Creating My own laser show software

[JohnYayas]

Well, you may or may not know that Spaghetti is written entirely in C# including the parts that interface with the driver DLLs. I communicate directly with the C interface exposed by the manufacturers DLLs, though. It wasn't very difficult to create that code and if you need the correct DLLImport signatures to communicate with them I can help you with that. The best part about using C# was that it was very easy to create and debug the custom controls. The non-visual parts of the application could have as easily been created in C++, though. You will save yourself a lot of pain by sticking with C#. At least for the visual pieces. C++/CLI would be a good option for a bridge between managed/unmanaged C# and C++ if you wanted to go with a hybrid, though.

That said, I am actively rewriting Spaghetti entirely in C++. I have my reasons but none of them are due to a lack of ability of C#. Performance was fine, too. Mainly I just got tired of dealing with obfuscators and libraries to talk to DirectX and that sort of thing. And a big reason was just to get back to my roots and make it as efficient as possible. You can definitely create a more efficient and perfomant app with C++ but it will be much harder. Whether it is worth it to you to do so is up to you.

[Osithlon]

Well, you may or may not know that Spaghetti is written entirely in C# including the parts that interface with the driver DLLs. I communicate directly with the C interface exposed by the manufacturers DLLs, though. It wasn't very difficult to create that code and if you need the correct DLLImport signatures to communicate with them I can help you with that. The best part about using C# was that it was very easy to create and debug the custom controls. The non-visual parts of the application could have as easily been created in C++, though. You will save yourself a lot of pain by sticking with C#. At least for the visual pieces. C++/CLI would be a good option for a bridge between managed/unmanaged C# and C++ if you wanted to go with a hybrid, though.

That said, I am actively rewriting Spaghetti entirely in C++. I have my reasons but none of them are due to a lack of ability of C#. Performance was fine, too. Mainly I just got tired of dealing with obfuscators and libraries to talk to DirectX and that sort of thing. And a big reason was just to get back to my roots and make it as efficient as possible. You can definitely create a more efficient and perfomant app with C++ but it will be much harder. Whether it is worth it to you to do so is up to you.

Thanks John

I have seen lot of times Spaghetti name in the forum, and also read some of your posts talking about it, but havent seen a link to a web page or some code example. Where can I take a look to Spaghetti?

[JohnYayas]

Thanks John

I have seen lot of times Spaghetti name in the forum, and also read some of your posts talking about it, but havent seen a link to a web page or some code example. Where can I take a look to Spaghetti?

Just google Spaghetti Laser Show

[james]

Not to put too fine of a point on it but.....

There really is no such thing as C or C++ for MS Windows!

C and C++ come from UNIX.

All devices are files in UNIX. All files have owners and permissions. C and C++ have built in file IO functionality made for UNIX.

Windows device drivers and file IO conventions don't conform to standard C or C++.

Using C and C++ in Windows is like phonetically spelling Chinese words in English.

[JohnYayas]

Not to put too fine of a point on it but......

you're an idiot.

[j4cbo]

Not to put too fine of a point on it but......

you're an idiot.

I wish I could "like" posts on this forum.

james, I think you need to sit down and spend some time with the Good Book and think things over: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg...docs/n1124.pdf (Specifically, consider the use of the phrase "freestanding")

[j4cbo]

Oh, and can you tell me on which page of that document the terms "owner" or "permission" or "chown" or "chmod" appear?

[james]

C and C++ came from UNIX. That is a fact. In UNIX, the file IO is different and devices are commonly abstracted as files. Even asynchronous interprocess communications can be done with named pipes. Those are also files. If what I said wasn't true then there would be no "versions" of C and C++ and it wouldn't matter what compiler was used on which OS. The Boost C++ project is trying to unify a lot of this stuff.

File ownership and permissions are handled by the OS and control what a running application can do with files, not the other way around.

If you write an application and run it as root, you certainly can change the ownership and permissions of any file from code.

[heroic]

Actually, Unix came from C, pretty much.

There's plenty of Windows code that's written in C or C++. For example, Windows is written in C++.

[Osithlon]

Im not an expert or have enough knwoledge to discuss with you guys. Just learning and enjoying the comments.