The Old New Thing

What's the row of numbers on the copyright page of books?

April 10, 2007 Apr 10, 2007 04/10/07
Raymond Chen
On the copyright page of a book (typically the back of the title page), you'll find a row of numbers. Something like this: Printed in the United States of America 10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1 As Dave Taylor explains, the smallest number tells you which printing of the book you have. ...

What is the default version of a header file?

April 10, 2007 Apr 10, 2007 04/10/07
Raymond Chen
The general rule with Windows header files is that if you don't specify which version of the header file you want, you get the latest version. For example, if you have the Windows XP Platform SDK header files and you , you're going to get the Windows XP function prototypes, the Windows XP structures, the the Windows XP ...

Why doesn't the taskbar return to its original size when I return my settings to their original values?

April 9, 2007 Apr 9, 2007 04/9/07
Raymond Chen
Commenter Gareth asked why, when the system metrics change and the taskbar changes size to match, the taskbar doesn't return to its original size when the metrics return to their previous values. Because the taskbar doesn't remember the path of changes that led to its current state. It just knows its current state. Let's say the taskbar is ...

When very young children try too hard to act nonchalant

April 6, 2007 Apr 6, 2007 04/6/07
Raymond Chen
Apropos of nothing (but perhaps filed as an addendum to the "stories from school" category), I was reminded of a story from the aftermath of the Nisqually Earthquake that struck Seattle in 2001. Mind you, this story is fourth-hand by now, but it's still cute. A young student, whom I will call "Billy", returned from school the day of the ...

Code is read much more often than it is written, so plan accordingly

April 6, 2007 Apr 6, 2007 04/6/07
Raymond Chen
Design for readability. Even if you don't intend anybody else to read your code, there's still a very good chance that somebody will have to stare at your code and figure out what it does: That person is probably going to be you, twelve months from now. When I advised against the use of function parameters, one commenter pointed out that ...

On the enduring appeal of Walker, Texas Ranger

April 5, 2007 Apr 5, 2007 04/5/07
Raymond Chen
Conan O'Brien airs clips from Walker, Texas Ranger. The putative excuse for this is that, as a result of the merger of NBC with Universal Studios, he can air clips from the show without paying royalties. The real excuse, of course, is that the clips are just so unintentionally funny. This appears to be a recurring sketch on Conan, so a ...

Why can't I display a tooltip for a disabled window?

April 5, 2007 Apr 5, 2007 04/5/07
Raymond Chen
Here's a question that floated past my field of view some time ago: When the mouse hovers over a disabled window, the tooltip associated with that window does not appear. Why is this? Why isn't this documented in MSDN? Actually, you already know the answer, and it is documented. You just have to connect the dots. When a window is disabled...

Your chance to meet Raymond if you are near Palo Alto on the 23rd

April 4, 2007 Apr 4, 2007 04/4/07
Raymond Chen
There's been a slight change in plans. I will be in Palo Alto on April 23rd rather than April 20th. Not that anybody is affected by this beyond the folks at Microsoft's Silicon Valley Campus, since nobody else took me up on my offer. I guess I'm not as popular as I thought. Update 13-Apr-2007: Here's my schedule for April 23rd when I'm down ...

His lips are moving: In order to serve you better

April 4, 2007 Apr 4, 2007 04/4/07
Raymond Chen
Q: How do you know when a lawyer is lying? A: His lips are moving. This is of course a completely unfair and discriminatory joke. Many lawyers are women. Anyway, today I'm going to rant about the phrase "In order to serve you better." Whenever you hear this phrase, you are pretty much guaranteed that whatever follows will in fact not serve...