TL;DR

You can download from Github the demo application (zipped exe) or the whole source code project (Visual Studio project solution), or continue reading to see how it was built step by step.

What is this for an application?

My version of the FontViewer application as initially designed and developed in the book Sams Teach Yourself WPF in 24 Hours, with added IntegerUpDown control from Extended.Wpf.Toolkit NuGet package (for changing the font size).

Disclamer

I’m in no way affiliated with Amazon or this book, I just think it’s great, for beginners especially. This StackOverflow question may be useful if you’re searching for a good book on learning WPF.

Let’s build it step by step

First, create a new WPF Application project in Visual Studio (File -> New Project) as shown on the image below, and name it FontViewer:

Full source code listing

Now, copy the following XAML code in your MainWindow.xaml file (explanation comes after):

<Window x:Class="FontViewer.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:xctk="http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/toolkit"
        Title="FontViewer" Height="450" Width="600">
    
    <DockPanel Margin="8">
        <Border DockPanel.Dock="Top"
                CornerRadius="1"
                BorderThickness="2"
                BorderBrush="Black"
                Background="AliceBlue"
                Padding="8"
                Margin="0 0 0 8">
            <TextBlock FontSize="14" TextWrapping="Wrap">
                <Bold><Italic>Instructions:</Italic></Bold>
                <LineBreak />
                
                Select a <Underline>font</Underline> to view from the list <Italic>below</Italic>.
                <Span FontSize="10">
                    You can change the text by typing in the region at the bottom.
                </Span>
            </TextBlock>
        </Border>
        
        <ListBox x:Name="FontList" 
                 DataContext="{x:Static Fonts.SystemFontFamilies}"
                 DockPanel.Dock="Left" 
                 ItemsSource="{Binding}"
                 Width="160">
            <ListBox.ToolTip>
                <ToolTip>
                    <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Count, Mode=OneTime}"/>
                        <TextBlock Text=" fonts are installed."/>
                    </StackPanel>
                </ToolTip>
            </ListBox.ToolTip>
        </ListBox>

        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"  
                    HorizontalAlignment="Center" 
                    Margin="5"
                    DockPanel.Dock="Top">
            
            <TextBlock Margin="0 0 5 0">Font size:</TextBlock>
            <xctk:IntegerUpDown x:Name="FontSize"
                                Height="20" 
                                Width="50"
                                Increment="1" 
                                Value="20">
            </xctk:IntegerUpDown>
        </StackPanel>

        <TextBox x:Name="SampleText"
                 MinLines="2"
                 Margin="5"
                 TextWrapping="Wrap"
                 ToolTip="Type here to change the preview text."
                 DockPanel.Dock="Top">
            The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
        </TextBox>

        <TextBlock Text="{Binding ElementName=SampleText, Path=Text}"
                   FontFamily="{Binding ElementName=FontList,Path=SelectedItem}"
                   FontSize="{Binding ElementName=FontSize,Path=Value}"
                   TextWrapping="Wrap"
                   Margin="5"/>
    </DockPanel>
</Window>

Code decomposition

You can see that our main container is DockPanel, which is useful when you want to “dock” certain elements to the sides (top, bottom, left, right) of the window.

Next comes the Border element which contains instructions (on how to use the application) written inside the TextBlock element. If you’re familiar with CSS, the attributes on the Border element should seem natural to you. However, one novelty is the DockPanel.Dock=”Top” property which basically tells the Border element to position itself at the top of the parent DockPanel (in which it is contained).

To populate the list of available fonts which are installed on the machine, we’re using the ListBox element. It’s docked to the left, its name variable (by which we can reference it later in the code) is set to FontList (x:Name=”FontList”), and most importantly the ItemSource attribute is set to {x:Static Fonts.SystemFontFamilies} which basically tells the ListBox that it should display all the items which are returned from the static property SystemFontFamilies provided by .NET framework.

After the ListBox comes a StackPanel which by default “stacks” elements that it contains one below the other. By using the Orientation property (Orientation=”Horizontal”) we can make the contained elements align one next to the other.

Let’s mix it up a little

Since we want to have a numeric Up/Down control as we do in WinForms we will have to download additional component as it doesn’t exist in the standard WPF library. The discussion about this can be found on Stack Overflow. The solution is to go to Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Manage NuGet Packages… as shown on the illustration below:

On the form that shows up after this you have to do a search for Extended.Wpf.Toolkit and Install it:

As stated in the installation instructions you have to:

1. Add a using statement (“using Xceed.Wpf.Toolkit;” for most of the controls, “using Xceed.Wpf.DataGrid;” for the datagrid control) to the top of .cs files
   
2. Add a new xmlns (xmlns:xctk=”http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/toolkit” for most of the controls, xmlns:xcdg=”http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/datagrid” for the datagrid control) to the top of XAML files
3. Remember to use the namespace prefix (in the above example, <xctk: …> or <xcdg: …>) in the body of your XAML

As you can see in the full code listing, I added the needed xmlns in MainWindow.xaml. However, the needed using statement (using using Xceed.Wpf.Toolkit;) has to be added in the MainWindow.cs (right click on the MainWindow.xaml file and select View Code) file.

After this installation and proper including is done, you can use the new IntegerUpDown control in your XAML file like this:

<xctk:IntegerUpDown x:Name="FontSize"
                    Height="20" 
                    Width="50"
                    Increment="1" 
                    Value="20">
</xctk:IntegerUpDown>

Increment attribute tells the control by which amount to increment/decrement the number which is set by default in Value attribute.

Let’s enter some text

In order for the user to be able to enter some text and then see how the text looks like in the particular font, we’re using the TextBox element. Most important attribute is the x:Name (x:Name=”SampleText”) because we’ll use it to reference it in the TextBlock below.

Show me how the font looks like

We’re using the TextBlock element to show the user how the text which he entered in the TextBox looks like in the font which he selected from the ListBox. Here lies the core of our application as here we’re setting the so called Data Binding. We’re binding the Text attribute of the TextBlock to whatever is entered in the TextBox named SampleText (Text=”{Binding ElementName=SampleText, Path=Text}”). Next, we’re binding the FontFamily to the selected item in the ListBox named FontList (FontFamily=”{Binding ElementName=FontList,Path=SelectedItem}”), and finally we’re binding the FontSize to the Value of the IntegerUpDown control named FontSize.

Wrap up

If you run your application now you’ll see it works as expected and just like that you’ve made your very own version of the FontViewer application, you’ve seen how to install additional components from within Visual Studio using NuGet package manager, and you’ve seen how to set the data binding between elements.

Hope this proved to be helpful and got you excited about WPF in that manner that you’ll now go and do further exploring on your own.

Whenever I opened some pdf file and scrolled with the mouse the scrolling was per one page. Sure, you can change this by going to View -> Page Display -> Enable Scrolling:

but once you reopen Adobe Reader it’s back to as it was.

The solution is to make the default setting for all documents to have this setting and you do this by going to Edit -> Preferences and selecting Accessibility -> Override Page Display and setting it to Single Page Continuous.

edit: Thanks to Hugo André’s comment, it seems that in newer versions this is found by going to: “Go to the tab Adobe Reader -> Preferences”.

This has been haunting me for some time now – there’s just no Print Screen key on this keyboard which works on a Windows machine.

If you take a look at this thread you’ll see numerous attempts of which only installing AppleKeys2 worked for me. Now I only press F13 and woila – it works the same as Print Screen on a normal Windows keyboard.

If for some reason the link for AppleKeys2 is not working anymore, you can download it here.

So, if you have this in the code behind:

if (System.Windows.Forms.Screen.AllScreens.Length >= Config.ScreenNumber)
{
    System.Drawing.Rectangle screenBounds = System.Windows.Forms.Screen.AllScreens[Config.ScreenNumber - 1].Bounds;
    this.Left = screenBounds.Left;
    this.Top = screenBounds.Top;
}

And this in your XAML file on Window:

<Window WindowState="Maximized" ...

Asuming that Config.ScreenNumber equals 2, it will not position itself on the second screen no matter what you do, it will maximize on your main screen. What helped in the end was to remove the WindowState from the XAML definition and to add Loaded event handler:

private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    this.WindowState = WindowState.Maximized;
}

Taken from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff650316.aspx

public class Singleton
{
   private static Singleton instance;

   private Singleton() {}

   public static Singleton Instance
   {
      get 
      {
         if (instance == null)
         {
            instance = new Singleton();
         }
         return instance;
      }
   }
}

Static initialization

public sealed class Singleton
{
   private static readonly Singleton instance = new Singleton();
   
   private Singleton(){}

   public static Singleton Instance
   {
      get 
      {
         return instance; 
      }
   }
}

Multithreaded singleton

public sealed class Singleton
{
   private static volatile Singleton instance;
   private static object syncRoot = new Object();

   private Singleton() {}

   public static Singleton Instance
   {
      get 
      {
         if (instance == null) 
         {
            lock (syncRoot) 
            {
               if (instance == null) 
                  instance = new Singleton();
            }
         }

         return instance;
      }
   }
}

Test program; on first form you have two buttons, one which sets the amount of singleton, and second button which opens up another form which then sets the amount again. Once returned to the first form, the value updates to the one set on second form.

//Form1.cs
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    myClass mc;
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        mc = myClass.Instance;
    }

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        mc.iznos = 10;
        updateUI();
    }

    public void updateUI()
    {
        label1.Text = mc.iznos.ToString();
    }

    private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Form2 f2 = new Form2();
        f2.ShowDialog();
    }

    private void Form1_Activated(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        updateUI();
    }
}

//Form2.cs
public partial class Form2 : Form
{
    myClass mc;
    public Form2()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        
        mc = myClass.Instance;
    }

    private void Form2_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        mc.iznos = 5;
        updateUI();
    }

    public void updateUI()
    {
        label1.Text = mc.iznos.ToString();
    }
}

public class myClass{
    private static readonly myClass _instance = new myClass();

    private myClass(){}
    public static myClass Instance
    {
        get 
        {
            return _instance; 
        }
    }

    public int iznos { get; set; }
}

Especially today, when you’re reading this post on your computer/laptop/mobile phone/tablet, this message may be one of the last wake up calls for us. I myself sit at the desk for way too much hours a day, and even though I try to compensate by using a standing desk at home, I still somehow feel that we should try to go (at least few times a week) back to the old days when we were kids and we played in the playground, or built bows in the forest… Meh, I’ll stop writing here and go out for the rest of the day…

Add reference to System.Configuration :

and include it using the using statement:

using System.Configuration;

Edit App.config so that you add your settings in the appSettings  node in an add  element with key  and value  parameters.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <startup> 
        <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5" />
    </startup>

    <appSettings>
      <add key="server" value="localhost" />
      <add key="port" value="5432" />
      <add key="username" value="myusername" />
      <add key="password" value="mypass" />
      <add key="database" value="mydb" />
    </appSettings>
</configuration>

Now you can access your settings in code like this:

string server = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["server"].ToString();
string port = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["port"].ToString();
string username = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["username"].ToString();
string password = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["password"].ToString();
string database = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["database"].ToString();

First you have to install NodeJS. You can do that via package manager for your distribution. In my case (RHEL) it is easily done with:

sudo yum install nodejs npm --enablerepo=epel

Installing CasperJS is easy via npm (Node package manager):

sudo npm install -g casperjs

You will get output similar to this:

Copying extracted folder /usr/lib/node_modules/casperjs/node_modules/phantomjs/phantomjs/phantomjs-1.9.7-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2-extract-1396259124118/phantomjs-1.9.7-linux-x86_64 -> /usr/lib/node_modules/casperjs/node_modules/phantomjs/lib/phantom
Writing location.js file
Done. Phantomjs binary available at /usr/lib/node_modules/casperjs/node_modules/phantomjs/lib/phantom/bin/phantomjs
/usr/bin/casperjs -> /usr/lib/node_modules/casperjs/bin/casperjs
npm WARN unmet dependency /usr/lib/node_modules/block-stream requires inherits@'~2.0.0' but will load
npm WARN unmet dependency undefined,
npm WARN unmet dependency which is version undefined
npm WARN unmet dependency /usr/lib/node_modules/fstream requires inherits@'~2.0.0' but will load
npm WARN unmet dependency undefined,
npm WARN unmet dependency which is version undefined
npm WARN unmet dependency /usr/lib/node_modules/fstream-ignore requires inherits@'2' but will load
npm WARN unmet dependency undefined,
npm WARN unmet dependency which is version undefined
npm WARN unmet dependency /usr/lib/node_modules/fstream-npm requires inherits@'2' but will load
npm WARN unmet dependency undefined,
npm WARN unmet dependency which is version undefined
npm WARN unmet dependency /usr/lib/node_modules/glob requires inherits@'2' but will load
npm WARN unmet dependency undefined,
npm WARN unmet dependency which is version undefined
npm WARN unmet dependency /usr/lib/node_modules/npmconf requires inherits@'~2.0.0' but will load
npm WARN unmet dependency undefined,
npm WARN unmet dependency which is version undefined
npm WARN unmet dependency /usr/lib/node_modules/tar requires inherits@'2' but will load
npm WARN unmet dependency undefined,
npm WARN unmet dependency which is version undefined
[email protected] /usr/lib/node_modules/casperjs
âââ [email protected] ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected])
[[email protected] ~]$ casperjs
Fatal: [Errno 2] No such file or directory; did you install phantomjs?
[[email protected] ~]$ /usr/bin/casperjs
Fatal: [Errno 2] No such file or directory; did you install phantomjs?
[[email protected] ~]$ /usr/lib/node_modules/casperjs/node_modules/phantomjs/lib/phantom/bin/phantomjs
phantomjs>
[[email protected] ~]$ /usr/lib/node_modules/casperjs/node_modules/phantomjs/lib/phantom/bin/phantomjs --version
1.9.7

To have the binaries in my path every time I log in I added this alias to my .bashrc:

alias phantomset="export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/node_modules/casperjs/node_modules/phantomjs/lib/phantom/bin/"

and my .bash_profile looks like this:

# User specific environment and startup programs
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin
export PATH
phantomset

My favourite quotes from the book The Art of War by Sun Tzu:

Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Faint disorder, and crush him.

If it is to your advantage, make a forward move; if not, stay where you’re.

If you know you’re enemy and you know yourself, you need not to fear the result of hundredth of battles . If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you’ll also suffer a defeat. If you know neither your enemy nor yourself you will succumb in every battle.

Care about your team but also be a “hardass”.

Hire only great people.

Plan ahead.

Know your enemy.

All warfare is based on deception.

Exploit enemy’s weaknesses, avoid his strengths

Since I like to read (like, a lot), I realized I should test my reading speed and as it turned out I’m at an average person reading speed of 230 WPM. That was not a too big of a surprise as I always thought I read slow. Anyways, I decided to take one of those “increase your reading speed classes”, and here are my notes from these lectures:

Inner voice makes us read at the speed as we talk! Subvocalization is the root of all evil.

RAS – Reticular Activating System (example when you’re looking to buy some new phone you’re seeing the phone commercials everywhere, but once you buy it the commercials ‘dissapear’)

TV is passive medium, you can learn something, but you end up forgetting it quite easily.

AVOID SKIPPING BACK – 30% skipping back, save 20% time! – imagine you can’t go back – you will increase attention after you read and thought to yourself “I didn’t understand”, and if the book is good it will repeat the premise.

When brain is on 20 cycles per second then you’re in the “zone”.

METRONOM + POINTER!

First, when you start reading on a higher speed the comprehension drops, but if you force that speed the comprehension will rise up and exceed the previous one.

Eyerobics – open wide, close hard, blink hard, left-right look, all around look, look to the window.

MIN – MAX method – min 1 page per day, max 50, normal 15, but the point is to read everyday!

Check this out: Timothy Ferris: The 4-hour workweek

Pareto principle – 80/20 – 20% efforts => 80% results. 80% additional efforts => 20% results

Tim Doner speaks > 20 languages! Benny Lewis – Fluent in three months

I want to succeed in this course because:

• I want to be able to read all the books I, now, don’t have the time to read both techincal and fictional
• I want to learn new things and retain as much information as possible as this will make me a better man, father, software engineer
• I want to earn more by knowing more
• I want to help others by knowing more stuff
• I want to personally grow by knowing more

Neurons and synapses

Hose => Funnel => bucket – order of necessary upgrades goes backwards! So, first you have to improve your memory in your head (bucket) then increase the amount of info going in (funnel) and then increase the speed of increased data that’s going in (hose).

Superlearners create dense connections

Transform concepts and ideas into pictures => so we can remember them better.

Exercise: read an article and try to remember 10 things in a way that you connect them with pictures.

Image types:  fictional, personal, graphical, stereotypical

3 memory stages: encoding, storage, retrieval

30sec pause every 10mins, 1sec pause every paragraph!

Working memory – from this to next level => 1sec pause every paragraph
Short term mem – from this to next level => 30 sec pause every 10 min
Long term mem

Short term memory lasts for about 10 min and if we don’t commit (think git commit) it to a long term memory then we forget it (think git reset –hard HEAD).

High quality markers:

• are details we can describe in 1-2 words
• themselves encoded with rich detail
• clearly & logically interconnected
• emphasize answers not questions
• more is better

Go for details => concepts (basically you go bottoms up, so that you remember details and then you connect them in a main story)

Creating markers is the real deal!, practice making detailed markers.

Pre-reading 2,3 sec per page! Make a pre-reading and remember just a few words and then when you start reading you’re eager to answer the questions you formed during pre-reading.

The adult learner requirements

• use of prior experience and knowledge
• clear goals and appropriate readiness
• internal motivation and self direction
• practical application in their lives
• understanding of relevance
• respect 

Adult students become ready to learn when they experience a need to learn in order to cope more satisfyingly with real-life tasks or problems.

Andragogy (Malcom Knowles): teaching adult people how to learn.

Imagine two or three separate columns on the page. Eyes are faster in jumping then in line movements. Jumps are called Sacades –  rapid movements of the eyes between fixation points.

Never ever go back in text. Reading with a card – cover up and drag down.

Push yourself!

Do tests with 250, 350, 500, 700 i 1000 WPM

No pain no gain bro!

If everything seems under control you’re not going fast enough!

Exercise: in 5 seconds do a pre-reading flash 3 times focusing first on left, then middle then right part.

There is no substitute for hard work.
~ T. A. Edison

Memory temple vs mind mapping

Mapping numbers 0-9 to words and then making a sentence out of them.

22-24 mins power nap (this I have been conducting for the past 2 months now and I recommend it to everyone!)

Refresh learned after 1 week, month, 3 months and you’ll never forget it!

Some apps that may help with speed reading: https://github.com/ds300/jetzt, http://www.spritzinc.com/ (and my blog post on Spritz).

Bottom line, my speed is now at a solid 450 WPM which is almost 100% more than when I started – yay for me! If you’re skeptic about this as I was (fearing your understanding will go down) just give it a try and decide for yourself if this is something worth pursuing – IMHO it is.