Author Topic: The DC Coders' Breakfast Club (Read 36329 times)

tinjaw · « **on:** February 07, 2008, 07:01 AM »

I thought it would be nice if the folks here at DC were to start a Breakfast Club. The idea is that once each weekday morning, as you start your day you post to the thread what coding related things you would like to do today to increase your coding skills. It will help to motivate us, I believe, and also help for us to focus on spending a little time each day to learn something new.

I'll start.

Today I am going to research how to manipulate the Setting tab in the Display Properties box via the Win32 API, so I can do it programmatically using AutoIt.

The DC Coders' Breakfast Club
-Tinjaw - 07 FEB 08

tinjaw · « **Reply #1 on:** February 14, 2008, 07:38 AM »

This didn't seem to be of interest to anybody. I'll post one more entry to see if anybody just overlooked it. It's probably just another one of my ideas that is well before its time.

Today I am going to try and implement what I researched the other day about changing the display properties.
-Tinjaw - 14 FEB 08

scancode · « **Reply #2 on:** February 14, 2008, 07:44 AM »

I'll research how to code a mIRC script to ignore all DC posts by tinjaw.
J/K, nice idea!

Target · « **Reply #3 on:** February 14, 2008, 05:27 PM »

current 'project'...

Use VBA to generate a graphical representation of a hierarchical data structure in Excel

the real challenge here is that I have to do it primarily using the VBA help <i>only</i> as none of my texts covers this subject (drawing and/or diagrams)

Target

wraith808 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 15, 2008, 01:01 AM »

It's a good idea... not one I'd do daily; I usually break up my tasks by week, and usually integrate my tasks with at least week long projects. This week I'm toying around with native rendering for PDFs in Delphi without requiring Reader to be installed on the machine.

ljbirns · « **Reply #5 on:** February 22, 2008, 06:17 PM »

1)Today I am going to research how to manipulate the Setting tab in the Display Properties box via the Win32 API, so I can do it programmatically using AutoIt.
2)I'll research how to code a mIRC script
3) Use VBA to generate a graphical representation of a hierarchical data structure in Excel

I don't even understand what ANY of the above means, but I am GOOD at eating breakfast.

Lew

mouser · « **Reply #6 on:** February 22, 2008, 06:29 PM »

This might be a fun thing to do weekly --
like every monday start a thread where people are invited to post their plans and goals for the week.

This is rightfully something that would belong in our Getting Organized Experiment section.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #7 on:** February 26, 2008, 11:39 AM »

Today, I'm continuing to flesh out an area editor for the CRPG I'm developing.

wraith808 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 26, 2008, 02:26 PM »

Well, I finished the experiment with Adobe- it wasn't worth it for native rendering, so I ended up using the reader engine to render the PDFs from within my application.

This week, I'm learning about the Vista Games Explorer, and trying to make a utility to allow you to manage the games there.

tinjaw · « **Reply #9 on:** February 26, 2008, 03:12 PM »

This is rightfully something that would belong in our Getting Organized Experiment section.
-mouser (February 22, 2008, 06:29 PM)

Maybe you could make a subforum or a sticky thread for this there? Not sure what's best.

Deozaan · « **Reply #10 on:** February 28, 2008, 01:57 AM »

Today I'm going to go to bed at a decent hour. Oops! Too late! (nearly 1AM as I write this). Well maybe in 20 hours I'll go to sleep at a decent hour.

tinjaw · « **Reply #11 on:** February 28, 2008, 06:14 AM »

Ugh! I haven't written any Python code in a week. Today I am going to spend an hour or two doing nothing but writing Python code.

Renegade · « **Reply #12 on:** February 28, 2008, 09:03 AM »

Ok. I'm in...

But I'll just post whenever at random (usually morning) and try to keep it frequent...

CODING:

I'm working on creating Codesmith templates at the moment for creating stored procedures in databases (MS SQL Server 2000) with complex relationships than just for single tables. Seems like a common problem, but I couldn't find anything for it. Believe me... I've looked...

The end result of this project will be a moderately sophisticated web site... We'll see though...

Oooops!

That was the DC beer club post! It's late at night and I'm drinking again!

Oh, one other thing... I'm looking more into DSP. Just did a vocal removal thing this morning before the dayjob. Got up at about 3:30am and had it done right quick. I'll work on the DSP stuff more though in the future though. Tons to be done there.

Renegade · « **Reply #13 on:** February 29, 2008, 09:45 PM »

This morning isn't about coding, it's about trying to get a dead machine working... NOT FUN...

Click power on... Nothing happens... Cleaned it out (compressed air)... Nothing happens... Maybe it needs a new video card... The DVI on it crapped out and the symptoms were the same.

I hate hardware problems...

tinjaw · « **Reply #14 on:** March 01, 2008, 04:33 AM »

Renegade, I feel your pain. I'm waiting on three RMAs right now.

This weekend for me must involve some coding, but I have tonnes of other stuff to do so it will be difficult. I need to finish building me server, put the sides on the case and haul it down into the basement. Then clean of the piles of stuff on my two computer desks that have everything except computers on them. The list goes on and on.

But at least two hours each day of Python should be good. I'm going to just tinker for the purpose of getting better with IPython.

I also think I caught Bronchitis from a coworker.

Renegade · « **Reply #15 on:** March 01, 2008, 11:59 PM »

Today is working with an FFT component. Not so much learning stuff, but rather not reinventing the wheel. Especially when the guys that do this stuff are highly specialized and all have a Ph.D. in the field... Yeah... I'll just trust them instead!

I think that it's a generally good idea to know when people are better than you at something, then bow out and be smart enough to go with their work instead.

This is one of those things that I _could_ do, but would be foolish to think that I can do a better job.

f0dder · « **Reply #16 on:** March 02, 2008, 08:43 AM »

I think that it's a generally good idea to know when people are better than you at something, then bow out and be smart enough to go with their work instead.
-Renegade (March 01, 2008, 11:59 PM)

Depends on whether you're trying to be productive, or you're in it for the fun & learning. But I do agree

Renegade · « **Reply #17 on:** March 02, 2008, 08:52 AM »

I think that it's a generally good idea to know when people are better than you at something, then bow out and be smart enough to go with their work instead.
-Renegade (March 01, 2008, 11:59 PM)
Depends on whether you're trying to be productive, or you're in it for the fun & learning. But I do agree
-f0dder (March 02, 2008, 08:43 AM)

Very true.

When I'm in it to learn, I'll reinvent the wheel. But most of the time I'm just trying to be productive.

Good point though.

allen · « **Reply #18 on:** March 06, 2008, 11:55 PM »

Starting today (and into the next few days) I'm doing something not so much to increase my coding skills, but my overall project efficiency. Namely, moving from memos/text files to project planning via outline in Bonsai. The real question is whether it will hurt or help my productivity.

Previously, I just did everything in flat text files -- it would seem more organized outlining would increase productivity, but I have such a habit of fiddling with software, that tools more advanced than my text editors seem to be detrimental . . . d'oh!

kyrathaba · « **Reply #19 on:** March 08, 2008, 08:43 PM »

Today, I'll continue digging into the .NET GDI+, trying to teach myself how to do 2D graphics with it.

tinjaw · « **Reply #20 on:** March 10, 2008, 07:06 AM »

Today's the first day I think I have 100% of my mental capabilities back after being so sick for over a week. I'm going to spend some time refamiliarizing myself with IPython. There is a project for work that I think I will tinker with. It is similar to DCUpdater.

Renegade · « **Reply #21 on:** March 13, 2008, 04:57 PM »

Today I'm getting back to some DotNetNuke development (ASP.NET with C#) with CodeSmith templates that I'm writing (based on previous work -- not reinventing what I don't need to there).

So far I've got over 30,000 LOC done (plumbing) thanks to the templates. There's lots of stuff that I'll need to do manually, but templating it just saves sooooo much time.

app103 · « **Reply #22 on:** March 14, 2008, 03:30 AM »

As soon as I finish my first cup of tea I have a cpu cooler to install. (my first time ever doing that, and yes, I am very nervous)

As soon as I can use that pc again, I have a little dialup connection keep alive utility to write for this old pc, a new sitemap to create for one of my sites (something I should have done back in January but forgot), a post for the snailware site with a software recommendation that will be of interest to users that still have an old Aztech Sound4 card in use. (tinjaw: it also generates pink noise

)

Got a lot of lost time to make up for...almost 10 days.

But first...the big cup of tea.

tinjaw · « **Reply #23 on:** March 14, 2008, 09:49 AM »

This morning I need to learn how to write scripts for Microsoft System Management Server. I also want to work on my Python program that is similar to DCUpdater.

app103 · « **Reply #24 on:** March 15, 2008, 09:02 AM »

I didn't accomplish anything yesterday except installing the new cpu cooler, destroying my motherboard, and a lot of crying (I am not finished with that part, yet)

I feel like I killed my best friend.