Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 April 8
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April 8
editPowerPoint VBA question
editI would like to make it so that in a given (pre-existing) PowerPoint presentation, every time I hit "next slide", the screen goes totally black for a period of X milliseconds, and then goes to the next slide as usual.
Any idea where to start in terms of the VBA? I've been trying to figure out, just to begin with, how to "catch" the next slide event in VBA, but I'm struggling. The sample code I've found doesn't seem to work for PowerPoint 2004 for Mac. This should be possible, yes? I'm very handy in general with VBA, but I've never used it in PowerPoint before so this is an object model I'm not familiar with. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 00:42, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Maybe not much help to you, but Powerpoint 2007 (Windows) already has exactly the type of slide transition you desire, built in - either fade to black then fade in next slide, or switch to black then switch to next slide - at a speed that is "slow", "medium" or "fast"; sorry no milliseconds, but fast was like an eye blink when I tried it. I wonder if the same transitions are in Powerpoint 2008 for Mac? Astronaut (talk) 01:02, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Hmm, that's an idea I hadn't thought of, though I doubt the built-in transitions will accommodate. I don't want it to fade, I want it to go like this: slide 1 -> black (.5 seconds) -> slide 2. Click-clack. Herky jerky. On purpose and all. But I'll look into making custom transitions, that might be my best shot. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 01:26, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Now that I play with it, the one that comes closest to approximating what I want is called "Cut through black." I just wish I could extend the black period a bit. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 01:49, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Put auto-advancing black slides in between each slide and cut between them? :D\=< (talk) 02:31, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- I had thought of that, but I'd like it to be something portable and easy to use. Keeping track of extra slides would be a real pain. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 17:42, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Using cut through black (and fade through black) with the transition speed set to slow, gives about 0.5 secs of black. Astronaut (talk) 12:09, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- I wasn't able to change the transition speed for "cut to black" on mine (and again, fade to black won't work for this), it goes pretty fast. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 17:42, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Put auto-advancing black slides in between each slide and cut between them? :D\=< (talk) 02:31, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
A piece of advice: try putting an empty slide with a black background in-between and set the animation on that black slide to automatically advance to the next slide in whatever time you want. Then, put any transitions you want. Nice, easy and no VBA. Although it might not look very nice while editing in Powerpoint, it works just fine during a slide show. Admiral Norton (talk) 14:36, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
Connecting Etrex garmin GPS eceiver with a laptop
editI have a Garmin Etrex GPS receiver.I used to connect it to a RS 232 port of the PC.Everything was OK.But I recently bought a Laptop that does not have a RS 232 port.Please help me how can i connect it to the USB port of my Laptop. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.70.64.15 (talk) 02:11, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- I've never used this product, but I love this vendor.
- http://www.meritline.com/usb-cable-rs232-rs-232-cables.html
- I did a search for "usb to serial" and it was the first hit. - Bummer, not in stock.
- Ah, same site has this: http://www.meritline.com/usb-to-rs232-9-pin-adapter-blue.html
- $10 and free shipping. Their shipping is fast too. I live in Savannah GA (East coast) and products come from the West coast and my deliveries always come way before they say they will - Then again, maybe they add to my estimated shipping time becasue I am on the East coast. Either way, I get my stuff with free shipping in less than a week.--Wonderley (talk) 03:37, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- And there is this, if you prefer going the cable route
- http://www.meritline.com/usb-to-rs232-cable.html
- Make sure you double check the gender of the ends of what you need for your adapter. The product descriptions can sometimes be confusing. --Wonderley (talk) 03:47, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- And there is this, if you prefer going the cable route
Actionscript 3 video playback
editHi, i've been creating some off-line swf files for one of my colleagues to demonstrate our goods on her computer(Mac) to potential clients .
When i import a video to the timeline using Actionscript 3 and compile, it performs less than desirably - skipped frames; slow playback; sudden, overly fast playback, etc. I convert(rewrite) the file (actionscript and all) to Actionscript 2 and it runs a lot smoother .
I'd like to keep with As3 if possible of course, but this is effecting how i construct my files - i'm wary of using As3 for mulitple or large videos now .
Any ideas of why this is? I've got the latest ver of Flash player installed, etc ... on a pretty quick Mac . I'm placing the video directly on the timeline .
Any advice / work-arounds / better ways of doing things? Boomshanka (talk) 04:43, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
Random name generation algorithms
editI developed a simple random name generator in Ruby - simply a method that returned a string containing a randomly generated "fantasy" name. The algorithm worked thusly:
- a) Create an empty string
- b) Add a consonant
- c) Add a vowel
- d) Continue steps b) and c) for a randomly generated number of times (I limit the number between 3 and 10).
This basic method uses the simple trick that alternating consonant / vowel etc. will generate a nonsensical but "realistic" fantastical name. However the results are extremely simplistic and have no real "depth" or particular style:
Huw
Nilog
Reticuf
Bili
Heruman
Folupiw
Some of these, such as "Huw" and "Heruman" are acceptable whereas "Folupiw" and "Reticuf" look too random. I'm looking to develop this algorithm to something better, but I'm unsure where to start. I read a great article online somewhere a long time ago about markov chain algorithms that take a list of hand-written names and generate results based on the statistical likelihood of a letter appearing after a certain previous one. Any ideas? 81.187.252.174 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 07:15, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Maybe have a list of pre-written name endings that are used 25% of the time or something.. a lot of names in Tolkien end in "-in" (Turin, Hurin, Fingolfin..) for example. Also don't just pick a random consonant.. have a list of which consonants are appropriate after which vowels, and which vowels are appropriate after which consonants. You wouldn't want an a after a q- you only want a u. And a w after an i is also unacceptable. Tailor all of this to the style you're going for and just keep adding more conditions until you're satisfied :D\=< (talk) 07:22, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Maybe consonant cluster and phonotactics may help. --Kjoonlee 07:36, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Along with the consonant cluster suggestion (like "sh", "th", and "ch"), also use vowel clusters, like "oo", "au", "ai", etc. StuRat (talk) 11:47, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- That reminds me of some other articles, like diphthong and digraph (orthography). --Kjoonlee 11:52, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Along with the consonant cluster suggestion (like "sh", "th", and "ch"), also use vowel clusters, like "oo", "au", "ai", etc. StuRat (talk) 11:47, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Thanks for the replies! Letter grouping rules sounds like the next step. Anyone know much about implementing Markov chain algorithms to generate names? The advantage of this is you can literally define the "style" of the name from providing a list. For instance, if I "plug" in a text file full of names from China, I'll get Chinese sounding names - if I plug in a text file full of names from Sweden, I'll get Swedish sounding names. The main problem is I'm not sure how to approach it -- is there any literature available (particularily source code?) 81.187.252.174 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 12:32, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Funny you should mention Sweden. Name days in Sweden. --Kjoonlee 14:57, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Yeah, isn't that little custom cute :) My grandma always sends me a book on December 1. A shame if you're named Muhammad, though. --Oskar 10:59, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- Funny you should mention Sweden. Name days in Sweden. --Kjoonlee 14:57, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Thanks for the replies! Letter grouping rules sounds like the next step. Anyone know much about implementing Markov chain algorithms to generate names? The advantage of this is you can literally define the "style" of the name from providing a list. For instance, if I "plug" in a text file full of names from China, I'll get Chinese sounding names - if I plug in a text file full of names from Sweden, I'll get Swedish sounding names. The main problem is I'm not sure how to approach it -- is there any literature available (particularily source code?) 81.187.252.174 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 12:32, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
Did you see this guy who just posted about doing the same thing with Italian names? [1] With code, too. [2] 207.148.157.228 (talk) 13:54, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- You may also find the GPW password generator to be of use. Look here. It eats a dictionary to generate tables of 3-letter sequences, then stitches these together into random words that are usually pronouncable. --Mdwyer (talk) 23:39, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
Firefox Update
editI'm not sure if this is just me or what, but since I got the new update for Firefox yesterday, I have lost my 'back' and 'forward' buttons. Is this a mistake on the update? If not, is there anyway I can get them to appear again?
Also, I use an addon which gives me a 'speed dial', like in Opera, and everytime Firefox updates, this gets disabled. Is there any way I can re-enable addons which have been disabled? I know it's compatible because just reinstalling the addon makes it work again, but then I have to reconfigure it again.
Thanks--ChokinBako (talk) 08:45, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Right click on the toolbar, select "Customize...", drag & drop tools to & from from the toolbar. As to extensions, automatic update is a mystery to me. Check tools -> options -> advanced -> automatically check installed add-ons. Or manually check from tools -> add-ons. Weregerbil (talk) 10:12, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Yep, you cannot use the addon unless it is compatible with the version of Firefox you have. Kushal 12:21, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Thanks! I didn't know Firefox had the 'drag & drop' thing, and that sorted my 'speed dial' out, too, because I've put that in the tool bar. This is even better than it was before! --ChokinBako (talk) 13:23, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
(DVD Video encoded in lossy MPEG-2)
Is there any sort of "lossless" DVD ripping/archiving? The output file size should be the same as the input. There is no need for compression.
Think of it as lossless archiving of a JPEG file or a MP3 file: All you need is to copy the input file. The decoder can read those formats. If you convert it to a PNG of FLAC the output file size will be much bigger. So you need to use the same lossy encoding.
The is no need that any media player could play it, one media player is enough - it could be a program that specially created to play this kind of files.
Can ISO do that? Are there media player to play ISO on-the-fly? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.0.6.8 (talk) 09:40, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Just rip the VOBs off the disk with DVD Decrypter. ffdshow configured correctly will play them back in Media Player Classic or any directshow media player. :D\=< (talk) 09:56, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- But watch out, they're big. A full dual layer dvd holds 8GB.. ugh mpeg2 is disgusting :D\=< (talk) 09:58, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- I think you're already aware of this, but the VOB file on a DVD is MPEG-2 encoded -- so it is already been lossy-compressed. The best you can do it not process the file any further. You can do a bit-accurate copy of the MPEG-2 data on a DVD and not introduce additional losses. You cannot get the original uncompressed video from a DVD.--Mdwyer (talk) 23:35, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- That's why the OP kept putting lossless in quotes. :D\=< (talk) 04:08, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
- I think you're already aware of this, but the VOB file on a DVD is MPEG-2 encoded -- so it is already been lossy-compressed. The best you can do it not process the file any further. You can do a bit-accurate copy of the MPEG-2 data on a DVD and not introduce additional losses. You cannot get the original uncompressed video from a DVD.--Mdwyer (talk) 23:35, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- But watch out, they're big. A full dual layer dvd holds 8GB.. ugh mpeg2 is disgusting :D\=< (talk) 09:58, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
ISC BIND probs
editI am thinking that I installed ISC Bind wrong on my CP, judging from the fact that I cannot get Apache to work right. I am thinking that it has something to do with my "zones" file. according to here, I should replace all references to "nameserver" or "hostname" to the hostname of my nameserver. What is the "hostname of my nameserver?" Is it "www"? Is it my ISP? What? Also, it doesnt say anything about what to do for "hostmaster". I need help. Here are the contents of my db.flaminglawyer.com.txt, assuming that I was aiming at creating flaminglawyer.com
$TTL 6h @ IN SOA www.flaminglawyer.com. hostmaster.flaminglawyer.com. ( 2008040701 10800 3600 604800 86400 ) @ NS www.flaminglawyer.com. nameserver IN A 192.168.1.11
flaminglawyerc 12:05, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- "hostmaster.flaminglawyer.com" is actually an e-mail address. The first dot gets turned into an '@'. So, this is the contact address of someone responsible for these
records.
- I'd probably do something like this:
$TTL 6h @ IN SOA www.flaminglawyer.com. hostmaster.flaminglawyer.com. ( 2008040701 10800 3600 604800 86400 ) @ NS dns.flaminglawyer.com. dns IN A 192.168.1.11 www IN A 192.168.1.11
However, there are a lot of subtleties, here. We probably can't really help you effectively in this forum. --Mdwyer (talk) 23:32, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
Creative DDTS-100
editHi,
Does anyone here own one a Creative DDTS-100 and if so do you think it improves audio quality/experience (particularly in movies) and hence is it worth buying? I have a Creative Megaworks THX 5.1 system and onboard audio with my motherboard (Asus K8N-E Deluxe) --58.175.34.222 (talk) 12:40, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
Keyboard buffering
editYou know the behaviour exhibited by a lot of traditional computer programs (say bash for example) where you can continue to type as bash is doing something and it (or something, whatever it is) will store up your key presses until it's ready for them? eg you can type ls<enter>ls<enter> as quickly as you like and you'll end up with it running ls twice. Now consider a form on a web browser - you fill some things in and press enter and get a new form. Now normally there'd be no "keyboard buffering" or at least the keyboard buffering wouldn't do what you want - ie wait for the next form. What solutions / workarounds exist for this? --194.223.156.1 (talk) 15:31, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- That is a behavior of the web browser, not the web page. You can fake it by using JavaScript to buffer key presses and AJAX to change the content (so you don't break the continuity of the JavaScript). AJAX will use the buffer to fill in the new form when it finishes loading. -- kainaw™ 15:40, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Just so you know, this feature is called type-ahead and it's usually a standard feature of any command line interface, but type-ahead or mouse-ahead is a pretty rare feature of any graphical user interface. 'shame, really.
- Hey Kainaw, can you provide any examples of this being implemented? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.223.156.1 (talk) 08:34, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- Nope. I've never seen it. I only know that it "could" be implemented. Of course, there will be problems. For example, if you hit the backspace key, most browsers will treat it as clicking the back button. -- kainaw™ 13:48, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
MP3 V AAC
editI use iTunes for music on my PC so I can sync the music to my iPod. My 30gb iPod recently ran out of space however, and as half the music on my iTunes is in the MP3 format and half in the AAC format, I was wondering whether I should convert it all to AAC or all to MP3, or if it would make a difference at all. Also, is there any program on Windows Vista that can compress the files? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.5.206.57 (talk) 16:08, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Don't reencode anything, you'll be murdering your audio quality with a dagger made of lava! :D\=< (talk) 16:57, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Best. Metaphor. Ever. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 17:58, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Ditto :D Unless you trade your iPod for some stupid mp3 player that does not support AAC. Kushal 23:36, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
Domain expiration: what sec exactly
editIf I know that the domain 'dom.com' expired on the day 'e', how can I know exactly when it can be bought again? Is there a way to calculate the exact second?
A domain of mine expired a couple of weeks ago and it is on the redemption period. My registrant want $70 for renewing it in this redemption period - and I've heard that this price is not abusive.
I am not interested in any service that helps me buy expired domains. the domain is personally valuable but nothing especial. If I can grab my domain back is fine, if not is not the end of the world. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.58.205.37 (talk) 16:35, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
Hooking up a laptop drive
editA friend of mine says their Macbook hard drive has died and wants me to take a quick look at it (their tech support wants to charge them $700 for the honor of giving it a shot, which I find a bit excessive). Unfortunately the tech support has already taken it out of the laptop housing and installed a new harddrive in it. I'm pretty sure it is a SATA drive of some sort.
What's the best approach? I've excavated data from bad/buggy drives before but usually it has involved chaining laptops up using Firewire or trying to hook the problematic drive as a slave drive. I'm not really interested in buying an enclosure for just this purpose, especially if the possibility of it working at all is low. I was thinking about hooking it up as a slave drive to my old PC but I haven't the slightest idea whether the drive connections will be compatible. (Obviously, once I have the drive, it will be more straightforward.)
Anyway -- I guess I don't have a specific question, but am phrasing this more as a general query. Thoughts? --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 17:37, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- MacBooks that have a FireWire connector will start up in Target Disk Mode where they just pretend to be big external FireWire drives that can be connected to any other computer that will support external FireWire drives.
- Right, I know that (and tried to indicate that above, guess I wasn't clear), but the hard drive needs to be hooked into a preexisting laptop for that to work. In this case, I just have the drive; I don't have a laptop to hook it into. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 00:27, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- Oh, I see -- sorry. Buy a cheap "external hard drive mounting box" that will support the SATA drive on the inside and whatever connectivity (FireWire, USB, ESATA) you have on the outside. Such a box will come in handy time and time again over the years. (And remember that converters are available between SATA and PATA in case you can't find a SATA mounting box. Converters are also available between full-sized PATA and the mini-PATA used on 2-1/2" drives.)
Moved from miscellaneous -- slow loading FaceBook
editFor some reason some sites such as Facebook, Bebo and Yahoo Answers seem to be taking forever to load. This is despite the fact that they were working perfectly yesterday, and that other sites such as Wikipedia, WikiAnswers, Youtube and Livejournal are working as normal. I'm not capped, and there doesn't appear to be any change in my internet from normal. At one point I opened youtube to a 10 minute video, typed facebook into the address bar and pressed enter, and then managed to watch the entire video before facebook loaded (the title appeared, and "Connecting to static.ak.facebook.com..." appeared down the bottom of the screen, but it was all youtube inbetween). The page is still seeming to load, even though it started about an hour ago! Any ideas? 58.166.102.18 (talk) 09:37, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
- I'd think the Computer Ref Desk would be a better place for this question. StuRat (talk) 02:44, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- My first suspicion is that (if you are at work), your IT admins may be trying to set up a block on facebook. Of course, if you have a private connection (or are at home), this makes no sense. If it is your private connection, try talking with your ISP. I am pretty sure Facebook was not down anytime last week. Kushal 22:13, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
Sharing an IP
editWhen we share an IP, how do other servers know whom to send a request. I mean, there must something else there to mark packages passing through the network, right? WikiWiking (talk) 18:11, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- You may be sharing an external IP, but you are not sharing an internal IP - which is also in the packet as it goes back and forth. So, once your router gets the packet sent to the external IP, it unpacks the packet based on the internet IP and knows where it is supposed to go. When it gets an internal packet, it wraps it in the external IP and sends it off. -- kainaw™ 18:42, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- The IP packets are sorted-out based on their serial numbers (which normally vary widely from one user of the IP to another user). See NAT.
- What Kainaw said is basically correct, but I wouldn't put it that way. I'd say the "internal" IP is only known by computers in the local network, so it wouldn't go back and forth the Internet, only the local net. --Kjoonlee 19:08, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Let's say you're at an office where everybody shares a telephone number. Somewhat weirdly, everybody can call each other, but only the operator can call and receive phone calls. If you want to talk to someone on the outside, you call the operator, who calls the other person for you. When someone on the outside wants to calls you back, that person has to go through the operator and ask, "I was talking with some person about this-and-this; do you know who it is?" So the operator needs to remember what the call was about and put the call through. This is roughly how NAT works. Internal IP addresses correspond roughly to how internal phone numbers work. --Kjoonlee 19:20, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Ok, lets forget the analogies and vague answers and just tell the guy what's actually happening: a packet travelling on the internet contains these two pieces of information in order to know where it's going: an IP address and a port number. The port number just essentially informs the receiving computer what internet socket that should handle the data. That way, you can have 20 connections alive at any one moment, and they don't get confused because they all have different port numbers. If you get a packet to port 80, that goes to your HTTP server, a packet going to port 25 is an email packet, and so forth. When you connect to a foreign server, your computer creates a new socket on a random port with a high number, like 32431, so that when the server responds it knows what port it should sent it to.
- This is also how NAT-routers knows what packet to send to whom. If it sees a packet leaving computer with an internal IP (that is, your local IP-address, not your public IP-address) of 192.168.1.105 which specifies a return port of 32431, it knows that when the router receives a pack with a destination port of 32431, it knows that it should go to 192.168.1.105. Let's illustrate this with an example conversation:
- A computer on a local network with local IP 192.168.1.105 wants to send a packet to 72.14.207.99 port 80 (also known as google.com). It specifies return port 45673.
- The NAT router sees that 192.168.1.105 is sending a packet to 72.14.207.99, and it specifies return port 45673. It remembers that.
- Google recieves the packet and sends one in return, with the router IP as destination and destination port 45673.
- The NAT router recieves googles packet, and now it has to figure out what computer on the local network should receive it. Oh, look, 192.168.1.105 just sent a packet to google with a return port of 45673! It must be that computer that wants it!
- 192.168.1.105 receives the answer to the packet it sent.
- Get it? So you're basically right, there is something else that marks the packet with additional information, the port number. It wasn't intended really to be used that way, but it works fine. --Oskar 20:46, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
using my cache
editIt there a way I can save my cache into a working copy of ofline web files? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.159.16.175 (talk) 18:59, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- As long as your browser is actually storing the cache contents onto the disk, they're stored as ordinary files. (Not all browsers use a disk cache; the browser I'm using right now is configured to just use a very large memory cache.) It may be tough to figure out what's what based on the weird filenames, but it's all there and you can copy it out just like any other files.
- Atlant (talk) 19:03, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- So, in theory I could copy the cache from loads of different browsers into one directory and then later past them into my own browsers cache folder and have a working ofline internet?
- Each browser usuaully has some sort of "cache control file" as well that contains metadata about what's in that browser's cache. Because of this, you can't just arbitrarily copy-in the varous HTML bits, GIF bits, and the like and expect to be able to browse that collection. The files are useful individually, though.
- Google Gears promises to give some of that capability in the future. A developers' version is available for you to work with. Please read our article on it. You might also want to look at ScrapBook as a working solution (you can set ScrapBook to save everything that you browse automatically). Another related extension is Zotero which is "partly a piece of reference management software". I hope that helps. Kushal 23:33, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
any TINY single executable for Windows that is a "browser" but just displays HTML?
editI'm looking for a TINY browser (and I mean tiny, a few KB, I'm not thinking like Opera browser or something that needs installation, just a single executable) to display HTML, I don't want to use IE or embed it. Is there anything like that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.122.30.122 (talk) 23:43, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- ps. the reason I want it to be so tiny is to be INSTANT, as responsive as C++ GUI code. I dont want to learn a gui language and just want to use HTML and my local web server (ABYSS, itself tiny :) ) to act as a local application, but this is a laptop low on ram and I dont want the web browser to come witha bunch of overhead. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.122.30.122 (talk) 23:46, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Telnet to Port 80 on the target system (but I've forgotten the exact details; do you have to say "get"?).
- err, that won't work. What he wants is something that will RENDER html but without full browser overhead. My bet is that on a Windows system it'll be hard to do better than just embedding an IE instance, since it'll likely already be loaded into the host machine anyhow. In my experience in doing something like this, the hardest part is figuring out how to handle when the user clicks on things (that is, making the browser control send input back to the program and not try and do things automatically). RealBasic has an HTML renderer control but it's fiendishly hard to use in the way you've specified (I've tried and tried and tried). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:24, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- iexplore definitely isn't loaded into my memory already- maybe you're thinking of windows 98 or something (maybe XP did this?). You'll probably have a KHTML renderer loaded if you use KDE, I don't know o_O :D\=< (talk) 03:52, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- err, that won't work. What he wants is something that will RENDER html but without full browser overhead. My bet is that on a Windows system it'll be hard to do better than just embedding an IE instance, since it'll likely already be loaded into the host machine anyhow. In my experience in doing something like this, the hardest part is figuring out how to handle when the user clicks on things (that is, making the browser control send input back to the program and not try and do things automatically). RealBasic has an HTML renderer control but it's fiendishly hard to use in the way you've specified (I've tried and tried and tried). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:24, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- Try Off By One Web Browser. Full HTML 3.2 support, completely self-contained, stand-alone 1.2 MB application with no dependencies. Think outside the box 07:24, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- No dependencies?! ridiculous :D\=< (talk) 12:18, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- If you figure out a sensible way to do this please let us know. It's an obvious thing to want—it would allow one to do all sorts of clever things with web scripting languages and etc. without worrying about interfaces, and would be easily cross-platform—but as far as I know it's not out there at the moment. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 13:23, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- Try Gogi. Minimal UI overhead. Windows, Linux. Don't expect support. --soum talk 13:34, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- Would it be possible to get the Windows port of Dillo? Astronaut (talk) 14:08, 9 April 2008 (UTC)