Posts tagged ‘VB.NET’

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How to get the version number of a running process

November 24, 2009, 8:37 pm

I wanted to have my .NET based Palm OS conduit DLL be able to report the version of the HotSync Manager that the user has installed on their computer. Initially, I was going to try to read the version of the executable, but then I would first have to find the path to the executable, and hope that this would be a reliable enough method.

As it turns out, after I did a little investigation, I found out that it is not necessary to try and figure out where the HotSync Manager is installed by reading the appropriate registry key to get the HotSync Manager location and then trying to get the version number of the assembly at that path. Because the user is in the conduit code, the HotSync Manager (HOTSYNC.EXE) is already in the running processes list. It just so happens that in the System.Diagnostics namespace there is a handy dandy method that gets all of the running processes, along with a goodly amount of information about each process, including the version number.

So here is my VB.NET code that searches for the HotSync Manager process and returns the version number as a string.

Function GetHotSyncVersion() As String
 
    Dim versionString As String = "Unknown"
 
    Dim procList As List(Of Process) = Process.GetProcesses().ToList
    Dim hotSyncProcess As Process = Nothing
    For Each p In procList
        If p.ProcessName.ToUpper = "HOTSYNC" Then
            hotSyncProcess = p
        End If
    Next
 
    If hotSyncProcess IsNot Nothing Then
        versionString = hotSyncProcess.MainModule.FileVersionInfo.FileVersion
    End If
 
    Return versionString
 
End Function

Sorry I missed the CIDUG meeting tonight.

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Category: .NET, Visual Basic  |  Comment

NetCFSvcUtil.exe error in Windows 7

October 8, 2009, 1:59 pm

I have been using Windows 7 for a while now, and always had to keep my Windows XP dev machine handy to help out with my Windows Mobile software development.

It turns out that the NetCFSvcUtil application included in the .NET CF Power Toys did not get along with Windows 7 (neither the RC or the RTM bits), as it gave a cryptic error message of “An error occurred in the tool”.

So just for giggles, I decided to see if there were any updates, and lo and behold, I found a blog post from Habib Heydarian with an updated application:

NetCFSvcUtil.exe and Windows 7

Now I can happily generate the client code on my Windows 7 machine.

Tags: , ,
Category: .NET, C#, Visual Basic, Windows Mobile  |  1 Comment

Cannot enable networking in Windows Mobile emulator on Windows 7

October 5, 2009, 10:34 am

So you are using a new Windows 7 installation and developing a Windows Mobile application, and you have been using it just fine on another dev box or in an earlier version of Windows. You deploy your application, and it needs to communicate over the internet, so you go into the Network tab of the Emulator Properties and enable the network adapter.

Only this time, it comes up with an error message about installing Virtual PC 2007.

And then you find out that Virtual PC 2007 does not play nicely with Windows 7.

Well it all has to do with Virtual Machine Network Services. Here is a blog post from Brian Peek on how to solve the problem:

Windows Virtual PC and the Microsoft Device Emulator

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Category: .NET, Windows Mobile  |  Comment

Monty Hall meets Monte Carlo

September 24, 2009, 9:07 pm

In honor of CBS canceling The Guiding Light after 72 years, and replacing it with a new incantation of Let’s Make A Deal, I decided to apply a little brute force computing to The Monty Hall problem.

Here is the VB.NET code to run the simulations. I decided to only apply a few different Monty Hall behaviors and a few different player behaviors, but it should be enough to drive home the paradox.

Module Module1
 
    Sub Main()
 
        Dim i, j, ctr As Integer
        Dim doorSwitch As String = "?"
        Dim smartMonty As String = "?"
        Dim prizeDoor(3) As Boolean
        Dim rand As Random = New Random()
        Dim doorMontyOpens As Integer
        Dim doorYouOpen As Integer
        Dim carsWon As Integer = 0
 
        Console.WriteLine("The Monty Hall Problem")
        Console.Write("How many times to run the simulation? ")
        ctr = Val(Console.ReadLine())
        If ctr < 1 Then End
 
        Console.Write("Are you going to switch doors? [Y/N/M] ")
        While Not "YNM".Contains(doorSwitch)
            doorSwitch = Console.ReadKey.KeyChar.ToString.ToUpper
        End While
        Console.WriteLine()
 
        Console.Write("Does Monty know where the car is? [Y/N/M] ")
        While Not "YNM".Contains(smartMonty)
            smartMonty = Console.ReadKey.KeyChar.ToString.ToUpper
        End While
        Console.WriteLine()
 
        For i = 1 To ctr
 
            ' set up the prize doors
            For j = 1 To 3
                prizeDoor(j) = False
            Next
            prizeDoor(rand.Next(1, 4)) = True
 
            Console.Write(i.ToString() + " (")
            For j = 1 To 3
                Console.Write(If(prizeDoor(j), "$", j.ToString))
            Next
            Console.Write(") -- ")
 
            ' Monty shows you a door
            If smartMonty = "Y" Or (smartMonty = "M" And _
                                    rand.NextDouble > 0.5) Then
                doorMontyOpens = If(prizeDoor(2), 3, 2)
            Else
                doorMontyOpens = rand.Next(2, 4)
                If prizeDoor(doorMontyOpens) Then
                    carsWon = carsWon + 1
                    Console.WriteLine("Monty revealed the car!!!!!")
                    Continue For
                End If
            End If
            Console.Write("Monty reveals a goat behind door #" + _
                          doorMontyOpens.ToString + " -- ")
 
            ' pick a door to open
            If doorSwitch = "Y" Or (doorSwitch = "M" And _
                                  rand.NextDouble > 0.5) Then
                doorYouOpen = If(doorMontyOpens = 2, 3, 2)
                Console.Write("You switched to door #" + _
                              doorYouOpen.ToString + " -- ")
            Else
                doorYouOpen = 1
                Console.Write("You stayed with door #1 -- ")
            End If
 
            ' did we win?
            If prizeDoor(doorYouOpen) Then
                Console.WriteLine("You won the car!!!!!")
                carsWon = carsWon + 1
            Else
                Console.WriteLine("You won the goat.")
            End If
 
        Next
 
        Console.WriteLine(" ")
        Console.WriteLine("You won the car " + carsWon.ToString + _
                          " times out of " + ctr.ToString)
        Console.WriteLine("Winning percentage: " + (carsWon * _
                            100.0 / ctr).ToString("##0.0"))
        Console.WriteLine(" ")
        Console.WriteLine("Strike any key to end...")
        Console.ReadKey()
 
    End Sub
 
End Module

Now if CBS ever decides to cancel The Young And The Restless, we are going to have a real problem on our hands.

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Category: .NET, Visual Basic  |  Comment

My first foray into Code Golf

August 27, 2009, 10:15 pm

So I am poking around on Stack Overflow, trying to figure out a way for someone as stupid as me to actually move my reputation up, when I stumble on this post…

Code Golf: Duplicate Character Removal in String

This seemed simple enough, so here is my VB.NET console application code:

Module Module1
 
    Sub Main()
 
        Dim s As String = "nbHHkRvrXbvkn"
        Console.WriteLine("The original string is: " + s)
        For Each c In s : s = IIf(s.LastIndexOf(c) <> s.IndexOf(c), s.Replace(CStr(c), Nothing), s) : Next
        Console.WriteLine("The modified string is: " + s)
        Console.ReadKey()
 
    End Sub
 
End Module

The line that does all the work is 98 characters, including the spaces that the IDE automagically puts in there for me.

Anyone have any ideas on how to improve it in VB.NET?

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Category: .NET, Visual Basic  |  2 Comments

Some more Monte Carlo experimentation

August 26, 2009, 10:52 pm

Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form condone gambling. This posting is for entertainment purposes only.

I saw this roulette story on The Daily WTF, and thought that it merited some good ole fashioned brute force computing:

Knocking Me Off The Perch

So here is the VB.NET console application code:

Module Module1
 
    Dim rand As Random
 
    Dim tableResults() As List(Of String)
    Dim theWheel() As String = {"G00", "B2", "R14", "B35", "R23", _
                                "B4", "R16", "B33", "R21", "B6", _
                                "R18", "B31", "R19", "B8", "R12", _
                                "B29", "R25", "B10", "R27", _
                                "G0", "R1", "B13", "R36", "B24", _
                                "R3", "B15", "R34", "B22", "R5", _
                                "B17", "R32", "B20", "R7", "B11", _
                                "R30", "B26", "R9", "B28"}
    Dim wheelCount As Integer
    Dim tableBetAmount() As Integer
    Dim tableBetColor() As String
    Dim tableLostLastTime() As String
 
    Dim tables, stake, bet, matches, goal, attempts As Integer
    Dim cancelBetAfterAWin As String
 
    Function GetASpin() As String
 
        Return theWheel(rand.Next(0, wheelCount))
 
    End Function
 
    Function GetABet(Optional ByVal bigBet As Boolean = False) As Integer
 
        Dim theBet As Integer
 
        If bigBet Then
            theBet = bet * 1.5
        Else
            theBet = bet
        End If
 
        If theBet > stake Then theBet = stake
 
        stake = stake - theBet
 
        Return theBet
 
    End Function
 
    Sub Main()
 
        Dim i, j As Integer
        Dim s As String
 
        rand = New Random
 
        Console.WriteLine("The Perch")
 
        Console.Write("How many tables to watch? (4) ")
        tables = Val(Console.ReadLine)
        If tables = 0 Then tables = 4
        ReDim tableResults(tables)
        ReDim tableBetAmount(tables)
        ReDim tableBetColor(tables)
        ReDim tableLostLastTime(tables)
 
        Dim stakeSave As Integer
 
        Console.Write("How many money to start with? (10) ")
        stakeSave = Val(Console.ReadLine)
        If stakeSave = 0 Then stakeSave = 10
 
        Console.Write("How many money to bet? (10) ")
        bet = Val(Console.ReadLine)
        If bet = 0 Then bet = 10
 
        Console.Write("How many times to hit a color before betting? (4) ")
        matches = Val(Console.ReadLine)
        If matches = 0 Then matches = 4
 
        Console.Write("What is your goal amount? (400) ")
        goal = Val(Console.ReadLine)
        If goal = 0 Then goal = 400
 
        Console.Write("How many times to run the simulation? (1000) ")
        attempts = Val(Console.ReadLine)
        If attempts = 0 Then attempts = 1000
 
        Console.Write("Cancel your bet after a win? (Y) ")
        s = Console.ReadLine.ToUpper.Trim
        If s = "" Then s = "Y"
        cancelBetAfterAWin = (s = "Y")
 
        Dim madeGoal As Integer = 0
 
        wheelCount = theWheel.Count
 
        Dim currAttempt As Integer
        Dim ctr As Integer
        Dim theSpin As String
        Dim spinsSeen As Integer
        Dim result As String
        For currAttempt = 1 To attempts
            ' initialize the table arrays
            stake = stakeSave
            For i = 0 To tables - 1
                tableResults(i) = New List(Of String)
                tableBetAmount(i) = 0
                tableLostLastTime(i) = ""
            Next
            ' initialize the lists
            For j = 1 To matches
                s = String.Format("{0,5}", j.ToString)
                For i = 0 To tables - 1
                    theSpin = GetASpin()
                    tableResults(i).Add(theSpin)
                    s = s + String.Format("{0,5}{1,-5}", "", theSpin)
                Next
                s = s + String.Format("{0,5}", stake.ToString)
                Console.WriteLine(s)
            Next
            spinsSeen = matches
            ' loop
            While (stake > 0 And stake < goal)
                ' place your bets
                For i = 0 To tables - 1
                    If tableLostLastTime(i) <> "" Then
                        ' see if this is the 1st time losing
                        If tableBetAmount(i) = bet Then
                            ' we lost last time out, automatically bet 1.5x
                            tableBetAmount(i) = GetABet(True)
                            tableBetColor(i) = tableLostLastTime(i)
                        Else
                            ' this is the 2nd time losing in a row, so stop betting
                            tableBetAmount(i) = 0
                            tableBetColor(i) = ""
                            tableLostLastTime(i) = ""
                        End If
                    Else
                        ' check to see if the colors match up
                        ctr = 0
                        For Each r In tableResults(i)
                            If Left(r, 1) = "B" Then ctr = ctr + 1
                        Next
                        If ctr = matches Then
                            ' it's coming up black, bet on red
                            tableBetAmount(i) = GetABet()
                            tableBetColor(i) = "R"
                            tableLostLastTime(i) = ""
                        End If
                        ctr = 0
                        For Each r In tableResults(i)
                            If Left(r, 1) = "R" Then ctr = ctr + 1
                        Next
                        If ctr = matches Then
                            ' it's coming up red, bet on black
                            tableBetAmount(i) = GetABet()
                            tableBetColor(i) = "B"
                            tableLostLastTime(i) = ""
                        End If
                    End If
                Next
                ' now spin for each of the tables
                spinsSeen = spinsSeen + 1
                s = String.Format("{0,5}", spinsSeen.ToString)
                For i = 0 To tables - 1
                    ' pop off the oldest spin for each table
                    tableResults(i).RemoveAt(0)
                    ' get a new spin for each table
                    theSpin = GetASpin()
                    tableResults(i).Add(theSpin)
                    If tableBetAmount(i) = 0 Then
                        s = s + String.Format("{0,5}{1,-5}", "", theSpin)
                    Else
                        s = s + String.Format("{0,5}{1,-5}", _
                                              tableBetAmount(i).ToString + _
                                              tableBetColor(i) + ">", theSpin)
                    End If
                    ' check for bets
                    If tableBetColor(i) <> "" Then
                        If Left(tableBetColor(i), 1) = Left(theSpin, 1) Then
                            ' winner
                            stake = stake + tableBetAmount(i) * 2
                            tableLostLastTime(i) = ""
                            If cancelBetAfterAWin Then
                                tableBetAmount(i) = 0
                                tableBetColor(i) = ""
                            End If
                        Else
                            tableLostLastTime(i) = tableBetColor(i)
                        End If
                    End If
                Next
                s = s + String.Format("{0,5}", stake.ToString)
                Console.WriteLine(s)
            End While
            If stake = 0 Then
                result = "Busted"
            Else
                madeGoal = madeGoal + 1
                result = "Won $" + stake.ToString
            End If
            Console.WriteLine("Spins seen: " + spinsSeen.ToString + _
                              "; Result: " + result)
        Next
 
        Console.WriteLine()
        Console.WriteLine("Total simulations: " + attempts.ToString)
        Console.WriteLine("Number of times goal was made: " + madeGoal.ToString)
 
        Console.WriteLine()
        Console.WriteLine("Strike any key to end the program")
        Console.ReadKey()
 
    End Sub
 
End Module

I kind of stumbled into something interesting here. I thought I had coded the application with the rules as described in the posting on The Daily WTF, but the results that I was seeing seemed out of whack to me.  I was running 1,000 simulations and coming up with about 300 times successfully reaching the goal. After I put in the code that breaks down the wheel, bet, and stake status on a spin-by-spin basis, I noticed that I was not cancelling the bet after a win. After fixing it up by adding the code to return to the perch after a winning bet (see the section above with the comment winner), all of a sudden the number of times reaching the goal went from 300 per thousand to 0 to 5 per thousand.

So that you can try it for yourself, I put in an option to control this parameter. From the results, it would appear that if you want to play this way, you should let the bets ride. (But notice that if your bets are riding and you get the required number red or black spins in a row, the bet that is riding could switch colors.)

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Category: .NET, Visual Basic  |  Comment

Subversion operations on Visual Studio 2008 solution take forever

August 3, 2009, 12:29 pm

Well, not literally, just a very very long time.

Our Subversion source repository has grown to be quite sizable over the past couple of years. We have always used TortoiseSVN and VisualSVN to tame this beast, and it has usually not let us down.

However, a while back, something bad happened to a VS 2008 solution in the repository. When launching the solution, the refresh of the version control status indicators next to the files in the solution take a very long time to appear and/or refresh, and any kind of operation done on the solution file (such as update, repo browser, etc.) goes back to the root of the whole repository instead of working with the folder where the solution file lives.

Strangely enough, operations done on any of the components inside of the solution does the right thing. In other words, if I update a project in the solution from Visual Studio, it works lightning fast.

I finally got tired of wasting 2 to 10 minutes per operation on the solution and studied this problem by comparing this malfunctioning solution with one that appears to do what you would expect it to. One thing I noticed right away was that the speedy project contained the following lines at the bottom of the solution file (opened in your favorite text editor, of course):

    GlobalSection(ExtensibilityGlobals) = postSolution
        VisualSVNWorkingCopyRoot =
    EndGlobalSection
    GlobalSection(SubversionScc) = preSolution
        Svn-Managed = True
        Manager = AnkhSVN - Subversion Support for Visual Studio
    EndGlobalSection

I added these lines to the bottom of my sluggish solution file and re-opened it, and I now predict explosive advances in my productivity. Or at least more time for tweeting.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to remove these disabled “DSL Tools”, “Text Transformation”, “Workflow”, and “ANTS 4″ menu items from my VS 2008. Anyone have any ideas? (EDIT: John Boker has found the solution, see the comments.)

EDIT, PART DEUX: I tried this fix on a different existing Visual Studio project on 9/23/2009, and of course it didn’t work. I studied the problem a bit more, and found that if I added the GlobalSection(SubversionSCC) section that I have already inserted into the code block above, it did the trick for me. (Even though I am not actually using AnkhSVN, I am using TortoiseSVN, so I am guessing the Manager line is not important. However, I have left it in there for completeness.)

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Category: .NET, Subversion, SVN  |  2 Comments

Friends don’t let friends reinvent System.Security.Cryptography

July 19, 2009, 10:23 am

A fellow coworker is upgrading one of our long time customer’s ASP.NET web site that was originally created in 2003, and all is going swimmingly. Alas, this project could not go gently into that good night.

He makes the web page and code changes, modifies the database, pushes all the changes up to the web site, and the site is working well. Customers are placing orders on the web site, order e-mails are being sent to the site owners with encrypted credit card information, and all are happy.

But there is always a fly in the ointment. All of a sudden, an order is placed on the web site, but when the site owner tries to run a decrypt on the credit card information in the e-mail, the decryption routine is reporting a failure. So naturally, we assume that we broke the code somehow, so we started to dive into the project to see what we did to destabilize it.

He asked for my opinions on this problem, so I came over and we started to go through the VB.NET Framework v2.0 project. While investigating the area of the code containing the exact message that the customer was getting, my blood pressure started to go up right away as we started to see code that looked like this:

If intNumberLength = 16 Then
    'go through each of the 16 numbers and
    'add the code for them into the return string
    intNumber(0) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 1, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(1) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 2, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(2) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 3, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(3) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 4, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(4) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 5, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(5) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 6, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(6) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 7, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(7) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 8, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(8) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 9, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(9) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 10, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(10) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 11, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(11) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 12, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(12) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 13, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(13) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 14, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(14) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 15, 1), Integer)
    intNumber(15) = CType(Mid(strNumber, 16, 1), Integer)
 
    strCharCodes(0) = encrypt_Char1(intNumber(0), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(1) = encrypt_Char2(intNumber(1), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(2) = encrypt_Char3(intNumber(2), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(3) = encrypt_Char4(intNumber(3), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(4) = encrypt_Char5(intNumber(4), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(5) = encrypt_Char6(intNumber(5), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(6) = encrypt_Char7(intNumber(6), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(7) = encrypt_Char8(intNumber(7), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(8) = encrypt_Char9(intNumber(8), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(9) = encrypt_Char10(intNumber(9), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(10) = encrypt_Char11(intNumber(10), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(11) = encrypt_Char12(intNumber(11), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(12) = encrypt_Char13(intNumber(12), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(13) = encrypt_Char14(intNumber(13), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(14) = encrypt_Char15(intNumber(14), intIndexCode)
    strCharCodes(15) = encrypt_Char16(intNumber(15), intIndexCode)
 
    'strReturnValue = strCharCodes.ToString
ElseIf intNumberLength = 15 Then
    ' you get the idea

And this…

'first char
Select Case Left(strEncodeCard, 1)
    Case "X"    ' these character constants were originally all different
        strCardNumber(0) = "0"
    Case "X"    ' I have masked them out for this blog posting
        strCardNumber(0) = "1"
    Case "X"
        strCardNumber(0) = "2"
    Case "X"
        strCardNumber(0) = "3"
    Case "X"
        strCardNumber(0) = "4"
    Case "X"
        strCardNumber(0) = "5"
    Case "X"
        strCardNumber(0) = "6"
    Case "X"
        strCardNumber(0) = "7"
    Case "X"
        strCardNumber(0) = "8"
    Case "X"
        strCardNumber(0) = "9"
    Case Else
        blnSuccess = False
End Select

(The above code was repeated 32 times, once for each digit of a potential 16 digit credit card number, and there were two sets of these that were switched if the digit position was odd or even. There was definitely some thought put into this. I’m not saying it was good thought, just thought. Perhaps they were paid by the lines of code written?)

OK, I have done things like this from time to time, usually not to this extent, but the original designers and coders of this project at least had the good sense to encrypt the credit card information that was being e-mailed, so maybe it will get better.

Yeah, I was wrong about that, I should remember a tenet of code maintenance that I learned a long time ago: TWGW. (This stands for Things Will Get Worse.) As we stepped through the order that was confusing the system, we came upon this nugget.

'second, select the expiration year code
Select Case intExpYear
    Case 2003
        cryptoExp_Year = "X"    ' these character constants were originally all different
    Case 2004
        cryptoExp_Year = "X"    ' I have masked them out for this blog posting
    Case 2005
        cryptoExp_Year = "X"
    Case 2006
        cryptoExp_Year = "X"
    Case 2007
        cryptoExp_Year = "X"
    Case 2008
        cryptoExp_Year = "X"
    Case 2009
        cryptoExp_Year = "X"
    Case 2010
        cryptoExp_Year = "X"
    Case 2011
        cryptoExp_Year = "X"
    Case 2012
        cryptoExp_Year = "X"
End Select

Of course, the customer had a credit card that expired in 2013, and as such, no character was begin inserted into the encrypted string for the expiration year, and that was causing the problem.

I don’t even know where to begin, except to say that eventually this code was going to break, and that was the day. (System.Security.Cryptography was in .NET Framework v1.1, so they can’t use that as an excuse.) So the moral of the story is, if you are going to reinvent a Microsoft namespace, at least make it work more than six years.

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Category: ASP.NET, Inspirational code, Visual Basic  |  2 Comments

System.MissingMethodException error in System.Data.SqlServerCe

July 16, 2009, 8:33 pm

After getting the new development machine up and running for the most part, I started once again to work on the web and client projects that we are going balls to the wall to get finished.

And of course, a roadblock was hit. On the Windows Mobile client, I got through most of the requisite re-referencing and compile errors that inevitably pop up when doing something like this. This client uses the Microsoft Synchronization Services to sync it’s local SQL Server Compact Edition database to our central SQL Server database.

When trying to create a new ServerSyncProviderProxy, the following error is being thrown:

System.MissingMethodException: File or assembly name 'System.Data.SqlServerCe,
Version=3.5.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=3BE235DF1C8D2AD3', or one of
its dependencies, was not found.

After much headbanging, trial and error on both the 5.0 and 6.0 emulator and on an actual device, Google and Server Overflow searching, and staring at the code, we finally figured out what the problem was. As it turns out, I must have installed the SQL Server Compact Edition Service Pack 1 on my previous machine, and those references were saved and somehow survived in the project. On my new machine, there was a version of SQL Server Compact Edition that was installed by some component (Visual Studio 2008, Windows Mobile SDK, etc.), so to me everything looked OK. However, after installing the SQL Server Compact Edition SP1 on the computer, the error magically went away on the emulator.

As an aside, I tried to put the code on the handheld that it had not worked on previously, and it still did not work. After inspecting the error output, which was different, I found that I needed to redeploy the new SQL Server Compact Edition SP1 Windows Mobile sqlce.ppc.wce5.armv4i.CAB file on the device, unpack it (which overwrote the previous SQL Server CE files on the device), and then all was well.

Tags: ,
Category: Hardware adventures, Visual Basic, Windows Mobile  |  2 Comments

NetCFSvcUtil and Windows 7

July 9, 2009, 9:45 pm

So I have, for the most part, got the new development machine all set up and running pretty well. But ah, there is always a fly in the ointment…

I have a Windows Mobile client application that talks to a WCF service to move data back and forth. I have been using a batch file that I created that ran the NetCFSvcUtil.exe program included in the Power Toys for .NET Compact Framework 3.5. This tool reads information from the provided URL of the web service and creates C# or VB.NET source files that can be included in your project.

And of course, this utility program does not work on my shiny new Windows 7 RC machine, it gives the following error:

Attempting to download metadata from 'http://www.site.net/Service.svc'
using WS-Metadata Exchange or DISCO.
Error: An error occurred in the tool.
Error: Error in the application.

Some searching for this problem yielded the following posts:

NetCFSvcUtil.exe and Windows 7

Ambiguous error message from NetCFSvcUtil.exe

These links appear to indicate that the NetCFSvcUtil does not work on Windows 7 and there is no workaround just yet. And now I have a nice shiny new VirtualBox Windows XP image that contains installs of the .NET Compact Framework 3.5 with the Power Toys, and a copy of my old batch files, along with a shared folder that I can grab the files when I need them. Thanks Microsoft!

However, it appears that Microsoft does not have the market cornered on “D’oh!” backwards compatibility moments. It appears that some users have had some issues with the load times of Firefox 3.5, and believe it or not, removing the cookies and temporary internet files associated with IE can actually help. I will give you a couple of links to look at while you ponder this interesting nugget.

The Firefox 3.5 fiasco

Firefox 3.5 slow to start troubleshooting & info

I guess you could say that Mozilla is a big believer in the More Randomer theory.

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Category: .NET, C#, Visual Basic  |  Comment
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