June 30th, 2009
We’ve been very busy updating the FAR 5 Beta code. I’ve just uploaded build 709, our most stable release yet.
Unicode Support
It’s a joy to enter and search for Japanese and Chinese text on a English PC. A big thank you must go to Michael from ESRI who has helped enormously with our Unicode version of FAR Web Help (FAR Uncompressed Help). FAR Easter language support is now a snap.
Free FAR 5 License
It’s a huge task migrating a complex application such as FAR to Unicode. For those that like free things we are giving away FAR 5 licenses to anyone who wants to try out the Beta and report any bugs they find. This will be a big help and we thank you in advanced. More about FAR 5 on the FAR Home page
Tags: FAR Uncompressed Help
Posted in Announcements, Helpware.net | No Comments »
June 12th, 2009
I’m very happy to announce FAR Beta 5.0.0.700 is now available.
This version of FAR is Unicode!! http://helpware.net/FAR/
A work in progress. However most of the Help code is complete. This means you can enter and view foreign language chars within FAR even on an English Windows OS. However remember that MS HTML Help 1.x is still an ANSI technology (a limitation of HH not FAR).
I just made an FAR Uncompressed help system containing French, German, English, Japanese text and the Search, TOC & Index all worked beautifully. Search found Japanese words correctly even on my Eng PC. Unicode makes the job much easy. No longer will you have enter the entire Japanese or Chinese character set into FAR to make it parse correctly. This is because there are standard win32 Unicode functions available to tell FAR if characters are Alpha/Numeric/ControlChars/Spaces/Punctuation etc.
All feed back gratefully accepted.You can safely run FAR 4 and FAR 5 side by side. Use the Preferences dialog to control which installation has the Windows file associations.
Rob
Tags: FAR, FAR Uncompressed Help
Posted in Announcements, Helpware.net | No Comments »
June 11th, 2009
Windows 7 release is getting closer: Late July for the RTM (MSDN download; In-store Oct 22nd. If you’re in the market for a new PC you should be considering Windows 7 multi-touch. There are lots of touch screens out there but not all are Windows 7 compatible. Standalone LCD monitors are not available yet.
- DELL Studio One 19 (All-In-One)
Released April 2009. 19″ display. All-in-one form factor. Uses the NextWindow multi-touch hardware.
Should run Win 7 multi-touck OK but haven’t actually heard of anyone doing this yet.
- DELL Latitude XT / DELL Latitude XT2 (Tablet)
DELL Latitude XT was release late 2007. It has a 12.1″ multi-touch screen. Very light tablet PC form factor. Powerful enough to run apps such as Outlook and MS Office. I own a DELL XT and the Win 7 touch and tablet features are a delight. The newer DELL Latitude XT2 (released Feb 2009) has better specs. With a slice battery attached these machines will give you 9+ hrs of battery life. Both use N-Trig multi-touch hardware.
- HP TouchSmart TX2 (Tablet)
Released late 2008. A 12″ multi-touch screen. Similar experience to the DELL XT/XT2 but has a beautiful molded finish. My mate has this machine and it is a delight to use. Quite powerful for something so small and light (< 2KG). And about half the price of the DELL XT/XT2. It uses the N-Trig multi-touch hardware.
- HP TouchSmart IQ500/IQ800 series (All-In-One)
The IQ500 (22″ display) and IQ800 (25.5″ display) series all support Win 7 multi-touch.
See my other post. These use the NextWindow multi-touch hardware.
Last Words
To run Windows 7 RC on these machines you will need to download the latest Win 7 touch drivers from the touch screen manufacturers site.
Note: Although TouchSmart All-In-One PCs have many model numbers (across countries and feature sets) they all in fact use these same drivers.
Warning: Please read the Readme file carefully. The N-Trig readme warns that the old driver must be uninstalled first. And that the PC cannot do dual boot (XP and Win7) since the old and new drivers come with firmware updates. If you mix these drivers you can damage your notebook hardware.
Tags: MultiTouch, Windows 7
Posted in Windows | 3 Comments »
June 1st, 2009
More cool things. Microsoft Bing Search is now live. Worth a try. Very impressive (both speed & features).
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 1st, 2009
Tags: Google
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 22nd, 2009
Hi all
H2Reg.exe & H2Reg.dll are now fully Unicode enabled. Please download the H2Reg v2.0 Beta from
What does this mean? It means you don’t have to be on say a Japanese PC to register a collection with file and folder names that contain Japanese characters.
The new version also contains French, German and Japanese translations.
Please email me if you have comments or just to let me know you tied it.
Rob
Tags: H2Reg
Posted in MS Help 2.x | No Comments »
May 21st, 2009
VS B1 is now available for general download.
It’s also been up on MSDN member downloads since the 18th.
So MS Help 3.0 is now officially out there. It’s only the online version at this stage. We’ll see more when Beta 2 arrives. Checkout the new LoBand web help.
Also note there is a new Help3Team blog & Twitter feed (both run by April Reagan from the Help 3.0 team).
Posted in Microsoft | No Comments »
May 11th, 2009
N-Trig (who make the touch hardware for DELL Latitude XT/XT2, HP TouchSmart TX2 computer screens) have finally released a new Windows 7 multi-touch driver/firmware update.
Unlike the last drop this is full featured, supporting Windows 64bit/32bit, and both Pen & Multi-Touch.
Combined with the many small improvements to Windows 7 RC, it is exceptionally fast and accurate to use. After installing, my DELL XT machine would not boot until I pressed F12 and told it where my hard drive was. Weird. After awhile this settled down and I no longer see the problem.
Warning: This is a Windows 7 only driver/firmware update. Do not install on Vista or XP system. Do not dual boot into Vista or XP. Do not try and install an older update over this (you must uninstall first) otherwise you can damage your PC hardware. Please read the release notes before installing.
The old N-Trig system (MTG) handled all gestures, and so could provide Multi-Touch support for Vista and XP. The new MTM driver integrates natively with Windows 7 Multi-Touch system. As a result we’re seeing huge improvements in responsiveness and speed.
Impressions:
- A note to everyone on the Touch Team.. Congrats and Well Done! Beyond my expectations!
- In Paint .. allows up to 4 fingers at a time (was more under MTG but much slower). It’s perfect. Previously (last beta) there was a lag as you added more fingers.
- Windows Photo Viewer… seem more responsive.
- Small initial delay when you start to pan, pinch or zoom, then it’s very responsive.
- I’d like to see Two Finger tap to reset zoom.
- I can now Touch the outer pixel edge of the desktop. So I can now grab windows that are maximized or close to the edge of the desktop. A bit of clever fudging going on.
- Thanks for listening MS! Perfect.
- Two finger Tap in IE 8 - Will Expand/Contract (or restore to 100% zoom). – Love it!
- Finger + Tap other Finger = Context menu.. Nice!
- Multi-Touch on Soft Keyboard has key repeat - Yeah! Almost feels like a real keyboard.
- Latest FireFox 3 has Pinch zoom (no pan) & has basic gestures supported. Cool.
- The new Pen Ink is wonderful. It’s really begining to feel like I’m writing with real ink!
Any one else seeing cool new stuff that catches your eye?
Tags: MultiTouch, Windows 7
Posted in Uncategorized, Windows | No Comments »
May 1st, 2009
Windows 7 Ultimate Release Candidate (build 7100) is now available for download for Beta testers, and for everyone else a little later via microsoft.com.
From Microsoft to MVPs (in my words)…
- Size: 2.47 gigs (x86), 3.2 gigs (x64)
- Windows 7 RC will expire on March 1, 2010 – at this time the system will reboot every two hours.
- The license of windows 7 RC will expire June 1, 2010.
- Rob: Normally you are allowed to upgrade the RC when the RTM version is made available.
- For Beta Testers: Report only serious issues that could delay the release. Don’t report the odd non-reproducible bug.
- Upgrade: Can upgrade from Vista SP1 only (otherwise do clean install). No XP upgrade due to so many changes. No Beta upgrade.
- Help for migrating settings: Windows Easy Transfer utility - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd446674.asp
Links
Additional
There is also a new Windows Virtual PC beta available so you can sandbox and test the release.
Tags: Windows 7
Posted in Microsoft, Windows | No Comments »
April 28th, 2009
Wow this is ambitious. The idea is that Windows 7 will have deep compatibility mode where you can run an application in a kind of XP virtual machine mode box. I gather that Win 7 Pro/Ultimate users can download the required XPM bits free.
Read more…
PS.
Microsoft’s Application Virtualization product (App-V) has been released to manufacturing and can be downloaded here:
So this is probably what Microsoft are looking at using for Windows 7. Instead of running an entire virtual desktop, it allows an application to run in a bubble. MS purchased V-App (formally SoftGrid) from Softricity.
Tags: Windows 7
Posted in Announcements, MS HTML Help 1.x, Microsoft, Music, Uncategorized, Windows | 2 Comments »
April 21st, 2009
MS Help 3 wont see the light of day until later this year (he says with finger in air) when VS 2010 Beta 2 hits the street. At that time the pressure will be on for all VS help integrators to migrate their Help 2 content to the new MS Help 3 format.
Until now details on the MS Help 3 format has been rather sketchy. Today I’m please to make two announcements.
Firstly a white paper describing the main concepts of MS Help 3
Also I’ve upload FAR HTML 5.0 Beta which delivers support for editing MS Help 3 content. Specifically TOC, Index, F1 and general h3 meta tag editing. Best place to start is in the “Help 3″ page in FAR’s TOC & Index Editor.
FAR 5 also delivers a new Tag Editor which makes it easy to work with MS Help 1/2/3 tags across hundreds of HTML files.
Both FAR 5 Beta and the Help 3 documentation will continue to evolve as Microsoft release more material to ISVs.
I’d love to hear any feedback you might have (see the contacts page).
With my MVP hat on :- If you’re a Help ISV and don’t have access to H3 information, please contact April Reagan [Microsoft Help team in Redmond, Seattle]. Or contact me and I will pass you April’s contact details.
Rob
Tags: FAR, Help 3
Posted in Announcements, MS Help, MS Help 3.x | No Comments »
April 21st, 2009
Google Labs launch Google Similar Images
http://similar-images.googlelabs.com/
pretty cool
Tags: Google, Web
Posted in Rob's Stuff | No Comments »
April 1st, 2009
Monday at WritersUA conference in Seattle MS (April and Anand) announced that the Help 3 Viewer wont ship with VS 2010 Beta 1. This first Help 3 release will be online help (browser based) only. Anand has some screen shots in his Sandcastle blog:
Additional: Anand just posted a comment to clarify. The Help 3 Viewer and the Offline Help experience will now ship with VS 2010 Beta 2.
What does this mean to VS Help Integrators?
It means we can relax until the beta 2 release. Although we can certainly checkout the new Help 3 documentation tags in the Beta 1 release.
Tags: Help 3
Posted in MS Help, MS Help 3.x | 2 Comments »
March 11th, 2009
Belong to Facebook? Want to know what’s happening with Microsoft’s Help 3?
Join the “Help3″ Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=70197449895
Tags: help 2.0, Help 3
Posted in MS Help, MS Help 3.x | No Comments »
February 21st, 2009
From
Anand’s Sandcastle Blog: “We are currently working on updating Sandcastle to ship content for VS 2010 Help3 viewer.” and “After we ship VS 2010 Beta 1, I will post an updated version of sandcastle that we will be using for shipping VS 2010 Beta 1 MSDN library. This will include the following features and several bug fixes… <snip> and Attributes supporting Microsoft Help 3 viewer.”
Yes folks the new Help 3 viewer and engine will debut in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 (availability TBA).
For more information catch Anand Raman and April Reagan at this years WritersUA Conference (March 29 - April 1).
When: Monday March 30th 1:15 - 2:45 pm
Session 444: Microsoft Sandcastle Documentation Compiler - Anand Raman, Microsoft
Session 133: Microsoft Help v.3 Preview - April Reagan - Microsoft
April’s session blurb:
Microsoft Help 3 is a new client help system! This help system has been built from the ground up with simplicity, performance and relevance in mind. It was not a straightforward road in getting the project approved, and with a large legacy content base and complex content scenarios, it took a lot of long and heated design discussions with a will to favor simplicity. The end result is a greatly improved deployment model, a fast underlying architecture based on the Zip storage standard and a beautiful new Windows Presentation Foundation based help viewer featuring a web-browser feel. Initially shipping as the product help system for the next wave of Visual Studio products, this system will become available to all Windows developers in the near future. This will be the first wide release of a help system from Microsoft since Help 1 (aka HTML Help).
WritersUA (formally WinWriters) run a great conference, with lots of great speakers and sessions. As usual Help MVPs will be attending and speaking.
For those eager to get their documentation VS 2010 ready, please stay tuned. We will update you very soon.
Tags: Help 3, WritersUA
Posted in MS Help, MS Help 3.x | No Comments »
February 8th, 2009
I’ve written some JavaScript that allows you to sniff out Namespaces and Titles registered on your PC. You can also grab the path of a .HxS help file associated with a namespace/title.
In HTML Help we could use JavaScript to dynamically create a link to an external file. For example a .wmv, .mp3, .pdf files stored in the same folder as the .CHM file. This is the best way to link to PDFs since you are not dealing with the ActiveX/COM and the PDF opens in AcroReader, not embedded in the HTML page.
For MS Help 2 the technique is slightly different. We need to access the MS Help 2 API (via its COM interface) to find out what H2 Namespaces andTitles are registered.
Script Functions
The script file ns_funcs.js contains 4 functions:
- NS_H2RuntimeInstalled() — Returns TRUE if Help 2 is installed on the PC.
- NS = NS_GetClosestMatch(Namespace) — Useful when you don’t know the MSDN language (namespace lang suffix).
Example: NS_GetClosestMatch(”ms.vscc”) will return ms.vscc.3082 on a Spanish PC.
- NS = NS_IsValid(Namespace) — Returns the namespace in correct case if found. Or empty string if not found.
- NS = NS_GetNSList() — Returns a multi-line string containing detailed info on all Namespaces registered on the PC.
The script file ns_path.js contains 2 functions:
- NS_GetHxSPath(Namespace, Title) — Returns the path to the .HxS help file associated with a Namespace and Title.
- NS_GetHxSDir(Namespace, Title) — Returns just the directory (with trailing \) associated with a Namespace and Title.
these functions return .HxS path information given a Namespace and Title name.
For example the following namespace/title is associated with .HxS file dv_dexplore.hxs
- Namespace: MS.Dexplore.v80.en
- Title: dv_dexplore
Example 1
var s1 = NS_GetHxSPath(”MS.Dexplore.v80.en”, “dv_dexplore”);
var s2 = NS_GetHxSDir(”MS.Dexplore.v80.en”, “dv_dexplore”);
s1 returns:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help 8\1033\dv_dexplore.hxs
s2 returns:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help 8\1033\
So… you can now dynamically create a link to a file that lives outside your help next to your .HxS help file.
Example 2
Some quick examples of linking to external files
-
<SCRIPT Language="JScript">
function OpenH2Link(filename) {
//This will find the Namespace for the current MSDN language. MS.Dexplore.v80.en for English PC
var ns = NS_GetClosestMatch("MS.Dexplore.v80");
//This returns the directory of the .HxS file associated with ns\title
var dir = NS_GetHxSDir(ns, "dv_dexplore");
//Finally load the file
var fn = 'file:///' + dir + filename;
location.href = fn;
}
</SCRIPT>
<a href="#" onClick="javascript:OpenH2Link('Somefile.pdf');">ClickMe</a>
-
<SCRIPT Language="JScript">
document.writeln('<a href="file:///' + NS_GetHxSDir('MS.Dexplore.v80.en', 'dv_dexplore') + 'SomeFile.pdf">ClickMe</a>');
</SCRIPT>
Enjoy
Rob
Tags: help 2.0, HTML Help, JScript
Posted in MS HTML Help 1.x, MS Help | No Comments »
February 6th, 2009
Microsoft’s help 3 team have the enormous task of replacing the MS Help 2.x engine. Help 2 is used by Visual Studio 7/8/9.
More on MS Help 3 here: http://www.helpmvp.com/webblog
The Sandcastle team posted this….
After we ship VS 2010 Beta 1, I will post an updated version of sandcastle that we will be using for shipping VS 2010 Beta 1 MSDN library. This will include the following features and several bug fixes:
1. Version we will be using to ship .NET Framework 4.0
2. Support for F# syntax
3. XSD documenter
4. Attributes supporting Microsoft Help 3 viewer.
I haven’t seen a release date for VS 2010 Beta 1.
Our plan is for Helpware Software to support Help 3. For now it’s Watch this Space.
Off to Microsoft Seattle for the MVP 2009 Summit (March 1-4). More news I’m sure after that.
Cheers
Rob
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
February 4th, 2009
Windows 7 is looking good. So good that MS say they will skip Beta 2 and go straight to RC (release candidate) - see ZDNET article.
Most testers are very happy with the beta and hope MS will release sooner rather than later. Normal scheduled release is 3 years after Vista which means end of the year for MSDN subscribers, Jan 2010 for everyone else. One rumors even says Q3 of this year. MS say they will release when they are ready.
I’ve got a DEL Latitude XT with pen and multi-touch capability. Even with only 1GB of RAM Windows 7 seems faster and leaner than Vista. For example I installed a clean copy of Vista, tested, then installed a clean copy of Windows 7.
- Time for Vista to sleep: 40+ seconds (similar time to wake)
- Time for Windows 7 to sleep: 6-8 seconds (similar time to wake)
that alone makes it very desirable. The Windows 7 touch is very natural and fun to use and.. I’m keeping it.
The Windows 7 SKU
The official Windows 7 SKUs (Stock Keeping Units?) were announced today. There are 6 versions of Windows, however it’s much simpler than Vista since only 2 versions will be readily available through retail and OEMs:
- Windows Home Premium — For consumers (Equivalent to Vista Home Premium)
- Windows Professional - For business and consumers with business interests (unlike Vista Business it includes all Home Premium features).
Unlike Vista SKUs, the Windows 7 SKUs all build on each other. The Starter & Home Basic are for special OEMs so you may never see these. Enterprise is for large business available only though MS volume licensing. Windows 7 Ultimate is of small interest to most, offering Bitlocker, Language Packs, and other obscure enterprise features. So this is very different from the confusing Vista SKUs.
The Windows Anytime Upgrade feature allows you to upgrade Windows “online”. During the Beta I was asked to install Windows 7 Home Premium, then perform an upgrade to Ultimate over the Internet using an Ultimate key I was given. The upgrade was very quick and painless over broadband (a few minutes).
Of course there will be 32bit and 64bit versions of Windows 7 available. Windows 64 will continue to become more and more popular. Many notebook manufacturers are already offering Windows 64bit and > 4GB RAM options. Most PCs made today can run either 32 or 64bit Windows, thanks to the modern CPUs ability to switch modes.
According to Paul Thurrott’s Super Site for Windows there wont be an upgrade path for Windows XP (although tools will be available to help migrate your data). Those upgrading from Windows 32bit to Windows 64bit will also require a clean install.
Windows 7 Starter
- Very basic.
- Can run up to 3 applications concurrently (all other SKUs are unlimited).
29th May 2009 Microsoft have decided to also make the Starter unlimited.
- New Task bar with Jump lists.
- No Aero Glass; No multi-touch; No DVD playback; No Windows Media Center;
- Also limits on screen resolution and other hardware elements.
- Can join Home Groups.
Windows 7 Home Basic (emerging market only)
- Includes all features of Starter.
- Adds Live Thumbnail Previews & enhanced visual experience.
- Adds some networking features (Internet connection sharing and ad-hoc wireless).
- Adds Mobility Center.
- Still No Aero Glass; No multi-touch; No DVD playback; No Windows Media Center;
Windows 7 Home Premium
- Includes all features of Home Basic.
- Available worldwide, to OEMs and in retail.
- Adds Aero Glass, Multi-Touch & Handwriting Recognition.
- Adds Media Center, DVD playback, DVD creation, Play To. etc.
- Adds “premium” games.
- Can create Home Network Groups.
Windows 7 Professional
- Includes all features of Home Premium.
- Available worldwide, to OEMs and in retail.
- Adds more networking capabilities (Remote Desktop host, domain login support, offline folders, etc.)
- Adds Presentation Mode.
- Adds Data Protection features (advanced network backup, Encrypting File System).
- Adds Location Aware Printing.
Windows 7 Enterprise
- Available only though Microsoft Volume Licensing.
- Includes all features of Professional
- Adds BitLocker data protection (for internal and external drives).
- Adds DirectAccess (provides seamless connectivity to your corporate network — requires Windows Server 2008 R2).
- Adds Branche Cache (decrease time branch office workers wait to open file across the network — requires Windows Server 2008 R2).
- Adds AppLocker (prevent unauthorized software from running) .
- Adds Boot from VHD.
- Adds MUI language packs.
Windows 7 Ultimate
- Limited OEM and retail availability.
- Includes all features of Enterprise.
Posted in Microsoft, Windows | No Comments »
January 23rd, 2009
Here is a list of songs we played at the CMS SUTS 2009 conference. This year I played electric bass.
Sarah Dehn (Voc/Violin) and Shaun Islip (Music director)
Nicky Chiswell, Dave Chiswell, Jono Bach, Peter Newmarch
Shack Song number / Song Title / details / YouTube example clip
(**) = May not have played during the conference
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: CMS, Music, SUTS
Posted in Music, Rob's Stuff | 3 Comments »
January 5th, 2009
Some more digging into Windows 7 and touch screens.
DEL Latitude XT Convertable
HP TouchSmart IQ500/IQ800 series All-In-One
Which companies make multi-touch screens?
Microsoft say they are working closely with several OEMs including: Elo, N-Trig, NewWindow, Qanta and Wacom.
However there are 2 OEMs that standout, N-Trig and NextWindow.
If you watched any of the PDC 2008 sessions you would have seen Window 7 multi-touch being demoed on a Del Latitude XT notebook (uses N-Trig technology) and a HP TouchSmart All-In-One PC (uses NextWindow technology) . At this early stage that’s all there is available for developers. HP TouchSmart tx2 notebook also uses N-Trig (guess HP are hedging their bets), but there are no Windows 7 drivers available for it yet.
N-Trig are based in Israel with offices in the Taiwan and Austin Texas, USA.
NextWindow is based in Auckland, New Zealand with offices in USA (Pleasanton, California and Chicago).
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: MultiTouch, Windows 7
Posted in GM Food, Windows | 2 Comments »
December 31st, 2008
I got to play with Delphi 2009. Very nice. CodeGear seem to have done a great job. I wanted to see if our win32 Delphi HH Kit code still worked OK.
It had some problems and I had to update our source. Delphi 2009 now has full UNICODE support. String is now type UnicodeString rather than AnsiString. So all the calls to HtmlHelp() (declared in hh.pas) now fail unless you change your code over to HtmlHelpW().
To make it easier I updated hh.pas so that HtmlHelp() now calls the HtmlHelpW Unicode API func for Delphi 2009 +, and the HtmlHelpA ANSI API func for older versions of Delphi. I’ve also gone through all our Delphi help examples - they should all now work with Delphi 2009. HH.pas also required many of the PChar params to change over to PAnsiChar as I found that many of the more exotic help API calls worked only with ANSI String parameters (see Help Kit Example 4 which exercises most HH API functions).
HH Kit Version 1.10 Download:
http://cid-5ce48093afda9e38.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public/delphi/HHKitV1.10
- hh_doc.txt - Delphi HH Kit V1.10 Readme and documentation.
- delphkit.zip- Contains the basic HH V1.10 Kit files - hh.pas (API port) + hh_funcs.pas (extra help funcs) + hh_doc.txt
- code_Release_D2009.zip - Contains everything. HH V1.10 Kit + Help Examples (source code + compiled EXE).
List of help examples: http://helpware.net/delphi/index.html
That’s it for now. It wasn’t a difficult port. I did find that under Delphi 2009, the example apps required a call to Sleep(0) after the HH_CLOSE_ALL call otherwise they would crash on shutdown. This has been a known problem with HTML Help.
Also the infamous D6OnHelpFix.pas file which fixes help events so they fire under Delphi 6+, is no longer required under Delphi 2009. All help events all seem to fire nicely under Delphi 2009 without the assistance of D6OnHelpFix.pas.
The download above was tested on Delphi 2009, but I haven’t had a chance to test on other version yet (although nothing should have changed for previous versions of Delphi).
Please let me know if you see any problems.
Please join the “DelphiHHKit” Yahoo Group for our news letter (we post about once a year when an update is required)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DelphiHHKit/join
Cheers
Rob
Tags: Delphi, HHKit, HTML Help
Posted in Delphi, Helpware.net | No Comments »
December 5th, 2008
Single touch screen solutions have been around for quite a while. MS Win 7 uses a special MultiTouch screen which recognizes multiple touches at once. Apparently Microsoft develops using the N-Trig’s DuoSense API suite.
There are already several W7 compatible screens out there now. You’ll need to download a W7 compatible beta driver from the screen manufacturer’s website.
As you can imagine most Screen manufactures are promising W7 compatible MultiTouch screens next year.
Cool links and videos
Incredible things in the pipe - Paper Windows & OUI (Organic User Interface)
Tags: MultiTouch, Windows 7
Posted in Microsoft, Windows | No Comments »
November 28th, 2008
One of the best things about Microsoft Live Spaces is Skydrive (also free).
This month SkyDrive announced that drive space accounts have increased in size from 5GB to 25GB. Plus there there’s a new Silverlight slide show app and bigger thumbnails for your photos. The maximum upload file size remains at 50MB.
Tags: Live, Microsoft, SkyDrive
Posted in Microsoft | No Comments »
November 25th, 2008
I’ve been watching the PDC2008 sessions on video. And yesterday I went to session at Microsoft Melbourne which talked about Silverlight, WPF and Windows 7.
PDC 2008 have several sessions on Windows 7.
First some interest statistics quoted yesterday
- Facebook are adding 10,000 new servers.
- Microsoft are currently adding 10,000 new servers every month.
Cool thing. During the opening session we did a pole using our mobiles and SMS. The results were shown graphically live on screen as the results came in. All via http://www.polleverywhere.com/
Cool stuff for Silverlight
- Treeview and Graph charts.
- Local Isolated storage (up to 1MB without prompting the user).
Here the app can cache images and files downloaded from the web.
- Async download of files.
- Access the browser DOM.
Silverlight 3.0 announced
Silverlight 2.0 was big (lots of new controls). Silverlight 3.0 may be even bigger.
- H.264 production quality video.
- GPU Hardware Acceleration.
- True 3D support.
Internet Explorer 8
- Isolated tabs (crash one and the rest keep running)
- JavaScript Debugger (not to be outdone by FireFox Firebug)
- Slices and Accelerators. Monitor slices of a web page.
Windows 7
Great new features. The polish we expected to see in Vista.
Looks like the version number for this next version of Windows will be 6.1.
- Libraries. Group your music etc from different locations to a single virtual location (Library) for fast access and unified search. You can setup a library during installation if required.
- Ribbon control added to WordPad and Paint. MS Ribbon API now ships with Windows 7.
- Jump list. Access most MRU (most recently used) file lists from the taskbar right-click menu (even if a program not running). You may need to prepare existing apps to make use of this feature.
- New improved task bar and hover previews. Close windows and interact with programs from the preview. You may need to prepare existing apps to make use of this feature.
- UAC optimization. Now has 4 Levels of UAC control (for when apps are elevated to run in admin mode)
1. UAC on full (same experience as in Vista).
2. UAC on but do not dim the screen.
3. Signed Microsoft application do not require a UAC prompt.
4. UAC off.
Note: Skipping signed MS apps will reduce the number UAC prompts by round 70%.
- Native Virtual Drive Support. Computer management (Storage > Disk Management) now has 2 new commands to Create and Load .VHD files. It also allows you to boot off a .VHD file.
- W7 has a much smaller footprint than Vista. Apps like Photo Gallery; Live Messenger; Live Services will not ship with W7 but be available by download only.
- Multi-touch. Touch screen support like you have seen in MS surface computing will be available in WIndows 7. Already HP have a touch screen on the market.
- Better Ink and Speech.
Visual Studio 2010
- UI/UA is now WPF. Richer UI.
- Programmer can now add the ribbon controls to their apps (Including a WPF version of the Ribbon).
Tags: PDC, Silverlight\WPF, Windows, WPF
Posted in Announcements, IE8, Microsoft, Silverlight\WPF, Uncategorized, Windows | No Comments »
RSS Feed