Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2006 September 7

=September 7=

Visual Basic Compiler
i'm looking for a freeware VB6 compiler for Windows. One that's decent and not from Microsoft. --Russoc4 00:22, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't think one exists for VB6, but you can try SharpDevelop. Google it. --Abnerian 02:14, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
 * There's KBasic, which has an ad-supported version, runs on Windows, Mac OS-X and Linux, and claims to be source-compatible with VB6.


 * I can think of several more, but none seem to be free, run on Windows, and not come from Microsoft. If you drop one of those requirements, I can add at least one more to the list. I can't comment on whether any are decent, since I don't program in VB6. SharpDevelop appears to be an IDE, not a compiler.-gadfium 06:01, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * VB is interpreted, not compiled. ColourBurst 16:37, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

VB has been a compiled language for at least 10 years.

Problem with Firefox
Hi! I've recently noticed a problem with my Firefox. For some reason, whenever I bring up the windows explorer dialog box to save a file or (and this is how I noticed it) upload a file, the files are unsorted. I can't see any kind of sort the files are ordered under. I would REALLY like to get it back to a standard alphabetically ordered system. In case you don't get what I'm trying to say, here's a screenshot. Thank you very much for any help --Fir0002 08:32, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Click on the icon to the far right and choose detailed view, a view which lists the names of the columns. Click on the Names column. Switch back to small icons or simple view. YMMV. --Kjoonlee 09:13, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the tip, but unfortunately it doesn't work. I've actually just had a look in Photoshop and some other apps, and it has the same problem so it seems it's a more widespread problem. Interestingly, MS Word isn't affected. --Fir0002 10:30, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Multiple Monitors
Hi again! I've got another question, namely is there a free alternative to Ultramon? I want something that can easily disable the secondary monitor (without needing to got through display options) and send folders/applications to the secondary monitor. Thanks, --Fir0002 08:48, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Subversion
I discovered on Wikipedia something called Subversion the other day, and I would like to experiment a little bit with the software. What's a good front end GUI for it, suitable for running on Windows XP? And for that matter, Unix? --HappyCamper 12:42, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Mabye you knew it already, but you don't really need a GUI. I never used one, command line works very fine for me. That said, I think there are GUIs out there, but I don't know much about them. In any case, SVN is a really neat thing! —Bromskloss 13:07, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Nice to hear SVN is good. Command line works well for me, but I'm also working in a group where others are less adept at using the command line. I guess, they like all the visual stuff. --HappyCamper 16:23, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Have you looked at Subversion – GUI front-ends/clients? —Bromskloss 22:04, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Yup. I've installed maybe half of them, but I hope I don't have to install all of them to find which is the best. --HappyCamper 22:06, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * I've found TortoiseSVN to be a nice explorer integrated app for Windows. --Silvaran 22:02, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

audio drivers and directsound
I can't seem to get any audio out of my computer. I have the latest version of DirectX installed, but my computer does not have a dedicated sound card. From what I'm seeing in the encyclopedia a sound card is essential but a friend of mine that knows computers tells me that my computer should still have basic audio without a card. If this is true then I should only need drivers to get it working, but then I have no idea how to find out exactly what driver I need. If this isn't true then I suppose I just need a card. Just in case, in my Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices menu it says that I have no audio device, but I do have audio codecs, legacy audio drivers, media control devices, legacy video capture devices, and video codecs. So the question is, what do I need to do to get my audio going? -- Bigwitt


 * Many modern motherboards do include a basic sound chip, however not all of them do. If yours does not, then you need a sound card.  Without knowing the specifics of your computer, it's hard to be more precise.  --LarryMac 13:45, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm guessing that if it did include a sound chip it would be working already. Crap. Thank you. -- Bigwitt


 * If there are sound connectors on the back (mini-jack connections), particularly a green one, then your PC has a sound chip (whether it's on a card or, as Larry says, as a built in part of the chipset). If it doesn't, your PC will probably still have a little speaker (through which it beeps when the system starts up, long before windows or any drivers have loaded). In olden times (windows 98 et al) you could pick up the "pc speaker driver", which was an elementary sound driver that allowed general sound (not just beeps) to be played through that speaker.  But that speaker is invariably the cheapest that it's possible to get (it's often just a piezoelectric transducer, someones soldered directly to the motherboard); so the sound quality was so bad it generally made Edith Piaf sound like a bad-tempered Dalek.  From what I can tell they no longer make a driver for this for XP, but it's no great loss. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:39, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * There's a reason playing sound (other than simple beeps or pure tones) via the PC speaker is not usually done, and it's not the horrible quality. The PC speaker hardware can be used in two ways: either via the PIT, which generates a square wave with a specified frequency (used for "pure" tones), or via a single bit output, which can be used only by bit banging. The only way to play an arbitrary waveform on the PC speaker is the second one, which consumes a lot of CPU, usually requires a high-frequency timer, and glitches if something else is using up its timeslice &mdash; all that for a very low quality sound. It's much easier to just require the user to buy a cheap sound card. --cesarb 16:58, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Hmm, that's fascinating - you should add it (the bit-banging part in particular) into PC speaker (which mentions the modulation, but rather skirts the issue of there being no hardware to make timing the modulation a pleasant experience).   Horrible thought of the day:  with a decent DAC card and a fast CPU, I wonder if you could do bit banged video now. Yuck :) -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:15, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * It's all already there, except about the PIT (which I just added), and in more detail than I gave above. It doesn't mention bit-banging by that name, but other than that it says the same thing. --cesarb 17:49, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * im just a little bit confused... if you dont know if you have an audio card or not, just what have you plugged your speakers into? Modesty84 18:02, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

monitoring software
hey. I am the administrator of my network at home. i have a feeling some people on my network are doing the "wrong thing" on the internet. I was wondering if anyone knows any free, easy to use software that i can use to monitor there screens from my computer. Also they cannot know i am monitoring them thanks for your help


 * You might want to try an implementation of VNC. I'm not certain about how "stealthy" it can be however.  --LarryMac 13:43, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * At least with RealVNC the little white VNC icon at the bottom changes to black when someone is connected via VNC. I don't think there's a property to disable that feature, to make it hard to use as a spy tool.  Original poster: beware that in some jurisdictions, particularly in Europe, observing someone's work in this manner without their knowledge can be illegal (even if you own the computer and employ the person). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:45, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * install a keylogger and theny ou can see everythign they type Modesty84 17:58, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * depending on how you have your network set up, you should be able to view internet access activity through your router.Locriani 07:03, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Weird unix file permissions
Some files on my linux box show up with file permission lines (in ls -al) that look like this:

-rwxrwx---+ 1 dave admin 12345 etc...

What does that plus symbol mean? Moreover how does one manipulate it - it's not something I've set or unset with chmod. Middenface 16:16, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * It means an access control list is set for that file. Use getfacl and setfacl to manipulate the list.  If you didn't set one (you'd remember) then either some program is doing it, or maybe the file was touched by Samba, which tries to map NTFS's byzantine permissions scheme onto unix using ACLs if they're available. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:42, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * (edit conflict) The plus sign means the file has a POSIX ACL. Use  to see it or   to modify it. --cesarb 16:45, 7 September 2006 (UTC)