Re: Class Wizard funkiness

From: Joseph M. Newcomer (newcomer_at_flounder.com)
Date: 10/24/04 

Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 02:00:03 -0400

Example: a resizable dialog should include the WM_GETMINMAXINFO message! But did they fix
this defect in VS7? NO! It was far more important to screw up the user interface instead
of actually improving the product!

Given that it should be tirival to have ClassWizard recognize all derivations, there is
little excuse to have not done this, and NO excuse for not having fixed this glaring
defect in VS7!

There is no reason to not have decent GUI help; given that it is actually pretty easy for
Microsoft to implement this stuff, there is no reason to not have decent GUI interfaces.
The obscenely slow ClassWizard of VS7 is completely inexcusable; the fact that it shuts
down each time and has to be restrated demonstrates that whoever wrote it is TOTALLY
CLUELESS about how programmers work; the fact that it keeps switching attention away from
the dialog you are working on and shows the completely and utterly useless source code of
hte module shows that there was absolutely no understanding of how MFC code is actually
constructed!

VS7 is so bad that people who have never seen VS6 recognize that the whole interface
sucks. One of my clients has completely abandoned Microsoft and is now using Eclipse. If I
had a decent ClassWizard in Eclipse, I might change, myself. The story they give is that
Eclipse was clearly designed by people who actually earned their living as programmers,
rather than by fools with "visions" of the ideal interface.

The new interface solves none of the problems of the old interface, and while it is slow,
this is forgivable because it is also clumsy and obsucre. Which is alright, because it is
no longer modeless. Which is OK because all the edit controls you want to read are too
small to see more than about three characters of the text.

                                joe

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 11:11:00 GMT, "M" <ihatespam.0.a101888@spamgourmet.com> wrote:

>Hi Joseph,
>
>"Joseph M. Newcomer" <newcomer@flounder.com> wrote in message
>news:ctabn05h8ghu3c56mlfd99lhktdf0ui95j@4ax.com...
>> ClassWizard in VS6 is a fairly s stupid piece of code; it is only
>> marginally more
>> intelligent in VS7 (if VS7 had spent as much effort fixing ClassWizard as
>> it did in
>> destroyiing the user interface, it could have been a useful and
>> interesting product).
>
>I think the designers of Visual C++ consider C++ programmers to "techey".
>Class Wizard is only desgined to give you skelleton classes. It can also
>come in usefull when you are adding message map functions. However the list
>they give you of windows messages are only the common ones. There are many
>more that are NOT listed!
>
>If you have a class which is derived from another class which is in turn
>derived from a Microsoft Base Class, you can con Class Wizard by putting the
>Microsoft Base Class in the Message map bit, but you need to remember to put
>it all back when your done!
>
>> If you derive classes by hand, you must make sure you meet EVERY ONE of
>> the undocumented
>> requirements of ClassWizard to have the class properly recognized. The
>> slightest failure
>> means that ClassWizard becomes confused. The fact that you have a
>> hand-derived class in
>> between is immensely suspicious, and most likely the cause of the problem.
>> But the rules
>> are so peculiar that it is hard to guess which tiny detail you might have
>> gotten wrong.
>> Also, ClassWizard cannot handle derivations other than one level down
>> (never mind that the
>> language, and all the other information available, makes this trivial; VS7
>> has the same
>> defect, apparently, they can't learn, and the approach to defects is to
>> redesign a
>> completely unrelated, and actually usable, part of the system).
>>
>> I've done a lot of complex class derivations, and making sure I get all
>> the ClassWizard
>> stuff perfect is possibly the hardest part.
>> joe
>>
>
>If you are a C++ programmer don't expect too much to be done for you by
>gizmos like Class Wizard. If you wants LOTS of GUI help, you probable need
>to look at using another language.
>
>VC6 has just recently has had a nasty habit of crashing from time to time
>when I add something to the cpp file then go to .h file to add the
>declaration, then press F5 to build and run. Fortunately so far it has
>always saved all my changes, but is far more worrying than Class Wizard
>being a pain in the neck!!
>
>M
>
>> On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 12:47:56 -0700, "Dave" <better_cs_now@yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Hello all,
>>>
>>>After deleting Class Wizard's .clw file and trying to regenerate it, there
>>>are problems with a few of my classes, including the one I particularly
>>>care
>>>about. I get this error:
>>>
>>>"Cannot find the header file for class "RemoteServerConfigDlg". Continue
>>>creating the ClassWizard database?"
>>>
>>>There is nothing unusual about my dialog, its corresponding class or the
>>>locations of the associated files except for one thing: My dialog is not
>>>derived directly from CDialog; there is one user-defined class between
>>>CDialog and my dialog, and this user class is in a separate project.
>>>Other
>>>than that, it's very straightforward. I have tried pulling in the
>>>intermediate class' header into the same directory, but to no avail...
>>>
>>>I know this is all kind of vague but I thought I would just check to see
>>>if
>>>anyone else has encountered such a problem and might know how to make
>>>Class
>>>Wizard happy...
>>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>Dave
>>>
>>
>> Joseph M. Newcomer [MVP]
>> email: newcomer@flounder.com
>> Web: http://www.flounder.com
>> MVP Tips: http://www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm
>

Joseph M. Newcomer [MVP]
email: newcomer@flounder.com
Web: http://www.flounder.com
MVP Tips: http://www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm

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