All entries for October 2005

Data Bound Tree View

I just wanted to mark this moment time as when I got my DataBoundTreeView control working! I'm going to put up a full post later explaining what it actually is. I am however very pleased with it! :D

: 27 Oct 2005 08:42 |  Tags: Coding Csharp Data Binding Dotnet |  Comments (8) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

00:21 Re–state my assumptions

00:21 Re-state my assumptions.
1. Alcohol is the language of madness.
2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through alcohol.
3. If you drink this alcohol, patterns emerge. Therefore: there is alcohol everywhere in madness.

: 25 Oct 2005 00:29 |  Tags: Alcohol Angst Madness Not Coding |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Into The Blue

Writing about web page http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378109/usercomments

I've not seen it yet, but my house mate Joel put a super enthusiastic review on IMDB!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378109/usercomments

Scroll down to "This film is unequivocally spectacular (Absolutement Pêche)", about 3/4 of the way down the page.

: 23 Oct 2005 23:07 |  Tags: Film Into The Blue Review |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

AggregateBindingListView

Writing about web page http://www.gotdotnet.com/Workspaces/Workspace.aspx?id=ccbb6b50-6c55-4291-b191-f5c5f80ba122

It took an afternoon of coding (and about a day or so of background thought process from the past month), but I finally created a working data-bindable aggregate object list view class. It grew out of the BindingListView project . The extension is that now multiple source lists of items can be merged into a single view. This view can then be sorted, filtered and searched.
An example of where this is useful would be an RSS feed reader application. Here you would want to show a single feed's list of items and also allow the user to view all items from all feeds. The user should be able to sort the items and search, etc, even when viewing all items from all feeds. The AggregateBindingListView does just that!

The plain old BindingListView is infact a degenerate case of the aggregate class, i.e. has just one source list of items. I have therefore now made it simply inherit from AggregateBindingListView and add an additional constructor that takes the list to view.

One special point for people using the ABLV class, the "NewItemsList" property must be set before items can be added using UI controls like the DataGrid. That way the ABLV knows which list to add the new item to. Otherwise adding new items in that way is disabled. (BindingListView automatically sets that property in the constructor, so no changes needed there.)

I'm very happy with the code and have put together a simple RSS reader application to test it. More testing is required, since the concept of merging multiple lists and keeping things like additions, edits, deletes in sync is by no means straight forward. I also need to complete/update the XML documentation. A further addition to the library would be a class to parse SQL style filter predicates. (We already have a SQL sort property implemented.) This is a fair amount of work, but would allow things like:
view.ApplyFilter("Name LIKE 'A*' and Age >= 18")
Currently only coded filters (classes that implement IFilter) exist.

Any interested coders are welcome to join the GotDotNet workspace linked above.

: 22 Oct 2005 21:37 |  Tags: Coding Csharp Data Binding Dotnet OOP |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Music this week

This week, I 'ave been mostly listenin' to Lamb – Best Kept Secrets

: 22 Oct 2005 13:40 |  Tags: Music Not Coding |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Blog Social – Tonight!

Hey All!

Who's coming to Rootes Bar this evening for another random blogger gathering? I could really do with a drink or 5, so I'll be by the bar or hunched over a pint slurping furiously!

If you have never been to one before please don't be scared! I know it's totally weird and damn difficult to walk up to a group of total strangers, but please make the effort. We're a friendly (if not slightly odd) bunch really! We tend to sit on the sofas by the second set of stairs in Rootes Bar. I'm planning to get there for about 20:30.

The usual activity, post Rootes, is to head over to Crash in the union. So come along and meet some fellow crazy people :D

P.S. If you bring cake, can it be still in date this time please! :p

: 21 Oct 2005 16:05 |  Tags: Blog Social Crash Not Coding Party Woohoo |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

What's The Worst That Could Happen?

OK, I've not had a proper angst post in a while now. Today though, I had a proper angst-worthy experience.

It all starts this morning. I awoke with that "mmm, I like warm Saturday lie-ins", only then to hear the damn builders making a house building noises next door. "Hmm strange, since when did they work on Saturdays…", I mused, "Hang on, it's not Saturday… shit shit shit!" I grab the clock and see that I do have just enough time to shower and eat before dashing to the bus stop. (This did involve playing "Jenga" with the pile of clean dishes to get a bowl and then shaking the very last drop of milk onto my Cheerios.)
So far, so good – Surprisingly, I was in a really good mood! Listening to some up-beat, happy, drum-n-bass and smiling to myself on the bus. I got on to campus with time to spare and had a relatively interesting concurrent programming lecture.

At this point I need to rewind to last Saturday night at Vapour…
I was having a good time dancing away like a crazy person, as per usual (shout out to Sean and co!). The out of blue some random girl nicks the hat/visor thing I'm wearing off my head! I'm mildy annoyed by the audacity, but she and her friend were pretty cute, so I let it slide. After a while I decided to get it back, but in the (possibly drunken) confusion, I end up dancing with them instead. In particular, dancing with girl who we shall name 'X' for the purposes of this post. Her friend, girl 'Y', was there with boyfriend Joe who seemed like a safe guy. So anyway, we're all having a good time and at about 01:50 we decide to all head back to theirs (on campus) for a while. I stayed round there for a while talking to various randoms, drinking Gin & orange and generally having a laugh. Come about 02:15 I realise I really have to get back to Leamington, so say good bye and get the bus home. (I swear Stagecoach keep changing to price of the night bus, or the drivers are just making it up!)

OK, now fast forward a few days. Sarah says I should go back round and say hello to X, ask her out or something. I was not convinced, but got the old "what's the worst that could happen?" So today I decided what the hell! Go round and see if she wants to go for coffee. Here is a rough transcript of the conversation.

(ring door bell)
Random Girl: Hello..
Me: Hi, is 'X' in?
Random Girl: Which 'X'? Blonde hair 'X' or brown hair 'X'?
Me: Brown hair.
Random Girl (to people in kitchen): Is 'X' in?
Various voices: Dunno/Maybe../Think so. yea
Random guy (who I can't see): My 'X'?
(Me – internal monologue: erm….)
Random Girl: (shouts up stairs) 'X'!
(sounds of doors and footsteps)
(X walks down stairs)
Me: Er, Hi, dunno if you remember me, but we met last Saturday at the union.
X: (momentary puzzlement) Oh yea, Hello!
Me: So, I've just skipped a lecture and was wondering if you fancied getting a coffee or something?
X: Oh, um, I can't really. I've got a load of work to do.
Me: A first year with lots of work! How come?
X: Well my boyfriend has been visiting, so I've not been doing much work lately. Trying to catch up now.
(Me – internal monologue: oh wonderful…)
Me: Ah, OK, that's cool. Well I'll let you get back to it then. See you round maybe.
X: Yea OK. Drop by any time.
Me: Sure, well, bye then.
X: See ya.
(I leave)

As I'm walking back to the bus stop I can't help but smile to myself. I must really suck at reading people who I meet. However, given the same situation I would probably still do the same thing. Unless every nice girl I meet actually has a boyfriend already, in which case I'm screwed…

The day is not over yet! I'm sure I can screw up things even more…
What's the worst that could happen?! :D :D

: 21 Oct 2005 14:49 |  Tags: Angst Damn Females Not Coding |  Comments (10) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Blog Social – This Friday?

Hey all!
It's Crash (link) this Friday, so how about a blog social in Rootes Bar again?
Quite a few turned up to the last one, so it would cool to meet some more of you crazy people!

: 19 Oct 2005 17:45 |  Tags: Blog Social Not Coding |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

So hungry

Need food. Ergh, why can't they move Tesco nearer to my house. grrr. I'm too cheap to spend £5 on delivery from online shop. Right, shopping, then work…

: 17 Oct 2005 15:47 |  Tags: Food Not Coding |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Woo! More crazy people

Writing about web page http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/laurensimpson/

I came across these wonderful weirdos the other day! I strongly suggest checking their page for a daily dose of delicious dementia!

Big up the HOBBITS!

: 17 Oct 2005 15:39 |  Tags: Crazy Not Coding Woohoo |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem