How goes it? I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to spare a few minutes of their time to mentor an idiot.  I'd like to improve my programming skills but lack direction (I haven't the foggiest idea where to begin).

I've taken the liberty of downloading several open source projects and try to reimplement them as the author intended. But this never works as I get caught up in unanswered question as to why particular modules were used, where the author started, how he combined them to make the final product, what were the minimal requirements, and the list goes on...

I attempted the same with Ant's Leds editor and ran into the same problems. Basically I'm looking for a road map to guide me through any sizable project (just one will suffice). (I implemented this first, then this, then grouped them to gather using this, and finally I combined everything in the main program "which is:"). Or something similar.

If I'm asking too much please respond as follows:

 sorry.

no explanation required.

TIA,
Andrew

It's sickeningly self-obsessed, but at the moment the only thing I've time to suggest is that you read my "Positive Integration" column in CUJ, which describes the design and implementation of recls, and its mapping to various languages and technologies. The issues of concern are November 2003, January 2004, March 2004 (and I've just written the May 2004 one). I don't know if you're a subscriber, but you can buy individual issues online.

Sorry I can't be more helpful at this time, but I'm just too squeezed.

All the best

Matthew



"Andrew Edwards" <remove_ridimz@remove_yahoo.com> wrote in message news:c03lor$14e9$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> How goes it? I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to spare a few minutes of their time to mentor an idiot.  I'd like to improve my programming skills but lack direction (I haven't the foggiest idea where to begin).
>
> I've taken the liberty of downloading several open source projects and try to reimplement them as the author intended. But this never works as I get caught up in unanswered question as to why particular modules were used, where the author started, how he combined them to make the final product, what were the minimal requirements, and the list goes on...
>
> I attempted the same with Ant's Leds editor and ran into the same problems. Basically I'm looking for a road map to guide me through any sizable project (just one will suffice). (I implemented this first, then this, then grouped them to gather using this, and finally I combined everything in the main program "which is:"). Or something similar.
>
> If I'm asking too much please respond as follows:
>
>   sorry.
>
> no explanation required.
>
> TIA,
> Andrew

You want a project to start ?  Everyone has their own learning style , but what I usually do is pick something that I think is more than I am capable of, and try to tackle it.  The first product probably wont be 100% , but u learn how to do it , and you can perfect it in subsequent passes .

What about a Makefile generator , that accepts file names, and libraries on the command line , and spits out the appropriate makefile ?

This might be a good starting point, and you can always ask questions in
here as they come up :)
C

"Andrew Edwards" <remove_ridimz@remove_yahoo.com> wrote in message news:c03lor$14e9$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> How goes it? I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to spare a few minutes of their time to mentor an idiot.  I'd like to improve my programming skills but lack direction (I haven't the foggiest idea where to begin).
>
> I've taken the liberty of downloading several open source projects and try to reimplement them as the author intended. But this never works as I get caught up in unanswered question as to why particular modules were used, where the author started, how he combined them to make the final product, what were the minimal requirements, and the list goes on...
>
> I attempted the same with Ant's Leds editor and ran into the same problems. Basically I'm looking for a road map to guide me through any sizable project (just one will suffice). (I implemented this first, then this, then grouped them to gather using this, and finally I combined everything in the main program "which is:"). Or something similar.
>
> If I'm asking too much please respond as follows:
>
>   sorry.
>
> no explanation required.
>
> TIA,
> Andrew

Please don't take this the wrong way. I want to help.

Andrew Edwards wrote:
> How goes it? I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to spare a few minutes of their time to mentor an idiot.  I'd like to improve my programming skills but lack direction (I haven't the foggiest idea where to begin).

What are your skills right now?
We can't give your a direction if we don't know your current position.

> I've taken the liberty of downloading several open source projects and try to reimplement them as the author intended. But this never works as I get caught up in unanswered question as to why particular modules were used, where the author started, how he combined them to make the final product, what were the minimal requirements, and the list goes on...

Where are you trying to go?
We can't give your directions if we don't the destination.

> I attempted the same with Ant's Leds editor and ran into the same problems. Basically I'm looking for a road map to guide me through any sizable project (just one will suffice). (I implemented this first, then this, then grouped them to gather using this, and finally I combined everything in the main program "which is:"). Or something similar.

I suspect each project of these proejcts has a different way of doing everything.

I'm sure each of these large projects has a different goal. LEDS's purpose is to create a good editor for D in Linux. DUI's purpose is to create GTK+ apps in D. Windy's purpose is probably to facilitate Windows programming using native controls.

What do you want to do?

> If I'm asking too much please respond as follows:

You're not asking too much; you're asking too little. :)

>  sorry.
> 
> no explanation required.
> 
> TIA,
> Andrew

As as you probably already know (since I seem to mention this weekly), I've created some examples, http://jcc_7.tripod.com/d/tutor/. They're pretty simple (because I'm no D guru yet), but they might help a beginner. I try to add to them often and I know there needs to be a lot more commentary, but it's better than nothing.

If you need something more sophisiticated, ask a specific question in this newsgroup. Many here know much.

-- 
Justin
http://jcc_7.tripod.com/d/

I've had an idea.

For a long time I've thought about writing a command-line application called "clipboard", which would read from stdin and place the read-in content on the clipboard.

One would then be able to do something like "grep -d stuff *.d | sort /+0 | clipboard"

I think this would be of a suitable complexity, and would also be a great tool to have in the D samples.

To start you off, here's a (C) function Clipboard_SetData(), that I use in
the shell extensions (http://shellext.com/)

    BOOL Clipboard_SetData(HWND hwnd, UINT fmt, HANDLE hMem)
    {
        BOOL    b = OpenClipboard(hwnd);

        if(b)
        {
            EmptyClipboard();

            b = SetClipboardData(fmt, hMem) != NULL;

            CloseClipboard();
        }

        return b;
    }

I'd suggest you work as follows:

1. A test program that uses the (D-adjusted) Clipboard_SetData with the
CF_TEXT format, and that simply places the command-line arguments on the
clipboard
2. The first proper version, which would read from stdin (using the std.file
stuff, I guess? I've not used any of that for a long time, so someone can
probably inform better)
3. A "smart" version, which can work with other clipboard formats.

Cheers

Matthew


"Andrew Edwards" <remove_ridimz@remove_yahoo.com> wrote in message news:c03lor$14e9$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> How goes it? I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to spare a few minutes of their time to mentor an idiot.  I'd like to improve my programming skills but lack direction (I haven't the foggiest idea where to begin).
>
> I've taken the liberty of downloading several open source projects and try to reimplement them as the author intended. But this never works as I get caught up in unanswered question as to why particular modules were used, where the author started, how he combined them to make the final product, what were the minimal requirements, and the list goes on...
>
> I attempted the same with Ant's Leds editor and ran into the same problems. Basically I'm looking for a road map to guide me through any sizable project (just one will suffice). (I implemented this first, then this, then grouped them to gather using this, and finally I combined everything in the main program "which is:"). Or something similar.
>
> If I'm asking too much please respond as follows:
>
>   sorry.
>
> no explanation required.
>
> TIA,
> Andrew

Matthew wrote:
> I've had an idea.
> 
> For a long time I've thought about writing a command-line application called
> "clipboard", which would read from stdin and place the read-in content on
> the clipboard.
> 
> One would then be able to do something like "grep -d stuff *.d | sort /+0 |
> clipboard"
> 
> I think this would be of a suitable complexity, and would also be a great
> tool to have in the D samples.
> 
> To start you off, here's a (C) function Clipboard_SetData(), that I use in
> the shell extensions (http://shellext.com/)
> 
>     BOOL Clipboard_SetData(HWND hwnd, UINT fmt, HANDLE hMem)
>     {
>         BOOL    b = OpenClipboard(hwnd);
> 
>         if(b)
>         {
>             EmptyClipboard();
> 
>             b = SetClipboardData(fmt, hMem) != NULL;
> 
>             CloseClipboard();
>         }
> 
>         return b;
>     }
> 
> I'd suggest you work as follows:
> 
> 1. A test program that uses the (D-adjusted) Clipboard_SetData with the
> CF_TEXT format, and that simply places the command-line arguments on the
> clipboard
> 2. The first proper version, which would read from stdin (using the std.file
> stuff, I guess? I've not used any of that for a long time, so someone can
> probably inform better)
> 3. A "smart" version, which can work with other clipboard formats.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Matthew
> 

Cool, I'm on it!
Quick question, I installed the shell extensions but it doesn't come with a grep implemantation. Know where I can find one already implemented for win32?

If I understand correctly, each time Clipboard_SetData() executes, I should be able to go to the clipboard and see that new information there right?

Is this the same clipboard as is associated with the office suite? If not how do I manually launch this particular clipboard to view it's content? For that matter, how would I launch clipboard without executing a member of the office suite?

Thanks for the suggestions,
Andrew

C wrote:

> You want a project to start ?  Everyone has their own learning style , but
> what I usually do is pick something that I think is more than I am capable
> of, and try to tackle it.  The first product probably wont be 100% , but u
> learn how to do it , and you can perfect it in subsequent passes .
> 
> What about a Makefile generator , that accepts file names, and libraries on
> the command line , and spits out the appropriate makefile ?
> 
> This might be a good starting point, and you can always ask questions in
> here as they come up :)
> C
> 

I'll make this my second project, currently working on the clipboard suggestion from Matthew.

Thanks,
Andrew

J C Calvarese wrote:

<snip>
[good questions]
</snip

To which I will respond to soon.
Andrew

Andrew Edwards wrote:
> Matthew wrote:
> 
>> I've had an idea.
>>
>> For a long time I've thought about writing a command-line application called
>> "clipboard", which would read from stdin and place the read-in content on
>> the clipboard.
>>
>> One would then be able to do something like "grep -d stuff *.d | sort /+0 |
>> clipboard"
>>
>> I think this would be of a suitable complexity, and would also be a great
>> tool to have in the D samples.
>>
>> To start you off, here's a (C) function Clipboard_SetData(), that I use in
>> the shell extensions (http://shellext.com/)
>>
>>     BOOL Clipboard_SetData(HWND hwnd, UINT fmt, HANDLE hMem)
>>     {
>>         BOOL    b = OpenClipboard(hwnd);
>>
>>         if(b)
>>         {
>>             EmptyClipboard();
>>
>>             b = SetClipboardData(fmt, hMem) != NULL;
>>
>>             CloseClipboard();
>>         }
>>
>>         return b;
>>     }
>>
>> I'd suggest you work as follows:
>>
>> 1. A test program that uses the (D-adjusted) Clipboard_SetData with the
>> CF_TEXT format, and that simply places the command-line arguments on the
>> clipboard
>> 2. The first proper version, which would read from stdin (using the std.file
>> stuff, I guess? I've not used any of that for a long time, so someone can
>> probably inform better)
>> 3. A "smart" version, which can work with other clipboard formats.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Matthew
>>
> 
> Cool, I'm on it!
> Quick question, I installed the shell extensions but it doesn't come with a grep implemantation. Know where I can find one already implemented for win32?

Check the MinGW or Cygwin projects (I don't know where the source is
though).

Lars Ivar Igesund

"Andrew Edwards" <remove_ridimz@remove_yahoo.com> wrote in message news:c0696b$2b23$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> Matthew wrote:
> > I've had an idea.
> >
> > For a long time I've thought about writing a command-line application
called
> > "clipboard", which would read from stdin and place the read-in content
on
> > the clipboard.
> >
> > One would then be able to do something like "grep -d stuff *.d | sort
/+0 |
> > clipboard"
> >
> > I think this would be of a suitable complexity, and would also be a
great
> > tool to have in the D samples.
> >
> > To start you off, here's a (C) function Clipboard_SetData(), that I use
in
> > the shell extensions (http://shellext.com/)
> >
> >     BOOL Clipboard_SetData(HWND hwnd, UINT fmt, HANDLE hMem)
> >     {
> >         BOOL    b = OpenClipboard(hwnd);
> >
> >         if(b)
> >         {
> >             EmptyClipboard();
> >
> >             b = SetClipboardData(fmt, hMem) != NULL;
> >
> >             CloseClipboard();
> >         }
> >
> >         return b;
> >     }
> >
> > I'd suggest you work as follows:
> >
> > 1. A test program that uses the (D-adjusted) Clipboard_SetData with the
> > CF_TEXT format, and that simply places the command-line arguments on the
> > clipboard
> > 2. The first proper version, which would read from stdin (using the
std.file
> > stuff, I guess? I've not used any of that for a long time, so someone
can
> > probably inform better)
> > 3. A "smart" version, which can work with other clipboard formats.
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > Matthew
> >
>
> Cool, I'm on it!
> Quick question, I installed the shell extensions but it doesn't come
> with a grep implemantation. Know where I can find one already
> implemented for win32?

AFAIK, on Win32 there's only one grep worth having, and that's Borland's. Download the C++ Compiler 5.5 Command Line Tools (somewhere on www.borland.com) and it comes with that.

> If I understand correctly, each time Clipboard_SetData() executes, I should be able to go to the clipboard and see that new information there right?

Right.

> Is this the same clipboard as is associated with the office suite?

There's only one clipboard per system, so yes. :)

> If
> not how do I manually launch this particular clipboard to view it's
> content? For that matter, how would I launch clipboard without executing
> a member of the office suite?