Computers & Programming

I have a Windows Store app written in C# that has some popups. These are Popup objects that work like modal dialog boxes. Mine are displayed as a band across the middle of the screen. The standard built-in on-screen keyboard (OSK) handling does not alter the position of…

In a C# Windows Store app that I am writing, I let the user tap a button and then I start a background task to do a bunch of work. While this working is being done, the user can see the results on-screen as they become available. But…

In the process of porting my Windows Phone code to Windows 8 (Store App), I came across this interesting problem. FrameworkElement FieldView = Field.getView( true ); ContentPanel.Children.Add( FieldView ); Panel theParent = VisualTreeHelper.GetParent(FieldView) as Panel; FrameworkElement theotherparent = (FrameworkElement)FieldView.Parent; When I call this code in the OnNavigatedTo event…

I just finished writing a small Windows Store app. It is a color mixing program that stands out because it includes an Alpha channel control. I downloaded someone else’s color mixer and was sadly disappointed. Their user interface had multiple preview boxes, and changing a setting in one…

I’ve been writing c# and XAML code for Windows 8 for the last six months. During that time, I have used various utility programs to help with my development. I hope to update this post with new tools as I use them. Here are the tools that have…

When developing for Windows Phone 7 and 8, the operating system API provides access to lots of interesting features. One feature lets the application get the selected theme color that the user has selected. This is not available to Windows Store apps because, well because the notion of…

My new laptop, a Samsung Ativ Book 8, came with some Norton/Symantec software pre-installed. It came with a lot of other crap too. Since the Norton software is trial software, I uninstalled it using the “Remove Programs” feature in the control panel. That did not, however, uninstall the…

What a pain-in-the-ass! I need to have a combination of features that seems common, but are not supplied by Microsoft in their WinRT environment. WinRT, in case it is not clear, is the operating system API used by Windows Store apps. A Windows Store app is a Windows…

I am fairly new to C#. I have been a C++ programming using MFC and other similar frameworks for the last 20 years, but the switch to c# has been fairly easy. Computer languages are like hammers; you can go to the store and buy a bigger one…

Form Test Page The Windows Phone 8 app that I have been working on for a while now has forms with required fields. Only a subset of fields are required, but there are no marking to indicate this.   In the image above, you can see a test…