Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 November 2

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[edit] November 2

[edit] computer vb.net

what is a base class —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.134.24.33 (talk) 00:16, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

I don't know VB but generally speaking, a 'class' is a structure with some member functions. Suppose you were writing a program to simulate animals on earth. You'd want classes for Lions and Tigers, Dogs, Wolves, Zebras, Horses,etc. Pretty soon you'd realise that lions and tigers would share a lot of code - and most of their data would be the same too. What you'd really like to do is to write a class called "class BigCat" - and have "class Lion" be derived from BigCat and class Tiger be derived from BigCat. In this case, 'BigCat' is the 'Base Class' from which Lions and Tigers are derived. However, we'd pretty soon discover that the base class of dog and wolf should be "class Canine". Now though you're going to start to notice things that BigCat and Canine have in common - so you derive both of them from 'class Carnivore' - and now THAT is the base class from which dogs, wolves, lions, tigers, canines and bigcats are all derived. In the end, you'll decide that EVERYTHING should be derived from class 'LivingThing' - from there "class Animal" and from that "class Mammal" and from that "class Carnivore" and so on down. But the 'base class' is at the "base" of this gigantic tree of classes. SteveBaker 00:32, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
Also see Inheritance (computer science). 130.237.57.80 11:48, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Windows XP

Hiya, I have a Dell LAtitude CPx laptop, It has Windows XP, and a 10gb hard drive. 9gb are filled with viruses, spyware ect. I have bought Windows 2000 (the computer is from 2000, and so I presume it will work better with this on it) I wish to Format eveything and install windows 2000. XP does not have a dosprompt to enter and say format C:\ I am unable to make it boot from the CD ect ect ect. Can any one please tell me how to do this, as if I were a 2 year old, as I know next to nothing about computers, or could some one please provide a link to show me how to do this. Thank you very much. 12.191.136.2 12:17, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

XP certainly does have a DOS prompt. Click start/run then type CMD and hit enter. Can you explain what happens when you try to boot from CD? By the way, you might get more responses at the Computing ref desk, however be prepared also for people to tell you to use something other than Windows. --LarryMac | Talk 13:14, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
If I try to bbot from the cd, it seems that it will, but then just loads normal Windows XP as it did before, then takes 30 min to load into windows as usual. Further more, the XP dos prompt that I have found through the use of start-run-cmd cannot format any thing as it is still in windows. if that makes scence. Thanks
When you install XP, you have the option to format the harddrive. You cannot format the harddrive while IN windows. -- kainaw™ 13:25, 2 November 2007 (UTC)Ok, but I am unable to install 2000, as when in windows I open the D: drive, it says loading install wizard...operation has terminated to to error... I have many viruses. Please lead me trough it like a 2 year old thank you very much.


Have you tried going into the BIOS to change the boot order? When the computer starts to boot look for a phrase that reads something like " Hit delete to enter setup". It may not be delete, it may be one of the function keys or the enter key. Anyway when you see the phrase hit the key it states quickly! Then you should be able to change the boot order to cd first then harddrive. Theresa Knott | The otter sank 14:40, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Dell Support Page with instructions on how to enter BIOS and change boot order. --LarryMac | Talk 14:46, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] CSS style for paragraph break size

Hi all,

I'm trying to change the height of my paragraph breaks. I have a bunch of text with paragraphs delineated with <p/> (not <p>...</p> — it would be a huge complication to change this, so it would be great if a solution didn't require this). In my p {...} tag in my CSS style sheet, I've tried setting the text size, the margin sizes and the padding, but none of this has worked.

If it because I'm using <p/> instead of <p>...</p>? Is it because my CSS renderer is only CSS 1.0 compliant? (It's a java-based renderer for laying out text in a java program).

Any ideas?

Thanks! — Sam 15:54, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Yes. <p/> is an empty tag. The renderer sees no reason to display anything at all (regardless of padding, margins, etc...). Do a search&replace changing <p/> to </p><p> - then you'll only need to change the first and last tags for each series of paragraphs. -- kainaw™ 17:08, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
Kainaw I think you meant the reverse, and I corrected it in your comment. Also, why have empty p tags? Why not just increase the top and bottom margin? --antilivedT | C | G 21:53, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
No - I meant what I wrote. Currently, there is a <p/> tag between each paragraph. What you want between each paragraph is a "close the previous paragraph" followed by an "open the next paragraph". That is why you put the close first and the open second. Once done, all you need to do is ensure the very first paragraph has a single open tag and the very last paragraph ends with a single close tag. -- kainaw™ 21:56, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
I'm confused by what the OP meant with his <p/> tags. I think s/he's just using it for extra line breaks between normal p tags like <p>blah blah blah</p><p/><p>More Blah Blah</p>, so putting in empty p elements instead of <p/>would solve his/her problem; but then I might be wrong. --antilivedT | C | G 01:03, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

<P/> is correctly being ignored: We discourage authors from using empty P elements. User agents should ignore empty P elements. (W3C). --h2g2bob (talk) 03:58, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

I assume the OP means "Some text <p/> Some text <p/> Some text ...". If this is the case, and if this is the only time the 'p' tag is being used, a quick fix is to change the "height" css attribute of the 'p' tags, or the "min-height". Curiously though, on all three browsers I checked with this solution, all of the 'p's except for the first in the document correctly grow to the height specified, so you would need to make sure your code was of the form: "<p/> Some text <p/> Some text ..." -- DatRoot 12:08, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
The problem is that <p/> is exactly equivalent to <p></p> (with no text between them). Any attributes your CSS adds to <p> tags will only affect whatever is between the <p> and matching </p>...which in this case is nothing. So there is good justification for the browser ignoring <p/>. SteveBaker 05:22, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Word Attachment" Article

Hello all,

Does anybody know what happened to the Wikipedia article on "Word attachments"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.132.168.26 (talk) 16:28, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

It got deleted on the 9th September. You can read the deletion discussion here. -- DatRoot 16:55, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
Additionally, if you created it, you can contest the deletion if you like. There's information at WP:WWMPD. -- DatRoot 17:02, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 2000 again

does windows 2000 come with Internet explorer and Outlook express already fitted or do I need to get these separatly? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.191.136.3 (talk) 16:32, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Yes, but older versions. --— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 16:45, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] choosing the wright language

I want to know that which is the best language for network programming, is it python, perl or java,C#. I know C,C++,PHP. should i learn these languages? or are they enough? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Freaky guy (talk • contribs) 16:58, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Most "network programming" is mere sending and receiving streams of characters. Technically, they are streams of bytes, but most applications are sending characters. So, any language in which you are comfortable handling IO streams is good. -- kainaw™ 17:05, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
  • I think learning one (and one is adequate) of those languages would serve you well, as C and C++ are too cumbersome for casual programming, which is the best kind. PHP might be OK, but my experiences with it haven't been great. --Sean 17:53, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
Depends on your application. If you want to use it for web progamming, go for PHP. Is platform cross-compatibility a requirement? Java. I don't know what you mean by "network programming"- if you mean programming apps that work with networked computers, go with C++ and learn a lot of Windows API.. you'll have to use the Windows TCP/IP stack. --ffroth 20:15, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
I'd personally favour Java because it has pretty great libraries for handling streams and sockets (and everything else), and it's way easier to learn than C or C++. And you can make just as nice apps with it. --Oskar 01:08, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mouse

Is there any program that will allow you to make your mouse move faster when you are holding down a button and then go back to regular speed when you release that button? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.187.104.71 (talk) 20:02, 2 November 2007 (UTC)