Emil's Wicked Cool Blog

Branching and merging is one of the most nerve-racking activities for people working with Subversion.  Unlike Mercurial and other DVCS where branching and merging is commonplace, typical workflows in Subversion do not include this activity.  As a result, the terminology is typically confusing, the massive number of changes can be scary, and a lot of people are so concerned about "getting it right" that they typically just avoid the practice altogether and work completely outside of source control.  That, of course, is the exact opposite of what we need when working on an important design spike or critical new feature.

 Conceptually, what we want with a design spike or large new feature is to:

• Create a new branch for the change
• Work in the new branch, committing early and often
• Periodically pull in (merge) the changes from the project trunk
• When complete, reintegrate the branch into the trunk

1.  Right-click on the directory you want to branch.  Pick the Branch/Tag operation.
2. On the branch/tag screen, enter a new branch (typically the repository has a /branches folder as well as a /trunk folder).  The new branch is typically /branches/mynewbranch, where the branch name itself is a folder that does not exist in the repository.
3. In this scenario, you will also want to choose "switch working copy to new branch/tag".  We'll be doing work on the new feature or design change immediately, so this tells subversion that any new commits will be on that other branch.

1. Pick the Merge tool off the TortoiseSVN menu.
2. Choose the "Merge a range of revisions" from the first screen of the wizard.
3. In the "URL to merge from", choose the trunk.
4. In the Revision range to merge, the best approach is to be precise.  Put in the last revision number that was merged (e.g. if you branched when the repository was at revision 10, put in 11-HEAD).  You can leave this blank, but we want to avoid merging a change twice.  You may need to look at the log to help find the right revisions.

1. Commit all branch changes
2. Switch the working directory back to the trunk.  This is done via the TortoiseSVN switch command.
3. Pick the Merge command off the TortoiseSVN menu as before.  This time, however, we'll pick the "Reintegrate a branch" option.
4. In the "From URL" field, put the URL to the branch you've finished working on.
5. Test the merge and if happy, perform the merge, test the changes, and commit to the trunk.

 

• Spring.Core.dll from the 2.0 folder
• Spring.Web.dll from the 2.0 folder
• Spring.Services.dll from the 3.0 folder

This issue has been plaguing our project: operation aborted errors, intermittent in nature, occurring sometimes as little as once/week. Even in IE 8 there were issues, although thankfully not the crazy dialog box we see in IE 6 and 7.

It turns out that the problem is due to a bug in Ajax itself. I won't go into all the details, since they're covered very well in these two blog posts:

• First post with background: http://seejoelprogram.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/when-sysapplicationinitialize-causes-operation-aborted-in-ie/
  
• Second post with bug fixes to the original bug fix: http://seejoelprogram.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/fixing-sysapplicationinitialize-again/
  

• Sys$_Application$initialize:
  

  
   function Sys$_Application$initialize() {
       if(!this._initialized && !this._initializing) {
           this._initializing = true;
           var u = window.navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase(),
               v = parseFloat(u.match(/.+(?:rv|it|ml|ra|ie)[\/: ]([\d.]+)/)[1]);
  
           var initializeDelegate = Function.createDelegate(this, this._doInitialize);
  
           if (/WebKit/i.test(u) && v < 525.13)
           {
               this._load_timer = window.setInterval(function()
               {
                   if (/loaded|complete/.test(document.readyState))
                   {
                       initializeDelegate();
                   }
               }, 10);
           }
           else if (/msie/.test(u) && !window.opera)
           {
               document.attachEvent('onreadystatechange',
                   function (e) {
                       if (e && arguments.callee && document.readyState == 'complete') {
                           document.detachEvent('on'+e.type, arguments.callee);
                           initializeDelegate();
                       }
                   }
               );
               if (window == top) {
                   (function () {
                       try {
                           document.documentElement.doScroll('left');
                       } catch (e) {
                           setTimeout(arguments.callee, 10);
                           return;
                       }
                       initializeDelegate();
                   })();
               }
  
           }
           else if (document.addEventListener
               &&  ((/opera\//.test(u) && v > 9) ||
                   (/gecko\//.test(u) && v >= 1.8) ||
                   (/khtml\//.test(u) && v >= 4.0) ||
                   (/webkit\//.test(u) && v >= 525.13))) {
               document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", initializeDelegate, false);
           }
           else
           {
               $addHandler(window, "load", initializeDelegate);
           }
       }
   }
  
  

  
  
• Sys$_Application$_doInitialize():
  

  
   function Sys$_Application$_doInitialize() {
     if (this._initialized) {
      return;
     }
     Sys._Application.callBaseMethod(this, 'initialize');
     if (this._load_timer !== null)
     {
      clearInterval(this._load_timer);
      this._load_timer = null;
     }
     var handler = this.get_events().getHandler("init");
     if (handler) {
      this.beginCreateComponents();
      handler(this, Sys.EventArgs.Empty);
      this.endCreateComponents();
     }
     if (Sys.WebForms) {
      if (this._onPageRequestManagerBeginRequest) this._beginRequestHandler = Function.createDelegate(this, this._onPageRequestManagerBeginRequest);
      if (this._beginRequestHandler) Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance().add_beginRequest(this._beginRequestHandler);
      if (this._onPageRequestManagerEndRequest) this._endRequestHandler = Function.createDelegate(this, this._onPageRequestManagerEndRequest);
      if (this._endRequestHandler) Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance().add_endRequest(this._endRequestHandler);
     }
  
     if (this.get_stateString){
      var loadedEntry = this.get_stateString();
      if (loadedEntry !== this._currentEntry) {
       this._navigate(loadedEntry);
      }
     }
     this.raiseLoad();
     this._initializing = false;
    }
  
  

  
  
• Sys$_Application$_loadHandler():
  

  
   function Sys$_Application$_loadHandler() {
    if(this._loadHandlerDelegate) {
     Sys.UI.DomEvent.removeHandler(window, "load", this._loadHandlerDelegate);
     this._loadHandlerDelegate = null;
    }
    this._initializing = true;
    this._doInitialize();
   }
  

  
  

  <ajaxtoolkit:toolkitscriptmanager runat="server" enablepartialrendering="true" id="ScriptManager">
       <scripts>
           <asp:scriptreference name="MicrosoftAjax.js" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" path="~/js/MicrosoftAjax-withFix.js">
       </scripts>
  </ajaxToolkit:ToolkitScriptManager>

   <asp:scriptmanager runat="server" enablepartialrendering="true" id="ScriptManager">
       <scripts>
<asp:scriptreference name="MicrosoftAjax.js" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" path="~/js/MicrosoftAjax-withFix.js">
       </scripts>
   </asp:ScriptManager>

• Debug version: http://lerch.org/js/MicrosoftAjax-WithFix.debug.js
  
• Release version (simply a minified version of the debug js - run through YUI Compresssor): http://lerch.org/js/MicrosoftAjax-WithFix.release.js
  

I recently needed to get image data from a server using Javascript, base64 encode it, and post that data back to an application. While the details of why I needed to do this are a bit complex, I believe that getting image data through an XMLHttpRequest object and base 64 enconding it will become more valuable in terms of client-side image manipulation using the data URI scheme for image tags.

This would allow a Javascript developer, for instance, to load an existing image (say, a photo), without base64 encoding it on the server, load it into an image tag with a data URI, and make direct manipulations on that image.

Unfortunately, this area is relatively new and browsers have a lot of differences. Data URI support is still very new, inconsistent, and limited. In the meantime, here is how you get that base64 encoded image in the first place:

Internet Explorer:

Base64 = {
 
 // private property
 _keyStr : "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=",

 encodeBinaryArrayAsString : function(input){
  var ascArr;
  var output = "";
  var bytebuffer;
  var encodedCharIndexes = new Array(4);
  
  var inx = 0;
  ascArr = input.substring("BinaryArrayToAscCSV".length, input.length - 1).split(',');
  while(inx < ascArr.length){
   // Fill byte buffer array
   bytebuffer = new Array(3);
   for(jnx = 0; jnx < bytebuffer.length; jnx++)
    if(inx < ascArr.length)
     bytebuffer[jnx] = parseInt(ascArr[inx++]); 
    else
     bytebuffer[jnx] = 0;
     
   // Get each encoded character, 6 bits at a time
   // index 1: first 6 bits
   encodedCharIndexes[0] = bytebuffer[0] >> 2;  
   // index 2: second 6 bits (2 least significant bits from input byte 1 + 4 most significant bits from byte 2)
   encodedCharIndexes[1] = ((bytebuffer[0] & 0x3) << 4) | (bytebuffer[1] >> 4);  
   // index 3: third 6 bits (4 least significant bits from input byte 2 + 2 most significant bits from byte 3)
   encodedCharIndexes[2] = ((bytebuffer[1] & 0x0f) << 2) | (bytebuffer[2] >> 6);  
   // index 3: forth 6 bits (6 least significant bits from input byte 3)
   encodedCharIndexes[3] = bytebuffer[2] & 0x3f;  
   
   // Determine whether padding happened, and adjust accordingly
   paddingBytes = inx - (ascArr.length - 1);
   switch(paddingBytes){
    case 2:
     // Set last 2 characters to padding char
     encodedCharIndexes[3] = 64; 
     encodedCharIndexes[2] = 64; 
     break;
    case 1:
     // Set last character to padding char
     encodedCharIndexes[3] = 64; 
     break;
    default:
     break; // No padding - proceed
   }
   // Now we will grab each appropriate character out of our keystring
   // based on our index array and append it to the output string
   for(jnx = 0; jnx < encodedCharIndexes.length; jnx++)
    output += this._keyStr.charAt(encodedCharIndexes[jnx]);     
  }
  return output;
 }
};

Base64 = {
 
 // private property
 _keyStr : "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=",

 encodeBinary : function(input){
  var output = "";
  var bytebuffer;
  var encodedCharIndexes = new Array(4);
  var inx = 0;
  var paddingBytes = 0;
   
  while(inx < input.length){
   // Fill byte buffer array
   bytebuffer = new Array(3);
   for(jnx = 0; jnx < bytebuffer.length; jnx++)
    if(inx < input.length)
     bytebuffer[jnx] = input.charCodeAt(inx++) & 0xff; // throw away high-order byte, as documented at: https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Using_XMLHttpRequest#Handling_binary_data
    else
     bytebuffer[jnx] = 0;
   
   // Get each encoded character, 6 bits at a time
   // index 1: first 6 bits
   encodedCharIndexes[0] = bytebuffer[0] >> 2;  
   // index 2: second 6 bits (2 least significant bits from input byte 1 + 4 most significant bits from byte 2)
   encodedCharIndexes[1] = ((bytebuffer[0] & 0x3) << 4) | (bytebuffer[1] >> 4);  
   // index 3: third 6 bits (4 least significant bits from input byte 2 + 2 most significant bits from byte 3)
   encodedCharIndexes[2] = ((bytebuffer[1] & 0x0f) << 2) | (bytebuffer[2] >> 6);  
   // index 3: forth 6 bits (6 least significant bits from input byte 3)
   encodedCharIndexes[3] = bytebuffer[2] & 0x3f;  
   
   // Determine whether padding happened, and adjust accordingly
   paddingBytes = inx - (input.length - 1);
   switch(paddingBytes){
    case 2:
     // Set last 2 characters to padding char
     encodedCharIndexes[3] = 64; 
     encodedCharIndexes[2] = 64; 
     break;
    case 1:
     // Set last character to padding char
     encodedCharIndexes[3] = 64; 
     break;
    default:
     break; // No padding - proceed
   }
   // Now we will grab each appropriate character out of our keystring
   // based on our index array and append it to the output string
   for(jnx = 0; jnx < encodedCharIndexes.length; jnx++)
    output += this._keyStr.charAt(encodedCharIndexes[jnx]);
  }
  return output;
 };

LoadBinaryResource = function(url) { 
  var req = new XMLHttpRequest();  
  req.open('GET', url, false);  

  if (req.overrideMimeType)
    req.overrideMimeType('text/plain; charset=x-user-defined');  
  req.send(null);  
  if (req.status != 200) return '';  
  if (typeof(req.responseBody) !== 'undefined') return BinaryArrayToAscCSV(req.responseBody);
  return req.responseText;  
} 

LoadBinaryResourceAsBase64 = function(url) { 
  var data = LoadBinaryResource(url);
  
  if (data.indexOf("BinaryArrayToAscCSV") !== -1)
    return Base64.encodeBinaryArrayAsString(data);
  else
    return Base64.encodeBinary(data);  
} 

So I just watched last week's SNL Weekend Update Thursdays on NBC.com, and decided to play around with their viewer. I haven't watched shows there before, but the Olympics were Silverlight and I wanted to know if they used Silverlight (no, they use Flash), and what features they had. I hit the info button (the thing with the arrow pointing to it), and was greeted with the interface you see below...the red box is mine (added for emphasis). Clearly they had some of the original mockup "Lorem Ipsum" in there and no one bothered to update it or correct it.

How's this for a setup message? Kinda hard to comply with...

I bumped across Stoxline during my recent foray into the technical analysis world. It provides a good quick summary of some key price points.