one source file ever creates the precompiled header file it is guaranteed that it will only get built once per total rebuild.

First you need to have one header file that every source file in your project will include. This is typically called stdafx.h or precompiled.h. If you don't have such a file, create it now. Check it to make sure it is including the appropriate set of header files - big header files that never change. Now make sure that every source file in your project is including this header file as the first non-comment thing that they do.

Now you need one source file whose only job is to create the precompiled header file. It's best to have a source file exclusively for this purpose because every time this source file is modified, the .pch file will be regenerated. Generating the .pch file is an expensive operation that we are trying to avoid. This source file will typically be called stdafx.cpp or precompiled.cpp - to match the header file.

Now it's time to go to project settings.

First, make sure you select "All Configurations" so that your fixes will affect both debug and release builds of your project.
Now, go to the C/C++ tab, precompiled headers category. Select "Use precompiled header file" and type in the name of your precompiled header file (stdafx.h or precompiled.h).
If you try to build now your build will fail, giving a cryptic error about how it doesn't know how to create the .pch file. You need to tell it how.
In the explorer view in project settings, open up your project and navigate down to the .cpp file that you chose for creating the precompiled header file (in VS.Net you will select that file from the Solution Explorer).
Select that file, with "All Configurations" still selected, and select "Create precompiled header file", and type in the name of your precompiled header file.
It kind of makes sense once you go through the steps. You give VC++ one source file to create the precompiled header file, and the other files all use it. This guarantees that it won't be rebuilt unnecessarily.
You have to #include this file from all of your source files so that if you turn precompiled headers off, your program will compile in the same manner.
The one fly in the ointment, the worrisome aspect of this feature, is that there is actually no guarantee that your program will behave identically, because VC++ doesn't enforce that your #include of the precompiled header file comes first. It enforces that you include the precompiled header file in each source file, but it will happily ignore includes, defines, and other code before that include. If you notice yourself getting some strange errors after changing your precompiled header files, that's probably why.
Go through all of your source files and make sure that your precompiled header file is included first.
That's it. If you have any problems then double check all of the steps, check the problematic source files for any preprocessor directives or code before the include of the precompiled header file, and maybe do a rebuild-all for good measure. If you want an example of a properly setup project to use as a reference, use the AppWizard to create an MFC project.
You may be surprised. With Visual Studio .Net you can get a hierarchical list of header files used by setting Properties->C/C++->Advanced->Show Includes to yes.

The defaults are dangerous

For some projects - typically non-MFC projects, but the specifics depend on what version of VC++ you are using - the project wizard's set the precompiled header option to the seductive sounding "Automatic use of precompiled headers." Microsoft itself has admitted that this option is inefficient - yet they make it the default for many projects. Unless you are exquisitely careful this "automatic" use of precompiled headers translates to "rebuilding the precompiled headers for every source file." It is difficult to avoid this and keep it working properly. Don't use it. Either disable precompiled headers, or use them properly.

If you use the DirectX AppWizard to create a non-MFC project, the newly created project will use the "Automatic use of precompiled headers" setting. Because of this these projects will take approximately twice as long to build as they need to. You need to manually fix them to get good build performance.

Speed up C++ compilation, part 1: precompiled headers

Friday, February 9, 2018

set up MASM in visual studio

lcc compiler

PE utility

Five PE Analysis Tools Worth Looking At
PE Format
Windows Programming Utilities
Code Obfuscation in 64-Bit Land
TinyPE NG
COMPILER, ASSEMBLER, LINKER AND LOADER: A BRIEF STORY
Microsoft Visual Studio

a very good introduction. PEBrowse is a good tool.

A Number of Reusable PE File Format Scanning Functions
Evilsocket/libpe
Principled, lightweight C/C++ PE parser
Portable Executable (PE) library written in .Net
OpenRCE Articles

graphics API research

good time to research on API stuff.

Saturday, February 3, 2018

very good tips from a phd student

MVP Tips, Techniques, and Goodies
C# for MFC programmers Quick Equivalents Map
Character Functions
Drawing Techniques
Hooks and DLLs
A Logarithmic Slider Control
The PolyDraw Explorer
Virtual Screen Coordinates

this post is very important for me expand my windows form to multi-screen setting.

Limiting Window Resizing Resizing Controls
The NUMA Explorer
A General Polygon Management Routine
Sharp Layout
Automatic Layout of Resizable Dialogs
Layout Manager for Dialogs, Formviews, DialogBars and PropertyPages

customize pagesize file on windows 7

I learned a good key combination: Windows key + Pause/Break. it goes to system tab on control panel directly. customize pagesize file on windows 7.

Friday, February 2, 2018

Debugging with command-line parameters in Visual Studio

Visual C++: include files from another project in the same solution

Visual C++: include files from another project in the same solution. I take note from the following pages and put it here for my own reference.

Settings for compiler

In the project where you want to #include the header file from another project, you will need to add the path of the header file into the Additional Include Directories section in the project configuration. To access the project configuration:

Right-click on the project, and select Properties.
Select Configuration Properties->C/C++->General.
Set the path under Additional Include Directories.

How to include

To include the header file, simply write the following in your code:

#include "filename.h"

Note that you don't need to specify the path here, because you include the directory in the Additional Include Directories already, so Visual Studio will know where to look for it.

If you don't want to add every header file location in the project settings, you could just include a directory up to a point, and then #include relative to that point:

// In project settings
Additional Include Directories ..\..\libroot

// In code
#include "lib1/lib1.h" // path is relative to libroot
#include "lib2/lib2.h" // path is relative to libroot

Setting for linker

If using static libraries (i.e. .lib file), you will also need to add the library to the linker input, so that at linkage time the symbols can be linked against (otherwise you'll get an unresolved symbol):

Right-click on the project, and select Properties.
Select Configuration Properties->Linker->Input
Enter the library under Additional Dependencies. for example: MyLibX.lib
Linker->General->Additional Library Directories: ..\MyLibX;
//(for example). if adding reference is set, we still need to set up this step.
we can combine 3) and 4) in 3) as: ..\MyLibX\MyLibX.lib

the above notes are from following links.

SQLite

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Visual Studio 2008 setup

walk through to create DLL in visual studio 2008 ,2010, 2015, and 2017

I tested and summarized my note on creating DLL in Visual Studio different versions.

Walkthrough: Creating and Using a Dynamic Link Library (C++)- you can find Visual Studio 2008

for Visual Studio 2008, when you use DLL, just do steps:

reference DLL assembly: Project Properties-> Common Properties ->Reference -> Add New reference:
project Properties -> Configuration Properties->C/C++ node->add additional include directories, specify where .h file is located
update PATH environment info to tell where DLL is located because executable does not load DLL until runtime. so you need to tell where to load DLL file: Project property page-> configuration properties->Debugging:: Environment, type path such as PATH=. here I used $(TargetDir)

Walkthrough: Creating and Using a Dynamic Link Library (C++)

in Visual Studio 2015, we have another way to add reference this DLL. it is the same as regular .NET assembly reference. need to test it out on Visual Studio 2017 sometime.

first create a client Windows console application.

To use the functionality from the class library in the app

When the Win32 Application Wizard finishes, a minimal console application project is created for you. The name for the main source file is the same as the project name that you chose earlier. In this example, it is named MathClient.cpp.
To use the math routines that you created in the DLL, you must reference the DLL in your app. To do this, under the MathClient project in Solution Explorer, select the References item. On the menu bar, choose Project, Add Reference.
The Add Reference dialog box lists the libraries that you can reference. The Projects tab lists the projects in the current solution and any libraries that they contain. On the Projects tab, select the check box next to MathLibrary, and then choose the OK button.
You need the definitions in the MathLibrary.h file to call the DLLs functions from your app. You could copy the header file into your client app project, but that might lead to changes in one copy that are not reflected in the other. To avoid this issue when you reference the header files of the DLL, you can change the included directories path in your project to include the original header.

To do this, open the Property Pages dialog box for the MathClient project. In the left pane, expand Configuration Properties, C/C++ node, and then select General. In the center pane, select the drop-down control next to the Additional Include Directories edit box, and then choose . Select the top pane of the Additional Include Directories dialog box to enable an edit control. In the edit control, specify the path to the location of the MathLibrary.h header file. Because typing the complete path may be difficult, you can use the browse control (...) at the end of the edit box to bring up a Select Directory dialog box. In the dialog, navigate up one folder level to the MathLibraryAndClient folder, then select the MathLibrary folder, and then choose the Select Folder button. Once you've entered the path to the header file in the Additional Include Directories dialog box, choose the OK button to go back to the Property Pages dialog box, and then choose the OK button to save your changes.
You can now include the MathLibrary.h file and use the Functions class in your client application. Replace the contents of MathClient.cpp by using the following code:

NOTE In older versions of Visual Studio, references are added to your project in a different way. Select the MathClient project in Solution Explorer, and then on the menu bar, choose Project, References. In the Property Pages dialog box, expand the Common Properties node, select Framework and References, and then choose the Add New Reference button. For more information about the References dialog box, see Adding references.

Walk through: Create and use your own Dynamic Link Library (C++)::Visual Studio 2017

In visual Studio 2017, when we create DLL prpoject, we have more settings(but I tried in Visual Studio 2008 with the same steps):

generate windows 32 console application - > select DLL -> leave checked precompiled headers.
make sure MATHLIBRARY_EXPORTS is set up in preprocessor:Project-> properties->Configuration Properties -> C/C++-> preprocessor definitions. if it is MathLibrary_EXPORT, you need to edit it into MATHLIBRARY_EXPORTS.
when you edit this field, please make sure to do: Property Pages dialog, change the Configuration drop-down to All Configurations
inside source folder, dllmain.cpp is automatically generated. no touch.
build this project, it will succeed.

in visual Studio 2017, when we create a console application to use DLL prpoject, we have more settings:

create a windows 32 console application with precompiled header file checked.
to call the functions MathLibrary.dll, your project needs to include MathLibrary.h. you can either copy this file into your client app directory, or set up Additional Include Directories path in your client app project to include the path to original DLL header .
Property Pages-> configuration drop down, select ALL Configurations if not already selected. then go to Configuration Properties-> C/C++ ->General-> select Additional Include Directories edit box.
in my project settings, I used ..\MathLibrary
At this point, your MathClient can be compiled, but not linked. the linker must be able to find the MathLibrary.lib file to link successfully. you can either copy MathLibrary.lib to your Mathclient app project, or you can point it to MathLibrary directory (in fact it is Debug folder).
MathClient project->Property Pages ->Configuration drop down, please select All Configuration if it is not already selected. ->Configuration Properties-> Linker->Input->Additional Dependencies->Edit, type MathLibrary.lib .
It specifies additional items to add to the link command line. (i.e.,kernel32.lib)
in the left pane, select Configuration Properties->Linker->General->Additional Library Directories->Edit
please enter ..\MathLibrary\$(IntDir)
this will tell where to find MathLibrary.lib file.
in Visual Studio 2017, it is written as: this Additional Library Directories allows user to override the environmental library path. (/LIBPATH: folder)
in Visual Studio 2008, it is written as: specifies one or more additional paths to search for libraries; configuration specific; use semicolon delimited list if more than one. (/LIBPATH:[dir]
Build MathClient project. it will succeed.
post-build event seems like not necessary.

Projects in Visual C++ 2010 – Part 1: Creating a DLL project

In Visual Studio 2010, to create a DLL without template class, we have following steps:

Create a Class library. the default it will create a dynamic library. please verify by Project Properties->Configuration Properties->General->Project Defaults->Configuration Type: dynamic library. make sure NO common language runtime support.
Add header Printable.h. make sure following __declspec(dllexport) and __declspec(dllimport) are used:
#ifdef COMPILE_MYLIBRARY
#define MYLIBRARY_EXPORT __declspec(dllexport)
#else
#define MYLIBRARY_EXPORT __declspec(dllimport)
#endif
class MYLIBRARY_EXPORT PrintableInt {};
Project Properties-> Configuration : ALL Configuration
Project Properties->Configuration Properties->C/C++-> Preprocessor-> preprocessor definition: COMPILE_MYLIBRARY;
Add source file Printable.cpp(in my project it is MyLibX.cpp. either way is fine).
Add MyLibXClient console application.
specify Include Path. Make sure All Configuration is selected from "configuration" dropdown:
from project properties->configuration Properties -> C/C++ -> General->Additional Include Directies: type, ..\MyLibX
Make sure All Configuration Type is selected.
it will tell VS 2010 where to find PrintableInt.h file. if you compile the client app now, you will have link error.
specify Lib file. it is to specify the path to the .lib file of the library project. note your DLL projects will create a .LIB file so that this console app will link against the DLL automatically.
Linker->Input-> Additional Dependencies
type such as ..\MyLibX\$(IntDir)\MyLibX.lib
from Visual Studio 2010, referencing a DLL is simplified.
project properties->common properties->Framework and Reference->Add New Reference button: you can add MyLibX project in.
when you compile it, it will fail because it needs MyLibX.lib. to create this MyLibX.lib file, __declspec(dllexport) must be used.

in Visual Studio 2010, we still need to set up include directories in the above step: Configuration :
configuration properties->Linker->General->Additional Library Directories: type relative path.
My Note: I tested that this step is not needed after adding reference.

I also tested this step: with adding reference to MyLibX , we don't need to set up this step:
configuration properties->Linker->Input->Additional Dependencies:type lib name such as MyLibX.lib. or we can type relative path plus lib name such as ..\MyLibX\MyLibX.lib

it looks like template class can not create .lib file after validation. I tested on Visual Studio 2008. template class project will not produce .lib file.

Basic C++ Win32 DLL
Walkthrough: Creating and Using a Dynamic Link Library (C++)-- Visual Studio 2015
Execute a function in any Win32 DLL - Reflection in Win32 DLL?
DLL Tutorial For Beginners
C++ Tutorial Create a DLL in VC++ 2013 or 2015
C++ Tutorial: Create a DLL in VC++ 2010/2008
Exporting C Functions for Use in C or C++ Language Executables
Exporting from a DLL Using __declspec(dllexport)
Importing into an Application Using __declspec(dllimport)