environment

What are your must-have tools?

I'm curious about what types of tools and specific tools people can't live without in their daily work. Anyone interested, please post up to 10 categories of tools you can't live without, and then with it as many specific implementations of that tool that you use. The reason for this category/implementation split is to compensate for t...

Virtual machine supporting multiple displays

Is there a way to get MS virtual PC 2007 to support multiple displays? Or is there another virtual machine product available that will allow me to work with multiple displays? At the company I work for we do all of our development in virtual machines. We currently use MS Virtual PC 2007 for this. I would love to be able to spread my mac...

What's your ideal multiple-monitor setup for programming?

Jeff Atwood is often expounding the benefits of triple monitor setups for developers, and I have to say I agree with him. However, we are about to take on a good number of new developers and are hoping to kit them out with a nice development environment. I was wondering, if given the opportunity, what you people would think of as the p...

Actual Productivity Gains from Multiple Monitors

I see a lot of posts from people talking about how they cannot possibly live without two, three or 13 1/2 monitors but does anybody have an actual metrics or statistics which I could use as ammunition? Same question for comfortable chairs. The company for which I work right now is looking at buying chairs but will buy bargain basement ...

Developing for multiple monitors

We are currently working on a new version of our main application. one thing that I really wish to work on is providing support for multiple monitors. Increasingly, our target users are adding second screens to their desktops and I think our product could leverage this extra space to improve user performance. Our application is a fina...

A Tidy Desk

I know that some developers flourish with a neat and tidy work area while others (myself included) don't mind a build up of chaos as long as work is getting done. It's not that I like a mess, it's just that I prefer to clean when there aren't more pressing matters at hand - usually at the end of a big push or as a way to relieve the mind...

How to change Instantiated Objects Font Colour in Visual Studio

Hello, I know the colours are changed in Environment > Fonts and Colors but I haven't found out which Display Item the object is. Can someone please tell how I can colour the following code: lblMessage.Text = "You have successfully answered my question!" I have the string coloured pink, I would like the lblMessage purple and the ...

Installer changes PATH variable, changes don't show up in Command Shell

Hi, I added a custom install action to my installer to add one of my installation directories to the System PATH environment variable. After I run the installer, the PATH variable reflects the changes (when I access it through the Control Panel::System applet), but when I start a new command shell, the PATH variable does not reflect the ...

Python deployment and /usr/bin/env portability

At the beginning of all my executable Python scripts I put the shebang line: #!/usr/bin/env python I'm running these scripts on a system where env python yields a Python 2.2 environment. My scripts quickly fail because I have a manual check for a compatible Python version: if sys.version_info < (2, 4): raise ImportError("Cannot r...

Cannot create an environment variable in the registry

I have a custom installer action that updates the PATH environment, and creates an additional environment variable. Appending a directory to the existing path variable is working fine, but for some reason my attempts to create a new environment variable have been unsuccessful. The code I am using is: using (RegistryKey reg = Reg...

JMS (esp Tibco EMS) can I have an environment with in a message broker

I have a message broker with some topics, and some set of applications running on it. Now I want to run a new set of the same applications (say for QA environment) on the same topics (on the same broker, if I could). What is the best way to do this. Creating a new broker and or creating a new set of topics is cumbersome, as our environme...

Best general SVN Ignore Pattern?

What is the best (or as good as possible) general SVN ignore pattern to use? There are a number of different IDE, editor, compiler, plug-in, platform, etc. specific files and some file types that "overlap" (i.e. desirable for some types projects and not for others). There are however, a large number of file types that you just never ...

reinitialize system wide environment variable in linux

I just want my apache to register some of my predefined environment so that i can retrieve it using getenv function in php. How can i do this? I tried adding /etc/profile.d/foo.sh with export FOO=/bar/baz using root and restarted apache. ...

Switching to a Standing Desk

At work I have a standard desk (4 legs, flat surface, you get the picture). For a while now I've been thinking about converting to a standing desk. What would be the best way to go about this on a limited budget? Are there some good laptop/keyboard stands I could place on my existing desk? Which ones are the best? I'm trying to avoi...

How do I run a series of processes in C# and keep their environment settings?

I am developing an auto-builder that will run a series of steps in our build process and build our target application. We used to use a batch file which set up a bunch of environment variables or called tools that setup environment variables and ultimately runs a 'make'. I've been using the 'Process' class which works great for running...

Long compile times and lost productivity

How long can a compile time get before it starts becoming a distraction to you? For me: <1 sec, I don't notice >1 min, I'm going for coffee >10 min, S.O. here I come (any other programming task that involves letting the computer do it's thing also apropos) ...

Corner desks vs straight desks

The company I work for are currently undergoing a site wide renovation and I'm involved in the 'consultation' on what the R&D work spaces are going to be like. There is no scope for individual private offices - so lets not start on that topic. One big requirement is that the office layout can be flexible (i.e. team areas can be create...

Robot simulation environments

I would like to make a list of remarkable robot simulation environments including advantages and disadvantages of them. Some examples I know of are Webots and Player/Stage. ...

Pros and Cons of Developing on a VM on a PC

I recently build myself a semi beef up PC (Q9450, 8GB DDR2 1066, 1TB HDD, Dual 8600GT, Vista Ultimate and Dual 22' Monitors) and I'm evaluating whether i should develop on a VPC/VMWare session on top of Vista or not? One benefit i can see is that i can run the same VM on my Vista laptop so my development environment is the same on any o...

Cost-effective team software development for small business or group?

Hello, I've seen many medium and large businesses set up elaborate processes for their software development and testing, be it Windows or Linux-based, web or local, for-profit or internal. How would a small business or group of developers go about setting up such environment, with minimal software and hardware costs? The idea is have a...