Tools for comparing GPO

Hello,
I am looking for an unexpensive tool that allows comparing two GPO policies and finds differences.
I know about Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) but unfortunately my company do not have Software Assurance that is required for it.
Would anyone recommend something else?
What are you using?
Thank you in advance

Also maybe helpful:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/WindowsTips/Windows2003/AdminTips/Security/ComparingTwoGroupPolicyObjects.html
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/18dea308-4faf-44bf-9e1c-e83d47edb866
MVP Group Policy - Mythen, Insiderinfos und Troubleshooting zum Thema GPOs:
Let's go, use GPO!

Similar Messages

Any diff-like tools for comparing two .vcf (vcard) files?

Hi all,
I'm used to keeping contact information backups in .csv form, its just much simpler to parse with sed/awk etc., I have a small home-cooked script to move fields around between Evolution .csv files and JPilot .csv files such that they match (brittle, but worked for me).
Current Evolution doesn't seem to support csv output anymore, though, and to be honest the brittle-ness of having to hard-code in my scripts which column in the csv was what data always stung a bit. Evolution DOES output vcards, as does J-Pilot. Unfortunately, parsing vcards with sed/awk and the like promises to be real headache-inducing.
Basically, has anyone heard of tools for comparing .vcf files? Sort of like diff (which works line-by-line on text) but working element by element on .vcf files.

Daenyth wrote:
http://search.cpan.org/dist/Text-vCard/ … essbook.pm
Write one?
Was afraid the answer was gonna be that.

Tool for comparing two schemas....

Do we have any tool avalilable in oracle that compares two different schemas and find out the differences between two so that we can validate a schema against a standard one?

Hi.
Toad have option that is called just like that , compare schemas, and when used to compare two schemas it outputs diferences between them.
I dont know about any other tool.

Tools for Comparing Java Class Files

Are there any tools out there that can compare two .class files to see if they are the same ?? Please help.
Janet

In Windows there's the FC command that compares two files to see if they are identical. In Unix there is no doubt a similar command. Or you could write a small bit of Java code that reads the two class files and compares them byte by byte.

Using JSplitPane for Comparing two Files/Contents

Hi Java Gurus,
I want to develope a Comparison tool which compares 2 jar files and report the difference in a user friendly manner. Everything is fine and i selected the JSplitPane to display the difference report. I face some problems in doing it exactly simillar way of presenting like a Comparison tools which is there in VSS.
I created 2 panels and added in a splitpane.
one panel contains the content of first jar file and another panel contains the content of second jar file.
The content are added in a textarea and the textarea is added to a scrollpane, which is added to the panel.
If i fix some size to Textarea, when i expand the Splitpane, the size is not getting expanded accordingly.
if i remove the size for textarea, the content is not displayed.
Can anyon give some suggestion.
Have anybody developed a GUI using JSplitPane simmilar to any Difference Tool simillar to VSS.
expecting your replies.
Raffi

Hi,
Eventhough the left and right pane are not synchronized, It is showing the Differences.
I have changed the JTextArea to JTextPane to have control on each of the String i am inserting.
It is fine. but when i am doing the comparison for the second time, i am removing the content of the Document (of the JTextPane) and adding the new Content to the Document (of the JTextPane).
While i am printing the length and text after removing the Old Content (in console), i am getting 0, "". But in the GUI old content are not removed and new content keeps on appending, eventhough i do updateUI() and validate().
Is that a BUG of JTextPane?????????????
Can any One Figure it out.
My Code is Here:
import java.io.*;
import java.util.zip.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;
* put your documentation comment here
public class CheckZipFile extends JFrame {
private JLabel firstZip = null;
private JLabel secondZip = null;
private JTextField firstZipName = null;
private JTextField secondZipName = null;
private JButton compare = null;
private JPanel mainPanel = null;
private JFileChooser fileChooser = null;
private JButton chooseButton1 = null;
private JButton chooseButton2 = null;
private StringBuffer buffer = null;
private StringBuffer buffer1 = null;
private StringBuffer buffer2 = null;
private ApolloFileFilter zipFilter;
private JTextPane first = null;
private JTextPane second = null;
private Document doc1 = null;
private Document doc = null;
* put your documentation comment here
public CheckZipFile () {
initialize();
buildGUI();
addWindowListener();
setLookAndFeel();
this.pack();
* put your documentation comment here
private void initialize () {
buffer = new StringBuffer();
buffer1 = new StringBuffer();
buffer2 = new StringBuffer();
zipFilter = new ApolloFileFilter(new String[] {
"zip", "jar"
}, "ZIP and JAR Files");
fileChooser = new JFileChooser(new File("c:\\"));
//fileChooser.setAcceptAllFileFilterUsed(false);
fileChooser.addChoosableFileFilter(zipFilter);
* put your documentation comment here
private void setLookAndFeel () {
try {
UIManager.setLookAndFeel("com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel");
SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI(this);
if (fileChooser != null) {
SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI(fileChooser);
} catch (UnsupportedLookAndFeelException exc) {
System.out.println("Unsupported Look And Feel:" +
exc);
} catch (IllegalAccessException exc) {
System.out.println("IllegalAccessException Error:"
+ exc);
} catch (ClassNotFoundException exc) {
System.out.println("ClassNotFoundException Error:"
+ exc);
} catch (InstantiationException exc) {
System.out.println("InstantiateException Error:"
+ exc);
* put your documentation comment here
private void buildGUI () {
mainPanel = createPanel();
this.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
this.getContentPane().add(mainPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
this.getContentPane().add(createDifferencePanel(), BorderLayout.SOUTH);
this.setSize(700, 450);
SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI(this);
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
private JPanel createPanel () {
JPanel main = new JPanel() {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(300, 90);
main.setLayout(new GridLayout(3, 3));
firstZip = new JLabel("First Jar/Zip File:") {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(100, 30);
main.add(firstZip);
firstZipName = new JTextField() {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(100, 30);
main.add(firstZipName);
chooseButton1 = new JButton("Choose File 1") {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(100, 30);
main.add(chooseButton1);
chooseButton1.addActionListener(new ButtonListener());
secondZip = new JLabel("Second Jar/Zip File:") {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(100, 30);
main.add(secondZip);
secondZipName = new JTextField() {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(100, 30);
main.add(secondZipName);
chooseButton2 = new JButton("Choose File 2") {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(100, 30);
main.add(chooseButton2);
chooseButton2.addActionListener(new ButtonListener());
JLabel temp1 = new JLabel("") {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(100, 30);
main.add(temp1);
compare = new JButton("Compare") {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(100, 30);
compare.addActionListener(new ButtonListener());
main.add(compare);
JLabel temp2 = new JLabel("") {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(100, 30);
main.add(temp2);
return main;
* put your documentation comment here
* @param fileContent1
* @param fileContent2
private void updateGUI (String fileContent1, String fileContent2) {
System.out.println("Came here UpdateGUI");
updateDifferencePanel(fileContent1, fileContent2);
System.out.println("Came here UpdateGUI after call");
SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI(this);
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
private JSplitPane createDifferencePanel () {
JPanel firstPanel = new JPanel() {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(350, 360);
first = new JTextPane();
initStylesForTextPane(first);
doc1 = first.getDocument();
JScrollPane scroll1 = new JScrollPane(first);
scroll1.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(325, 360));
scroll1.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(100, 100));
firstPanel.add(scroll1);
first.updateUI();
first.validate();
JPanel secondPanel = new JPanel() {
* put your documentation comment here
* @return
public Dimension getPrefferedSize () {
return new Dimension(350, 360);
second = new JTextPane();
initStylesForTextPane(second);
doc = second.getDocument();
JScrollPane scroll2 = new JScrollPane(second);
scroll2.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(325, 360));
scroll2.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(100, 100));
secondPanel.add(scroll2);
second.updateUI();
second.validate();
JSplitPane splitPane = new JSplitPane(JSplitPane.HORIZONTAL_SPLIT,
firstPanel, secondPanel);
splitPane.setDividerLocation(0.5);
splitPane.updateUI();
splitPane.validate();
splitPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(700, 360));
return splitPane;
* put your documentation comment here
* @param fileContent1
* @param fileContent2
private void updateDifferencePanel (String fileContent1,
String fileContent2) {
System.out.println("Came here");
try {
doc1 = first.getDocument();
System.out.println("Text bef: " + first.getText());
System.out.println("Length bef: " + doc1.getLength());
doc1.remove(0, doc1.getLength());
System.out.println("Length aft: " + doc1.getLength());
System.out.println("Text aft: " + first.getText());
doc1.insertString(doc1.getLength(), "test", first.getStyle("regular"));
first.updateUI();
first.validate();
} catch (BadLocationException ble1) {
ble1.printStackTrace();
StringTokenizer tokens1 = new StringTokenizer(fileContent1,
String token1 = "";
String text1 = "";
String differs1 = "false";
int indexOfColon1 = -1;
int count1 = 0;
while (tokens1.hasMoreTokens()) {
token1 = (String)tokens1.nextToken();
count1++;
indexOfColon1 = token1.lastIndexOf(":");
text1 = token1.substring(0, indexOfColon1);
differs1 = token1.substring(indexOfColon1 + 1);
try {
if (count1 == 1)
System.out.println("Start: " + doc1.getLength());
if (differs1.equals("true"))
doc1.insertString(doc1.getLength(), text1
+ ":", first.getStyle("bold"));
else
doc1.insertString(doc1.getLength(), text1
+ ":", first.getStyle("regular"));
if ((count1%3) == 0)
doc1.insertString(doc1.getLength(), "\n",
first.getStyle("regular"));
} catch (BadLocationException ble1) {
ble1.printStackTrace();
first.updateUI();
first.validate();
try {
System.out.println("Length bef: " + doc.getLength());
doc.remove(0, doc.getLength());
System.out.println("Length aft: " + doc.getLength());
second.updateUI();
second.validate();
} catch (BadLocationException ble1) {
ble1.printStackTrace();
StringTokenizer tokens = new StringTokenizer(fileContent2,
String token = "";
String text = "";
String differs = "false";
int indexOfColon = -1;
int count = 0;
while (tokens.hasMoreTokens()) {
token = (String)tokens.nextToken();
count++;
indexOfColon = token.lastIndexOf(":");
text = token.substring(0, indexOfColon);
differs = token.substring(indexOfColon + 1);
try {
if (differs.equals("true"))
doc.insertString(doc.getLength(), text +
":", second.getStyle("bold"));
else
doc.insertString(doc.getLength(), text +
":", second.getStyle("regular"));
if ((count%3) == 0)
doc.insertString(doc.getLength(), "\n",
second.getStyle("regular"));
} catch (BadLocationException ble) {
ble.printStackTrace();
second.updateUI();
second.validate();
* put your documentation comment here
* @param textPane
protected void initStylesForTextPane (JTextPane textPane) {
//Initialize some styles.
Style def = StyleContext.getDefaultStyleContext().getStyle(StyleContext.DEFAULT_STYLE);
Style regular = textPane.addStyle("regular", def);
StyleConstants.setFontFamily(def, "SansSerif");
Style s = textPane.addStyle("italic", regular);
StyleConstants.setItalic(s, true);
s = textPane.addStyle("bold", regular);
StyleConstants.setBold(s, true);
s = textPane.addStyle("small", regular);
StyleConstants.setFontSize(s, 10);
s = textPane.addStyle("large", regular);
StyleConstants.setFontSize(s, 16);
s = textPane.addStyle("icon", regular);
StyleConstants.setAlignment(s, StyleConstants.ALIGN_CENTER);
StyleConstants.setIcon(s, new ImageIcon("images/Pig.gif"));
s = textPane.addStyle("button", regular);
StyleConstants.setAlignment(s, StyleConstants.ALIGN_CENTER);
JButton button = new JButton(new ImageIcon("images/sound.gif"));
button.setMargin(new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0));
button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
* put your documentation comment here
* @param e
public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e) {
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().beep();
StyleConstants.setComponent(s, button);
* put your documentation comment here
private void addWindowListener () {
this.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
* put your documentation comment here
* @param we
public void windowClosed (WindowEvent we) {
CheckZipFile.this.dispose();
System.exit(1);
* put your documentation comment here
* @param we
public void windowClosing (WindowEvent we) {
CheckZipFile.this.dispose();
System.exit(1);
* put your documentation comment here
* @param argv[]
* @exception Exception
public static void main (String argv[]) throws Exception {
CheckZipFile compareZip = new CheckZipFile();
compareZip.pack();
compareZip.setVisible(true);
* put your documentation comment here
public class ButtonListener
implements ActionListener {
* put your documentation comment here
* @param ae
public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent ae) {
if (ae.getSource() == chooseButton1) {
int retval = fileChooser.showDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"Select");
if (retval == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
File theFile = fileChooser.getSelectedFile();
if (theFile != null) {
File[] files = fileChooser.getSelectedFiles();
if (fileChooser.isMultiSelectionEnabled()
&& files != null && files.length > 1) {
String filenames = "";
for (int i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
filenames = filenames + "\n"
+ files.getPath();
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"You chose these files: \n"
+ filenames + "\n Multiple Selection Should not be done here");
else if (theFile.isDirectory()) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"You chose this directory: "
+ fileChooser.getSelectedFile().getPath()
+ "\n Please select a Zip File or jar File");
else {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"You chose this file: " +
fileChooser.getSelectedFile().getPath());
firstZipName.setText(fileChooser.getSelectedFile().getPath());
return;
else if (retval == JFileChooser.CANCEL_OPTION) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"User cancelled operation. No file was chosen.");
else if (retval == JFileChooser.ERROR_OPTION) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"An error occured. No file was chosen.");
else {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"Unknown operation occured.");
if (ae.getSource() == chooseButton2) {
int retval = fileChooser.showDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"Select");
if (retval == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
File theFile = fileChooser.getSelectedFile();
if (theFile != null) {
File[] files = fileChooser.getSelectedFiles();
if (fileChooser.isMultiSelectionEnabled()
&& files != null && files.length > 1) {
String filenames = "";
for (int i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
filenames = filenames + "\n"
+ files[i].getPath();
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"You chose these files: \n"
+ filenames + "\n Multiple Selection Should not be done here");
else if (theFile.isDirectory()) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"You chose this directory: "
+ fileChooser.getSelectedFile().getPath()
+ "\n Please select a Zip File or jar File");
else {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"You chose this file: " +
fileChooser.getSelectedFile().getPath());
secondZipName.setText(fileChooser.getSelectedFile().getPath());
return;
else if (retval == JFileChooser.CANCEL_OPTION) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"User cancelled operation. No file was chosen.");
else if (retval == JFileChooser.ERROR_OPTION) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"An error occured. No file was chosen.");
else {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"Unknown operation occured.");
if (ae.getSource() == compare) {
String file1 = firstZipName.getText();
String file2 = secondZipName.getText();
if (file1 == null || file2 == null) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"Enter / Select the Files to be compared");
return;
if (file1.equals("") || file2.equals("")) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"Enter / Select the Files to be compared");
return;
try {
ZipFile zip1 = new ZipFile(file1);
ZipFile zip2 = new ZipFile(file2);
int size1 = zip1.size();
int size2 = zip2.size();
if (size1 != size2) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"Size of both the jars are not same");
return;
Enumeration entries1 = zip1.entries();
Enumeration entries2 = zip2.entries();
ZipEntry entry1 = null;
ZipEntry entry2 = null;
String name1 = "";
String name2 = "";
long filesize1 = 0;
long filesize2 = 0;
long time1;
long time2;
//StringBuffer detail = new StringBuffer();
boolean nameDiffers = false;
boolean sizeDiffers = false;
boolean timeDiffers = false;
buffer.append(file1 + "\t\t\t" + file2 +
"\n______________________________________________________________________\n");
//buffer1.append("\t\t" + file1 + "\n");
//buffer2.append("\t\t" + file2 + "\n");
int length = buffer.length();
for (int x = 0; x < size1; x++) {
nameDiffers = false;
sizeDiffers = false;
timeDiffers = false;
entry1 = (ZipEntry)entries1.nextElement();
entry2 = (ZipEntry)entries2.nextElement();
name1 = entry1.getName();
name2 = entry2.getName();
filesize1 = entry1.getSize();
filesize2 = entry2.getSize();
time1 = entry1.getTime();
time2 = entry2.getTime();
if (!name1.equals(name2)) {
//System.out.println("Name of the Entries in both the Jars are not same:\n"+ entry1.getName() + " : " + entry2.getName() );
nameDiffers = true;
//return;
//else
// System.out.println("Name: " +entry1.getName());
if (filesize1 != filesize2) {
//System.out.println("Size of the Entries in both the Jars are not same:\n"+ entry1.getSize() + " : " + entry2.getSize() );
sizeDiffers = true;
//return;
if (time1 != time2) {
//System.out.println("Time of the Entries in both the Jars are not same:\n"+ entry1.getTime() + " : " + entry2.getTime() );
timeDiffers = true;
//return;
if (nameDiffers || sizeDiffers || timeDiffers) {
if (filesize1 != 0 && filesize2 !=
0) {
buffer.append(name1 + ":" +
filesize1 + ":" + new java.util.Date(time1)
+ "\t" + name2 + ":"
+ filesize2 + ":" +
new java.util.Date(time2)
+ "\n");
buffer1.append(name1 + ":" +
nameDiffers + ";" +
filesize1 + ":" + sizeDiffers
+ ";" + new java.util.Date(time1).toString()
+ ":" + timeDiffers +
buffer2.append(name2 + ":" +
nameDiffers + ";" +
filesize2 + ":" + sizeDiffers
+ ";" + new java.util.Date(time2).toString()
+ ":" + timeDiffers +
if (length == buffer.length())
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(CheckZipFile.this,
"Both the Zip / Jar Files are Identical");
else {
getToolkit().beep();
//System.out.println(buffer.toString());
updateGUI(buffer1.toString(), buffer2.toString());
getToolkit().beep();
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();

Is there any impact analysis tool for Oracle Forms and Reports

Hi All
We are curretly looking at tools available to do impact analysis in Oracle Forms and Reports. This is for the maintainance of a large Oracle application developed using forms and reports 10g. We use Oracle Designer but only to maintain the db structure and not for forms and reports generation. Our intension is to find out the impact of db model changes, stored procedure changes in Oracle Forms and Reports. Please suggest any tools that are currently used for this purpose.
I remember manually maintaining the CRUD matrix for Oracle Forms and Reports for maintainance purpose. CRUD matrix will have the list of all the tables which are affected by the module. But this is a manual activity and hence the responsibility is with the dev team to keep the document updated. Please suggest if there is any alternative to this way which can be more effecient and less error prone...
I also wonder how these are done in Oracle ERP? how the apps team in oracle is maintaining the forms and reports?
Thnaks in Advance
Mahesh Mathew

Quest (the makers of TOAD) have a tool called SQL Impact which gathers data from forms, reports, triggers, packages etc.
FormsMate is a simple, cheap alternative for comparing or searching in forms.
http://www.jockvale.ca/products.html
Alternatively, you can export forms to xml (with iff2xml90.bat) and reports to jsp (with rwconverter) and simply grep those and your sql scripts. There are grep tools for windows if you need.

Javadoc like tool for PL SQL

Hi ,
Is there any document generator tool for PL/SQL.
Thanks in advance.

Is anyone currently using NaturalDocs for PL/SQL documentation?
http://www.naturaldocs.org/
It seems to be about the only project out there that is still being maintained and expanded. The downside is that NaturalDocs does not currently read javadoc-type comments for PL/SQL code (looks like a long while before it will), rather you need use the NaturalDoc-style of comments.
However the resulting documentation is quite nice looking (compared to pldoc):
http://www.naturaldocs.org/documentation/html/files/NaturalDocs-.html
Some larger projects such as OpenLayers use this:
http://dev.openlayers.org/releases/OpenLayers-2.7/doc/apidocs/files/OpenLayers-js.html
but nothing I could find anywhere actually showed PL/SQL code in the documentation.
Thanks,
Paul

Do you know of a standard tool to compare the fields of 2 database tables?

do you know of a standard tool to compare the fields of 2 database tables? please note i dont want to compare data just the fields.
~Suresh

Hi,
I am not aware any standard tool but you can write custom report to use FM DDIF_FIELDINFO_GET to get fields information of SAP database table.
Call the above FM twice in order to get field names for two different database tables. Then compare the results (table parameter DFIES_TAB) to find out the differences of field names.
Hope this will help ...
Regards,
Ferry Lianto

Some FREE tools for forms developers

Hi,
I found some cool free tools on the rhea website... There's a free Form Diff for comparing 2 formmodules and a free Forms Text Search & Replace tool. Check it out at www.rhea.be (under FREE)...
Greetz,
A happy Forms Developer

hi
I downloaded the tools, but when i try to run it ,
logon screen appears asking for the site name and serial no
i donot know to proceed, what should be the site name and the serial no...
thks

Apple tools for game developers

Gaming technology has driven Windows to where it is today. In many aspects I see Windows as nothing more than a very robust gaming platform. Microsoft's Direct X 10, though proprietary, is a very formidable tool for developers. Why doesn't Apple do more in courting and aiding gaming developers on their platform? I am seriously perplexed by this. I realize that the game developers that design for the Mac are very dedicated gamers who would love nothing more than make great gaming experiences on the Mac. Most put their hearts and souls into making games happen for the Mac, with little to no support from Apple.
I've done some research into OpenGL implementation on the Mac and I'm surprised at how much Apple is missing in this arena. Especially since so many of their core UI technologies are steeped in OpenGL. Yet Apple tends to be slow in fully adopting and exploiting the newer OpenGL technologies as they emerge. Apple could be a very strong driving influence for OpenGL, but they seem, to me anyway, to have a sort of detached interest in making it happen. For instance, OpenGL 2.0 was ratified on October 22, 2004 and yet Apple has only implemented 70% of the feature-set??? OpenGL 2.1 was ratified on December 1, 2006 and they have only brought 30% of the features to OS X? I look at the drivers for the various cards and compare it against PC drivers and Apple only implements about 75% of what PC drivers have. This has got to be horrendous for game developers.
I see all of this as a critical missed opportunity on Apple's part. I know that Mac game developers have to jump through a lot of hoops to bring PC games to the Mac because they simply do not have the tools that PC developers have. In my opinion this is inexcusable. Apple has a tremendous opportunity to make a singular gaming experience on the Mac. They have a vertical marketspace that has the potential to turn their machines into a gaming juggernaut, yet they have all the appearances of being laxadasical about the whole concept of gaming.
I can only hope that Apple reads this and, more importantly, cares enough to do something about it.

I use photoshop (you can get 6.0 at ebay for ~40-50 bucks - something similar for free would be gimp -> www.gimp.org), povray (www.povray.org), sodipodi (www.sodipodi.com), gmax (www.discreet.com), some selfwritten commandline tools for creating sheets and pngout for compression.
If you need alot of animations it's much easier if you go the 3d route: modeling, texturing, animating. One model = tons of animations. It's also easy to create new animations if you need em. [I'm talking about pre rendered sprites like everyone knows from donkey kong]
Well, you'll need alot of time until you can create decent art. And then you'll need alot of practise, because you are just way too slow.
Here are some examples for whoring and showoff purpose ;)
raytracing (povray)
http://people.freenet.de/ki_onyx/ludo_mockup8.png
http://people.freenet.de/ki_onyx/hq2cpma2r.png
Pretty hard to do. It's all math. You have to write code in the SDL (scene descipting language). Note: the board on image 1 is drawn with Java2d functions - however, the color values were taken from a previous rendering.
pixelated (mspaint, photoshop... whatsoever)
http://people.freenet.de/ki_onyx/evil.gif
http://people.freenet.de/ki_onyx/killbill4.gif
http://people.freenet.de/ki_onyx/favicon2l3.gif
Takes damn long. Even that tiny 16x16 icon took more than half an hour. You'll need lot's of practise for being fast (eg 30mins for image nr2 would be fast).
svg(scalable vector graphics - sodipodi)
http://people.freenet.de/ki_onyx/eye9c.png
Takes also rather long. However it's easier and faster to do than pixel stuff. Also creating sub frames isn't that much work.
photoshopping(uuuuh... photoshop and the like)
http://people.freenet.de/ki_onyx/tr_menu.gif
This one for example was done in some minutes. Noise, motion blur, some text there, rendering filter... done!
Oh and having a scanner is nice. You can use scanned sketches for everything (except povray heh).

Tool for building a java application's installer

I'm searching for a tool for creating an installer for a java application. Just found InstallAnywhere... It looks very attractive, but it costs... was wondering if is there anything free.

Well to be brutally honest, I think you'd be better off sticking with Flash if this is a critical project... it would be a great exercise for learning Java, but would probably take w-a-y-y-y-y-y more effort than doing a similar multimedia presentation in flash.
(I haven't used Director, so can only talk about Flash here) - as you know, Flash is really a very powerful authoring tool that allows the user to do very complex animations very easily, whereas Java is a lower-level programming language that is infinitely more flexible, but comparatively more developer-intensive when it comes to producing user interface stuff. Java might be a viable option if you have to do stuff that flash can't, like very complex interactivity, or pulling info from a database etc (although maybe Flash 5 can even talk to databases now??? I don't know)
You can get tools to help you build Java user interfaces using "drag & drop" methods, and these tools will automatically generate the code for you, but (a) this means you're not really learning java, and (b) flash would still be less labor-intensive (and probably more impressive to your end users)
In summary - I'm not knocking Java or Flash - I love 'em both; it's just that Flash is better suited for certain things, and Java is better suited for others...
PS - nice website, but Portfolios shouldn't have an apostrophe before the "s" ;-)

Tools for malware forensics

Hi,
I did a lot of searches in technet forums and with google but still missing some clear statements:
I like to see the footprint in terms of a list of files and registry entries of a software install or what ever, e.g. malware or browsing session.
1-2 decades ago this was done by sysdiff, which scans the hard disk and compares it simply on application level.
now in 2015 we have VSS feature for the file system and virtualPC, hyper-v and more and snapshots, differencing disks and VM states.
Which is these new features is helping to speed up finding these diff between two times of a windows system (desktop)? I thought there would be a snapdiff tool or sth. but I did not find...
thanks in advance
A.

Hi Alex,
There is no official utility to meet your requirement. You could consider if Process Monitor to help you.
Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements
including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more.
Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit.
You could obtain it from the following address:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Templates/tools for benchmarking/competitive comparison

Hi,
my english is not the best, so I will write this shortly.
Im searching a template/tool to compare an amount of companys.
We want do create a SharePoint-Project, where we can put all data we have about These companys.
Does anyone know a good tool?
Thank you for your help. :)

Hi,
We have a similar requirement. Have you integrated with any other software to enable this?
Thanks.
JP

Surround Test Tool for Linux?

Hello,
since I changed to Linux some years ago, my surround 5.1 Sound isn't working. Atm it seems that only the left front channel is used. I had a look into alsamixer but it's hard to judge which channel is or is not working. Under windows there was a little tool for my soundcard (Realtek ALC650F) which played a sound on every channel one after another - it was easy that way to check which channels were working. Is there something comparable for Linux?
Thank you
cl10k

man speaker-test.
Last edited by Wintervenom (2010-02-11 07:05:40)

Why should I adopt LABVIEW FPGA as a tool for developing my FPGA projects?

Dear Friends,
Since I have started using LABVIEW FPGA, I got too many questions in my mind looking for answers!
1-      Does anybody can tell me “why should I adopt LABVIEW FPGA as a tool for developing my FPGA projects?”
I mean there are many great tools in this field (e.g. Xilinx ISE, ….); what makes LABVIEW FPGA the perfect tools that can save my time and my money?
I’m looking for a comparison can show the following points:
·         The Code size and speed optimization.
·         Developing time.
·         Compiling time.
·         Verifying time.
·         Ability to developing in future.
·         …etc.. 2-
I’ve Spartan-3E kit, I’m so glad that LABVIEW support this kit; I do enjoyed programming the kit using LABVIEW FPGA, but there are too many obstacles!
The examples come with Spartan-3E driver don't cover all peripherals on board (e.g. LAN port is not covered)! There is a declaration at NI website which is "LabVIEW FPGA drivers and examples for all on-board resources" Located at: http://digital.ni.com/express.nsf/bycode/spartan3eI don’t think that is true!
Anyway, I will try to develop examples for the unsupported peripherals, but if the Pins of these peripherals are not defined in the UCF file, the effort is worthless! The only solution in this case is to develop VHDL code in ISE and use it in Labview FPGA using HDL node!?
3-      I wonder if NI has any plan to add support for Processor setup in Labview FPGA (Like we do in EDK)?
4-      I wonder if NI has any plan to develop a driver for Virtex-5 OpenSPARC Evaluation Platform ?http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,400,599&Prod=XUPV5
Thnaks & regards,Walid
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Thanks for your questions and I hope I can answer them appropriately
1. LabVIEW FPGA utilizes the intuitive graphical dataflow language of LabVIEW to target FPGA technology. LabVIEW is particularly nice for FPGA programming because of its ability to represent parallelism inherent to FPGAs. It also serves as a software-like programming experience with loops and structures which has become a focus of industry lately with C-to-gates and other abstraction efforts. Here are some general comparison along the vectors you mentioned
Code Size and speed optimization - LabVIEW FPGA is a programming language. As such, one can program badly and create designs that are too big to fit on a chip and too slow to meet timing. However, there are two main programming paradigms which you can use. The normal LabVIEW dataflow programming (meaning outside a single-cycle loop) adds registers in order to enforce dataflow and synchronization in parity with the LabVIEW model of computation. As with any abstraction, this use of registers is logic necessary to enforce LabVIEW dataflow and might not be what an expert HDL programmer would create. You trade off the simplicity of LabVIEW dataflow in this case. On the other hand, when you program inside a Single-Cycle timed loop you can achieve size and speed efficiencies comparable to many VHDL implementations. We have had many users that understand that way LabVIEW is transformed to hardware and program in such a way to create very efficient and complex systems.
Development Time - Compared to VHDL many of our users get near infinite improvements in development time due to the fact that they do not know (nor do they have to know) VHDL or Verilog. Someone who knows LabVIEW can now reach the speeds and parallelism afforded by FPGAs without learning a new language. For harware engineers (that might actually have an alternative to LabVIEW) there are still extreme time saving aspects of LabVIEW including ready-made I/O interfaces, Simple FIFO DMA transfers, stichable IP blocks, and visualizable parallism. I talk to many hardware engineers that are able to drastically improve development time with LabVIEW, especially since they are more knowledgable about the target hardware.
Compilation Time - Comparable to slightly longer to due to the extra step of generating intermediate files from the LabVIEW diagram, and the increased level of hierarchy in the design to handle abstraction.
Verification Time - One of our key development initiatives moving forward is increased debugging capabilities. Today we have the abilities to functionally simulate anything included in LabVIEW FPGA, and we recently added simluation capabilities for Imported IP through the IP Integration node on NI Labs and the ability to excite your design with simulated I/O. This functional simualation is very fast and is great for verification and quick-turn design iteration. However, we still want to provide more debugging from the timing prespective with better cycle-accurate simulation. Although significantly slower than functional simulation. Cycle-accuracy give us the next level of verification before compilation. The single cycle loop running in emulation mode is cycle accurate simluation, but we want more system level simulation moving forwrad. Finally, we have worked to import things like Xilinx chipscope (soon to be on NI Labs) for on-chip debugging, which is the final step in the verification process. In terms of verification time there are aspects (like functional simulation) that are faster than traditional methods and others that are comparable, and still other that we are continuing to refine.
Ability to develop in the future - I am not sure what you mean here but we are certainly continuing to activiely develop on the RIO platform which includes FPGA as the key diffentiating technolgoy.  If you take a look at the NI Week keynote videos (ni.com/niweek) there is no doubt from both Day 1 and Day 2 that FPGA will be an important well maintained platform for many years to come.
2. Apologies for the statement in the document. The sentence should read that there are example for most board resources.
3. We do have plans to support a processor on the FPGA through LabVIEW FPGA. In fact, you will see technology on NI Labs soon that addresses this with MicroBlaze.
4. We do not currently have plans to support any other evaluation platforms. This support was created for our counterparts in the academic space to have a platform to learn the basics of digital design on a board that many schools already have in house. We are currently foccussing on rounding out more of our off-the-shelf platform with new PCI Express R Series boards, FlexRIO with new adapter modules, cRIO with new Virtex 5 backplanes, and more.
I hope this has anwered some of the questions you have.
Regards
Rick Kuhlman | LabVIEW FPGA Product Manager | National Instruments | ni.com/fpga
Check out the FPGA IPNet for browsing, downloading, and learning about LabVIEW FPGA IP Cores

Tools for comparing GPO

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for