I can't believe this but...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Karl
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K

Karl

....it seems I can't align text in a combo box... is that right?

also setting the tabstop of a textbox in a datagrid has no effect.

It's just one thing after another

there's no built in masking without using the VB 6 ocx, which doesn't have a
lost focus event, which also runs the leave event whether you enter or exit
the control.

It seems to me they went to great trouble to make everything almost
doable...
 
bro... i feel your pain.

i have encountered tons of similarly flaky inadequacies during the
development of my first .Net project, and i'm here to testify: it _IS_ just
one thing after another! it's a real slap in the face to me (and YOU!) that
most of the .Net WinForms controls leave out COMMON, DESIRED behaviour of
their counterparts commonly used in Windows itself...

three retarded examples:
#1 - right-align text in labels works improperly. maybe some M$ fanboy code
guru can plz explain it to me (or try to excuse it away):
a) "it was too time consuming so we ignored it in order to better
concentrate on other things... like making sure ADO.Net is bug free"
(*BZZZT* WRONG!)
b) "not all developers like their 'right align' to truly 'right align' so
we left it open to interpretation. you can use 'owner draw' to customize
the control to fit your needs." (HAHAHAH!)

#2 - win forms combo box doesn't autocomplete... is this such a far-out,
*fancy* feature to expect? seriouly, folks - over the span of my
development career, the single most-requested feature by
computer-illiterate, -semi-literate, and -literate users has been: "Can we
make it a drop down list that automatically jumps to what you type, like M$
Excel?" it's just mind boggling that they would omit this... did i wake up
in the Land of Oz or something...?
IT CLEARLY EVIDENCES THE FACT THAT THE VS.NET DEV TEAM IS OUT-OF-TOUCH WITH
THE DESKTOP!

#3 - checkbox column in a datagrid allows you to specify 'value when null' -
win forms checkbox doesn't. also, the win forms checkbox itself doesn't get
the dotted line for the focus, its label text does. which means you have to
use the checkbox's stupid improperly-aligning built-in label (instead of a
separate improperly-aligning winforms label :P) if you want the user to be
able to see which control actually has the focus. (yeah, i know - that's
another rarely-requested feature, isn't it? :P)

....i'm not going to digress into all the other areas of desktop RAD where
VS.Net falls flat on its face (visual inheritance, data access/binding,
etc...) not that i don't want to, but i don't have the time - you see, i
need to spend all day adding a bunch of hack workarounds to my
straightforward, seemingly-correct data-access code, in order to get it to
behave 'as advertised'...
 
Thanks Boo ... I thought it was just me being thick, everyone else seems to
be raving about this incredibly powerful framework..

Apparently the align problem is down to the superior GDI+ ??? It seems to me
that we can do without the +
and yes "who wants auto complete these days, it's much more fashionable to
type only the first letter, we're thinking of implementing this new
functionality in Excel as well"....

whats the point in giving me a formatting toolbar which I can't use when
designing forms !#$%^&
...everything is greyed out, so I have to hit F4 and scroll my way through
that longwinded properties box (which seems to reorder itself everytime I
open it) for anything I want to change.

It's murder to get a combobox working in a datagrid not to mention a button,
I want to write a program to deal with business functionality, I don't want
to have to rewrite half of the controls I need, that's the reason why I'm
using .Net and not C++

It took me three days to get a masked textbox working in a datagrid, the
first 2 days were spent in stunned amazement at how difficult it is, simple
__:__ time format which also validates the input, it's a floating textbox on
the grid which uses the vb6 ocx, this is a 2 minute job in MS Access,

I DON"T WANT TO SPEND MY TIME DOING THIS, I HAVE APPLICATIONS TO BUILD....

I think the .Net boys should come down from their lofty positions and ask
the Access boys for some help in the winform design area.
Type 'combobox datagrid vb.net' into google and the barage of results in the
groups category tells me that this is not only an required feature but also
an expeced feature. Maybe this is how M$ should do their research, they
might learn something.

I attacked vb.net with relish expecting to find a programming language that
has taken into account all of the basic requirements allowing me to get on
with writing applications, instead I find I am spending more time making up
for inadequacies in the language which, as you've said, is now totally
expected behavoiur. I check the updates everyday finding it hard to believe
that they're not onto this and pumping out fixes reguraly, I mean, I did pay
$1000 for this, if it were a washing machine or a TV I would demand my money
back.


Cheers
 
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