Tuesday, October 23, 2007

VB Code Formatter Plug-in for Windows Live Writer

Refer to my post yesterday, I've found a new plug-in for Windows Live Writer (WLW), that can paste my Visual Basic Source Code and keep it's format. I've test some codes, and it seems works fine for me.

Here's a sample:

VB Code
Public Shared Function NumberToEnglishWords(ByVal num As Long) As String
Return NumberToEnglishWords(num, 0)
End Function

Other features that seems great is the ability to add line number, which I'm still can't decide whether I should use it or not. The plug-in is made with C# and it's open source. I'd like to learn the source when I have a spare time.


At the first look (in Live Writer editor), the table border width is not quite right. I'll look the result after I post this on my blog.


This plug-in was made by Steve Dunn. You can visit his blog here, while the article about the plug-in can be found here.

Windows Live Writer

I've finished download and installed Windows Live Writer. I use version 1.0. Actually I want to download the newest live writer, but it seems Microsoft didn't provide direct link with it. Sucks.

My first impression using this tool is good. It has spell check, Nice layout. But actually, that's not important to me. All I want is a style that can post source code without messing them.

Well, let's try it:

Code

Public Shared Sub DrawNonRectangleBorder(ByVal g As Graphics, ByVal borderColor As Color, _
                                         ByVal angle As Integer, ByVal rect As Rectangle)

    Using pth As New Drawing2D.GraphicsPath
        pth.AddLine(angle, 0, rect.Width - angle - 1, 0)
        pth.AddLine(rect.Width - 1, angle, rect.Width - 1, rect.Height - angle - 1)
        pth.AddLine(rect.Width - angle - 1, rect.Height - 1, angle, rect.Height - 1)
        pth.AddLine(0, rect.Height - angle - 1, 0, angle)

        pth.CloseAllFigures()
        g.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.AntiAlias

        g.DrawPath(New Pen(borderColor), pth)
    End Using
End Sub

 

Ok. First testing, it has one big disadvantage than Office 2007. When I copy source code directly from VS IDE, the font color didn't change. That's a big drawback to me. In Office 2007, it copies all styles, including font color. Unfortunately, the table messed up after I post. For now, let's see the final result first...

Monday, October 22, 2007

Back to blog

After 5 months absent, I start to write the blog again. Now, I know, writing a blog is not an easy task. You should know how to explain/describe, express something in your mind, or even tell some strories or experience to the readers. Well, writing a blog is easy, but to write a GOOD article or blog need more effort than just writing. Heck, I event don't know whether I spelled my english perfectly in this blog, since blogger editor didn't contain spell check. Maybe because I use IE 7 for posting blog, since Firefox contain spell check by default. For some reason, I still not trust firefox right now. And don't ask me why. It's hard to explain.

For now, I'll try more active in writing blog. I hope this will horn my skills in writing and describing, so I can make a good speech in the future :p...

By the way, I will leave Office 2007 for posting a blog due to some trouble I have with it. The table still sucks. If the table still sucks, I won't be able to post the code in this blog. So, I'll try another tools for posting the blog (And I don't like blogger default editor too. Heh..heh..). One tool that pop in my head is Live Writer...