When shifting to Visual Studio 2010(VS2010) the first big hitter was the change in global includes / library's. For some reason I am not completely sure they have decided to relocate the includes that used to be in Tools - Options - Project and Solutions - VC++ Directories, to the property manager or at least that is what I found online. Other than that there is this annoying habit when ever listing directories, libraries it includes all the global as well as the local in the list that I would of thought was for local settings.

But not to dwell on the bad, things I have found useful -- autocomplete or intellisense this is greatly improved much more stable is even able to handle including files easily. Also one of the things that has always bugged me about visual studio is the theming options, apparently developers don't like to change colours. Well generally we revert to high contrast but still its nice not to be stuck with grey. One of the addons I stumbled across allows a colour scheme configuration. It is missing a few things like solution explorer but is greatly improved. 

So if you fancy changing the colour of Visual Studio some handy links

• Visual Studio Color Theme Editor
• Visual Studio Dark Expression Blend Color theme
• Metroline Text editor theme

Well there we go my breif introduction to Visual Studio 2010 for C++ development

I have spent a few days experimenting with different fixes to an issue where it states the the mex files included with mmread(a Matlab video reader) are incompatible. Well after playing around for a week with a few different solutions I think I have found a very easy solution that I should of realised...

I assumed there this update would require a recompile and all would be fine, what I should of done was try to play a video. It seems when the libstdc++ was updated the Ubuntu update didn't also update dependencies on this such as gstreamer / ffmpeg. So therefore playing a video in your player will say then promptly say "no available decoder" and update this automagically for you.

Well that was a stupid waste of time... back to research!

Last night I was exploring a problem with an update to libstdc++ library that broke a lot of my code, so after fiddling around with that I went for plan B

Plan B is to re-write the section of code to use OpenCV, sounds simple ? well I have been working on a Visual Information Retrieval library, to help with my work and other people in my group, part of that code is a VideoReader wrapper for OpenCV. So I thought this would be an easy solution...

Well turned out not to be so much, modifying the library to work with mex was easy, but I quickly hit a compatibility issue between 32bit and 64bit. Since I prefer to use Matlab 64bit, it therefore requires you to use 64bit mex files and hence all dependent libraries have to also be 64bit. Now compiling up OpenCV and Boost for 64bit no biggy, but one issue I completely forgot about was codec's...

Well now I am working on a work around to the OpenCV codec problem but is seeming like one problem after another. When eventually done this library should be quite useful for anyone getting into Video Retrieval...

Am sat on the sofa, working on adaption to my current sketch retrieval system and as you do allowed Ubuntu ask you to update and so I did. Unfortunately one of the updates is libstdc that links to well everything. So am sat trying to recompile everything with a lot of difficulty due to not always having all the code for everything.

Well hopefully eventually I'll get there....

Many people complain about the quality of the android app store. Well Amazon are giving a fresh start a chance for there not to be 1000's of fart apps and a chance to get your novel idea to the top of the list!

At the moment Amazon are offering it free for developers for the first year! 

So if you are an android developer get started by going to https://developer.amazon.com/welcome.html

So now you want to get it onto your phone, granted this application isn't anything you are ever going to use but its still nice to know you can run your apps on your device.

So what you need todo is load up your SDK Manager if you did the default install its in 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk-windows\ 

you will probably need to run in administrator mode.

Now install

Google Usb Driver Package

You then need to update your driver for more details on this read (hint Device manager update driver) http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html

Now go back to Eclipse and click

run as > android application 

You will see:

Just a hint if next to target it says unkown with no green tick you need to go to on your device

Settings > Applications > Development

Check USB Debugging then you will see the green tick and the device. To deploy click the device then OK and off you go you should now have deployed to your android phone!

you want to get started and you have a glance at the android developer site (http://developer.android.com/index.html) if you are anything like me you want to dive in.

So you need to download all the sdk's etc first what do you really need:

IDE

• Eclipse  http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/

Environment

• JRE - Java Runtime environment (you may have this installed already) http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

SDK (in order of download)

• JDK - Java Development Kit http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
• Android SDK - Software Development Kit http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
• Android Eclipse ADT - Android Development Tools http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html
• Android NDK - Native Development Kit http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/index.html

Install all the above and you are about ready to get started there are a few issues you may face. If you don't read the instructions you need to go to in eclipse

Window > Preferences > Android

Set the SDK Location

Also do you have your user area in C: ?  Well I don't so you may hit a problem of being unable to run any Virtual Devices as always there is a work around:

mklink /J C:\Users\anthony\.android D:\Users\anthony\.android

Thanks to Stack Overflow http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3384070/android-emulator-reports-unknown-virtual-device

You should be now set to start developing for android!

Anyway...

1.      Application Localization (aka Multi-Lingual Applications)

This is a huge one that you have to decide on at the start how many of us have written

MessageBox.Show("Ahh its all gone wrong");

Well there is a fundamental problem with that, to a person that speaks German that means nothing. So at the start of all projects decide who am I aiming this at, what languages do the speak, an annoying first question to is will I ever support multiple languages if yes put the work in first set up your resource files to support your applications future development and avoid any hard coded strings.

2.      Skins and Layout

This is something that doesn't effect all projects but its something worth thinking about. Since our implementation was based on Windows Forms, we needed to be able to handle a more unique interface so that it didn't look like a dry windows application. Therefore we skinned the form to make it look more aesthetically pleasing.

Now making a form and deriving from it may seem obvious but plan it through first, think of what your layout is. We use a fixed layout with ajustable backgrounds so that we can simply change the style but this introduces limitations. We mainly did this for security we didn't want too much playing around with the underlying layout. None the less you need to think through what options you need.

Always remember the stray panel's like error messages critical errors we handle with the standard MessageBox but most of them should be handled with your theme in mind and therefore must look like they are part of your application.

3.      The wonders of Components

On TooGaming I went a little crazy with this one but In truth it helps being able to easily drop in a LogIn or a chat wherever you needed with minimal lines works well. This even led to the extent of a component based forms where you create a new form/control and the form will automatically layout it's self around the control this was a convenience for quick pop-ups.

Components give you a lot of flexibility and I've found made code a lot easier to re-read. Don't lock yourself down are you 100% sure you wont need that Contact Support form in the same or a different context in another place?

These are just a few of my ramblings, and although TooGaming is still in development I urge all to check it out. We aim to revolutionise PC gaming.

(Yes I dream big )

Maybe when making a theme you should sit down and go through every variable to make sure you don't get inconsistencies. Well none the less its almost finished I have anouther theme I'm making for a game I am developing and then have to dream up another for  a rpg game. The fun never stops Seems I spend a lot of time doing web development these days. TooGaming hasn't helped with that

For anyone who hasn't used MojoPortal check it out at www.MojoPortal.com

A bold move I know not really adding much functionality, but the main reason was I am looking for some more task/milestone tacking facilities I was considering moving to  SVN and Trac to help me manage my projects but sadly to really be of use I would of needed to pay for additional hosting that didn't really make me bounce up and down with joy.

There isnt huge amounts to say other than WOOT! it all upgraded fine my project source directories all seem intact. Will give more information on benefits soon.

Happy Sourcing Folks!