Kudos to Nenad Stefanovic at Microsoft for creating the Windows Template Library (WTL) and building a great community of C++ user interface developers working on Windows.

References:

- Microsoft Releases Source Code for Windows Template Library eWeek, May 11th, 2004
- SourceForge.net Project: Windows Template Library (WTL)
- WTL Project Homepage (very much under construction at the moment)
- WTL Developers List on Yahoo Groups (also available via NNTP feed from gmane.org that can be conveniently browsed on the gmane.org-hosted WTL discussion list mirror)
- Bjarke Viksoe's Superlative WTL Controls
- WTL Section on CodeProject


An Easter egg extracted from Microsoft Visual Studio 6 binary.
Nenad is the guy center bottom pulling his hair out

The WTL is a great library that I first noticed burried on the MSDN CD about four years ago.
I've spent a lot of time hanging around on the WTL developers list asking lots of questions!

You can see a screen shot of some of my recent work in WTL in the recently posted Hyperworx Pre-Alpha User Interface.

Also, people keep sending me e-mail looking for copies of my WTL-based Mutating Spirograph Animation Screensaver, a little program I wrote one weekend when I was messing around with vector graphic animations.

There are several versions available:

• spiross.scr (with colored background)
  
• spirossb.scr (black background for LCD/plasma monitors)
  
• spiross_dell_24.src (very complex simulation for super fast machines)
  
• spiross screen shot
  
• An explanation of the math
  

Someday I'm going to modify spiross to output audio to the left and right channels of my sound card so I can listen to it. It's interesting to note that in essence, an N-gear spirograph modeled using phasors is equivalent to an N-term Discrete Fourier Transform. So in theory, it should sound pretty wild. But I digress.

Came across the ASAST website in a Google search. This is pretty interesting stuff.

Founded in 1989, AMAST aims at setting the development of software technology on firm mathematical basis. The virtue of software technology envisioned by AMAST is the capability to produce software that is correct, and its correctness can be proved mathematically, is safe, so that it can be used in the implementation of critical systems, is portable, that is independent of computing platforms and language generation, and evolves with the problem domain. Today AMAST is a professional movement whose goals are embraced by a large national and international following.

References:
AMAST.org (Algebraic Methodology And Software Technology)

I've updated of my profile pages on Program-Transformation.org Wiki and C++ Boost Wiki.

Program-Transformation.org is an absolutely fantastic Wiki with tons of iteresting information but refactoring, domain-specific languages, generative programming, software product lines...

Spent most of the day working through some code posted to the Spirit Parser General List. This as part of a broader effort to write a Spirit-derived parser that processes user-defined symbol tables. As a point of fact, I've already written something that can handle this specific job. However, it's ugly, inefficient, and a real pain to extend. Thus the decission to re-implement using Spirit.

Digging into Spirit has taken me deeper into personally unknown teritory than I had expected. Sifting through the Spirit source requires an understanding of Phoenix, the source of Spirit's Lambda function magic and functional programming tricks. No blue pills here man.

I have posted a brief status update on my Hyperworx project on the Hyperworx Project Homepage outlining my release plans and schedule. Comments are welcome.

... "If Linux runs on every architecture, why should another operating system be in its way? " ...

Cooperative Linux is the first working free and open source method for optimally running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively. More generally, Cooperative Linux (short-named coLinux) is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine. For instance, it allows one to freely run Linux on Windows 2000/XP, without using a commercial PC virtualization software such as VMware, in a way which is much more optimal than using any general purpose PC virtualization software. In its current condition, it allows us to run the KNOPPIX Japanese Edition on Windows.

This looks like a dandy addition to my Windows XP laptop.

Reference:
coLinux Project Website
Quickstart FAQ on O'Reilly's LinuxDevCenter.com