Whhhy....

I've just been looking at a website for a few parts for my Computer, well a hard drive as I have one dying...

And I happen to spot this product... I can't think why I was drawn to look at it, despite not needing one...

Civ and Code

So, what have I been up to?  Well, since the yule tide is rolling over us I've been incredibly busy at work.

I have however been enjoying Civ5, I'm reasonably happy to play the game, though in DirectX 10 mode is does crash out sometimes.  Hopefully the up coming patch for it will sort somethings out.

In the world of code, especially at work though, I have been very busy.  I have a project to put together, but as an aside I've been looking at the boost C++ libraries, one little ditty I recently had to sort out was a hostname resolver for IPv4, here is that C++ for anyone interested in boost:

// Investigation into Boost - 14/12/2010

// (c)2010 - Jon Bond

///

/// Function to resolve a URL as an IP Address

///

std::string ResolveURLAsIPv4 (const std::string& URL, const int Port)

{

#ifdef _DEBUG

char* msg = Debugging::AssignMessage(128);

sprintf_s (msg, 128, "ResolveURLAsIP (%s : %i)", URL.c_str(), Port);

OutputDebugStringA (msg);

DWORD StartTick = GetTickCount();

#endif

std::string result = "127.0.0.1";

try 

{

// Construct the resolver service we're going to run

boost::asio::io_service IOService;

boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver resolver(IOService);

// Set up the IP query we're going to run on the resolver service

boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::query query(

boost::asio::ip::tcp::v4(),

URL,

boost::lexical_cast(Port) );

// Set up the query we're going to iterate through

boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::iterator i = resolver.resolve(query);

// Iterate through all the end points returned by the DNS query

boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::iterator endIterator;

for ( ;

i != endIterator;

++i)

{

// Get the current end point indicated

boost::asio::ip::tcp::endpoint currentEndPoint = *i;

// Process the result

if ( currentEndPoint.address().is_v4() )

{

result = currentEndPoint.address().to_string();

// break out of the loop

break;

}

}

}

catch (std::exception e)

{

#ifdef _DEBUG

sprintf_s (msg, 128, "Error in ResolveURLAsIP.");

OutputDebugStringA (msg);

delete msg;

#endif

throw e;

}

#ifdef _DEBUG

DWORD Diff = GetTickCount() - StartTick;

sprintf_s (msg, 128, "ResolveURLAsIP Complete [%d] %s => %s", Diff, URL.c_str(), result.c_str() );

OutputDebugStringA (msg);

delete msg;

#endif

return result;

}

Please note, I know I could cut down the number of boost::asio:: whatever indirections by using 'using' statements, but this is fully written out so I could understand what was going on.

The other ditty I've been playing with is Direct2D as part of DirectX 10 on Vista & Windows 7... here's my class to initialise the Direct2D interface:

// Investigation into Direct2D - 3/12/2010

// (c)2010 - Jon Bond

#pragma once

// The program main

#include "..\Program\Program.h"

// Include the header

#include "D2D1.h"

// Include the library

#pragma comment (lib, "d2d1.lib")

namespace GuiMain

{

// The gui

class Gui

{

private:

// Shows whether there has been an error

bool m_Error;

// The window handle

HWND m_WindowHandle;

// The factory

ID2D1Factory *m_Factory;

// The render target

ID2D1HwndRenderTarget *m_Target;

// Factory handlers

void SetupFactory();

void CloseFactory();

// Create the resources

void CreateDeviceResources();

void ReleaseDeviceResources();

// Get the window size

D2D1_SIZE_U GetWindowSize ();

// A white solid brush

ID2D1SolidColorBrush* m_WhiteBrush;

public:

// The gui constructor

Gui (HWND WindowHandle);

// The gui destructor

~Gui ();

// Draw something

void Render ();

};

}

Code:

// Investigation into Direct2D - 3/12/2010

// (c)2010 - Jon Bond

#include "GuiMain.h"

namespace GuiMain

{

// Constructor

Gui::Gui(HWND WindowHandle)

{

m_Error = false;

// The window handle

m_WindowHandle = WindowHandle;

// Set up the factory

SetupFactory();

}

// Destructor

Gui::~Gui()

{

// Release the device drawing resources

ReleaseDeviceResources ();

// Close the factory

CloseFactory ();

m_WindowHandle = NULL;

}

// Set up the COM class factory for this interface

void Gui::SetupFactory()

{

HRESULT hr = D2D1CreateFactory(D2D1_FACTORY_TYPE_SINGLE_THREADED, &m_Factory);

if ( hr == S_OK )

{

CreateDeviceResources ();

}

}

// Close the factory

void Gui::CloseFactory()

{

// Release the factor, if it exists

if ( m_Factory != NULL )

{

m_Factory->Release();

m_Factory = NULL;

}

}

// The device resources

void Gui::CreateDeviceResources()

{

HRESULT hr ;

hr = m_Factory->CreateHwndRenderTarget(

D2D1::RenderTargetProperties(),

D2D1::HwndRenderTargetProperties(m_WindowHandle, GetWindowSize()),

&m_Target);

if ( hr != S_OK )

{

m_Error = true;

}

else

{

// Create the white brush

hr = this->m_Target->CreateSolidColorBrush(

D2D1::ColorF(D2D1::ColorF::White),

&m_WhiteBrush);

if ( hr != S_OK )

{

m_Error = true;

}

}

}

// The release the device resources

void Gui::ReleaseDeviceResources()

{

m_WhiteBrush->Release();

// Dispose of the tar

if ( m_Target != NULL )

{

m_Target->Release();

m_Target = NULL;

}

}

// Return the screen size

D2D1_SIZE_U Gui::GetWindowSize ()

{

RECT rect;

GetClientRect (m_WindowHandle, &rect);

return D2D1::SizeU(rect.right-rect.left, rect.bottom-rect.top);

}

// Render something

void Gui::Render ()

{

m_Target->SetAntialiasMode(D2D1_ANTIALIAS_MODE::D2D1_ANTIALIAS_MODE_PER_PRIMITIVE);

m_Target->BeginDraw();

m_Target->Clear(D2D1::ColorF(D2D1::ColorF::Black));

m_Target->SetTransform(D2D1::Matrix3x2F::Identity());

D2D1_SIZE_U size = GetWindowSize();

m_Target->DrawLine (

D2D1::Point2F(0.0f, 0.0f),

D2D1::Point2F(size.width, size.height),

m_WhiteBrush,

0.5f

);

m_Target->EndDraw();

}

}

Please note, all my code here is copyright 2010 - Myself, but you may use it as you see fit.  So long as you leave my copyrght notices and name on the code.

Its time for 'it'

So, it is about to happen... if you don't know what I mean by 'it' then you've been living under a rock, because the 'it' to which I refer is Cataclysm.

I'm going to be honest, I have been back, briefly into WoW; I had a month on my main account a while back, but I was hopelessly annoyed at the inflation of items over my hard earned raid gear... so I quit again.

But now, it is the day, before the big day.  And I'm feeling a few pangs of longing, even though I'm pissed off utterly with the inflation in the game, I love its look, I love the game; I'm just so tired and bored of it.

And I'm going to miss Loch Modan, I'm going to miss Stormwind, I'm going to miss all those lands we've all spent so long living in.

Okay, I'm not going to miss Outlands, nor am I going to give a shit about Northrend.  But as I consider myself a veteran player of the original game, and I spent the best part of three years just playing out those area's, I am going to miss them.

The questions are... when will I go in to take a look at everything that's going on?  And will I miss it all going on "live" because its happening on a Tuesday and I'm at work?