VBA Rubberducking

Mat's Mug

00:00

@Rossco you're running the 32-bit or 64-bit build?

Rossco

I'm running 32 bit 2013 with 1.3 installed.

Mat's Mug

the 32-bit install should be clean

Rossco

ok, cool. When I get a chance I'll see if I can get debug mode happening.

Hosch250

@Mat'sMug Ever review my changes?

Mat's Mug

not yet

8 mins ago, by Mat's Mug

I have - if I counted them correctly - 238 keys under HKLM/SOFTWARE/Classes/CLSID/{29FB0A0E-F113-458F-823B-1CD1B60D2CA7}

Hosch250

00:03

OK.

Busy cleaning the registry, I see.

Supper is on.

Rossco

@Mat'sMug How about

Mat's Mug

later!

Rossco

var project = vbe.VBProjects.Cast<VBProject>()
                        .FirstOrDefault(p => p.Protection != vbext_ProjectProtection.vbext_pp_locked && p.Equals(selection.QualifiedName.Project));

Mat's Mug

^^ that

and fixed.

Rossco

awesome.

Mat's Mug

00:05

IIRC there wasn't a .Project member to the QualifiedModuleName type yet when that one was first written

Rossco

Yeah its interesting how the design tends to fall out when you work on a software project.

Perhaps the project should be available on the selection object? as QualifiedName doesn't really make semantic sense when I look at it.

Mat's Mug

there's a QualifiedSelection object that should have it

Selection is just a struct originally meant to get the selection from the IDE

QualifiedSelection is meant to set the selection in the IDE

Rossco

cool, catch you later.

Mat's Mug

later!

BTW you just planted a seed there

Rossco

@Mat'sMug huh?

Mat's Mug

00:10

about the QualifiedModuleName

there's a lot of performance-penalty junk in there, used for tracking whether a module has been modified or not

Rossco

cool.

Mat's Mug

the key listener should clean that up

RubberDuck

So, @Mat'sMug I've only been half here today and it's been a bit chaotic. What do you need me to do buddy? I've got some time.

Mat's Mug

well I'm still scrubbing

can you verify the x86 installer and fix whatever I messed up?

RubberDuck

Yeah. Yeah. I can do that. master branch?

Mat's Mug

00:21

yep

RubberDuck

Cool. You got it man.

Mat's Mug

oh make sure you fix the above, too

I changed it in my version, but I'm reverting all uncommitted changes on my end

18 mins ago, by Rossco

var project = vbe.VBProjects.Cast<VBProject>()
                        .FirstOrDefault(p => p.Protection != vbext_ProjectProtection.vbext_pp_locked && p.Equals(selection.QualifiedName.Project));

^^ reference-equality against the project instance

RubberDuck

Hmm... I thought that was a CodePane extension. Where'd you find that snippet @Rossco?

Mat's Mug

VbeExtensions.cs - line 58

Ctrl+T "SetSelection" ;)

@RubberDuck while you're there - can you also fix the renaming of UserForm control?

it's a dumb bug

RubberDuck

Sure. Why not?

Mat's Mug

00:32

in the RenameControl() method, there's a foreach (var handler in _declarations.FindEventHandlers(_view.Target)) loop

var newMemberName = _view.Target.ComponentName + '_' + _view.NewName;

^^ there's the bug

Hosch250

@Mat'sMug Ever seen a clever one?

The cleverest bug I've ever seen was so dumb it was amazing it worked (of course it was mine...).

Mat's Mug

debugging is at least twice as hard as writing code. Write dumb code if you want dumb bugs

2

RubberDuck

Booting my laptop just to star that.

@Mat'sMug I don't understand how that's a bug, but I'll check it out.

Hosch250

I'm looking at making it work for Outlook.

Mat's Mug

@RubberDuck the target's ComponentName is the name of the module - in that case a UserForm, so that's renaming ControlButton1_Click to MyForm_TheNewName

you need to replace the _view.Target.IdentifierName + '_' in the signature with _view.NewName + '_'

RubberDuck

00:40

@Hosch250 Everything except unit testing should work already. I think.

Hosch250

@RubberDuck It doesn't work at all, actually.

Mat's Mug

I read somewhere that Outlook doesn't support the VBE API

Hosch250

Outlook doesn't support the Application.Run() call.

Oh.

So, I guess I won't.

RubberDuck

Pulling 114 commits

Mat's Mug

nice

@Hosch250 thing is, if you're in Outlook's VBE and you're seeing a Rubberduck menu, there is a VBE API that works.

try code inspections

and refactor/rename

RubberDuck

00:42

Something is very weird here.

Mat's Mug

'sup

Hosch250

@Mat'sMug Not sure what you mean.

public override void Run(string projectName, string moduleName, string methodName)
{
    //Outlook does not support the run method.
    throw new NotImplementedException("Unit Testing not supported for Outlook");
}

RubberDuck

What's this "Project Items" folder?

Mat's Mug

@Hosch250 forget about Application.Run in Outlook, not gonna happen ;)

but everything else should work

Hosch250

Also, how can I test it if it doesn't work on my machine?

I know. I'm looking at a couple different things.

Mat's Mug

00:45

@RubberDuck probably a relic of when I accidentally committed the performance profiling reports along with the solution

it can be ignored

@RubberDuck you get the rename bug?

Hosch250

I'm ready to test a couple things, but how can I do it if it doesn't work on my machine?

RubberDuck

Working on it. The dog wants to type with his face.

Mat's Mug

lol

@Hosch250 what's not working?

Hosch250

Rubberduck!

Oh, wait, I need to run it, not just build it.

Mat's Mug

sorry to ask again, but you're 64-bit Office 2010 right?

Hosch250

00:49

Yeah.

Mat's Mug

same setup as mine. I should remember now.

well I've been building and manually registering the debug builds up until now... but I wouldn't recommend that approach now.

when I was on a 32-bit setup I simply added EXCEL.EXE in the project properties/debug/launch external program, and I could F5-debug RD

it worked on a 64-bit setup as well for a while. Then I borked something.

could be just on my machine though

did you try just starting EXCEL on debug and F5?

Hosch250

Yeah, it isn't loading though.

It isn't anywhere to be found.

Mat's Mug

ok yeah so you have the keys under wow6432node

still want your mug? ;)

Hosch250

Sure, but I don't think I earned it.

No, I uninstalled the app, and it can't even see it anymore.

Even though I'm running it from VS, I can't find it in the VBE.

Mat's Mug

same here, except I can't even start the VBE anymore

Hosch250

00:56

Bah.

Mat's Mug

it says "add in couldn't be loaded" right?

Hosch250

No.

Mat's Mug

no?

Hosch250

It doesn't say anything.

It just isn't.

Mat's Mug

is it in the add-ins manager?

Hosch250

00:57

I'm running it as Debug64.

Nope.

Mat's Mug

and you have the Rubberduck.Extension key under Addins64?

Hosch250

Checking.

Mat's Mug

I've been building with the "Debug" config

Hosch250

Lol, I found a key named BugSplat.

RubberDuck

VS just crashed.

Mat's Mug

01:00

this is the darkest weekend RD has ever seen.

RubberDuck

And we've seen some dark days.

Hosch250

Oooh...

RubberDuck

Something's borked, and I have no clue what.

Hosch250

I don't have a VBE key in the VBA key!

Mat's Mug

I think Hosch just found something

well that would fix something

Hosch250

01:01

VBA/7.1/Commen/Toolbas/Settings is all I have!

RubberDuck

@Hosch250 I want to star that, but... it makes me ;(

Hosch250

I'm going to reinstall the blooming thing.

I think the project is cursed.

Mat's Mug

whenever you don't see RD in the addins manager, something's up under the VBA key

Hosch250

We need to BREAK THE CURSE!

RubberDuck

I blame Installshield.

Mat's Mug

01:02

whenever you do see RD in the addins manager but it won't load, something's up with registration

RubberDuck

because reasons

Mat's Mug

I want the good old 2010 VS installer project. damn you Microsoft, why did that have to be dropped?

I'm in the "8D"'s

Hosch250

Lol.

RubberDuck

Dude. I'm getting errors just loading the VBE.

Hosch250

I don't have the VBE.

Rubberduck is reinstalled...

Mat's Mug

01:05

ugh

Hosch250

Oh, yes I do.

RubberDuck

So, the Code Explorer is parsing on launch. Okay.

Hosch250

Yeah, it is here now.

Mat's Mug

@RubberDuck if you can fix that one as well....

I'm in the 90's

Hosch250

Almost done!

So, I borked something.

So, yes, now it won't work.

RubberDuck

01:10

Da fuq

> System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException was unhandled
Message: An unhandled exception of type 'System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException' occurred in mscorlib.dll
Additional information: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.

Mat's Mug

9A's

RubberDuck

Crashed so hard Excel went down.

Hosch250

So, I don't have the _About or the _SettingsDialog anymore.

Curious.

I don't have it in either the Wow or the other place.

@Mat'sMug Sorry to bug, but what is the regasm command again?

RubberDuck

I'll have to look again tomorrow. Too burnt out to comprehend this right now.

Mat's Mug

@Hosch250 c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework64\v4.0.30319\regasm.exe "path to rubberduck.dll" /codebase /tlb

Hosch250

01:19

Thanks.

So, what is the path to the .dll?

Would it be in the Release64 folder with the .tlb?

Still crashed...

Mat's Mug

@Hosch250 if you're building the Debug64 config, it would be under bin/Debug64...

Hosch250

OK.

Mat's Mug

B's

RubberDuck

Okay. It's running again. I think.

Hosch250

VBE can't find it unless it is installed, and when it is installed, it doesn't work.

I'll wipe my computer after the semester, and come back then, I guess...

I don't have the VBE key unless it is installed, but I suppose I can add that back manually.

RubberDuck

01:31

It's my workbook I think.

Mat's Mug

you need to add it manually

RubberDuck

Tired. Will resume im the a.m.

Mat's Mug

'night!!

Hosch250

Night.

I wonder...

> Who's been digging lizard holes out here in the desert!

Mat's Mug

@Hosch250 the VBE key is manual - the installer puts it there, and removes it if you uninstall

Hosch250

01:34

Oh, OK.

So, why isn't going in there in debug mode?

Mat's Mug

because that key has nothing to do with registering the assembly

wow I just wiped 5 consecutive GUIDs

5 in a row that were RD's

Hosch250

Why don't you just leave them there?

I suppose you are almost done now.

Mat's Mug

almost

well because my VBE is crashing and I want to eliminate RD from my system right now, to see if I can fix it ;)

I didn't think there would be so many keys.. I must have deleted close to 1000 by now

I'm going to write a scrubber for next time that happens

(And put it up on CR)

Hosch250

Good idea.

Mat's Mug

01:50

C's

D's

@Hosch250 you know what would be great? that the RD GUIDs all started with the same sequence of characters ;)

Hosch250

It would.

"00RUBBER-..."?

Mat's Mug

"R" isn't a valid hex digit...

Hosch250

Oh, those are hex digits...

Mat's Mug

yup

one thing we did right, was putting "Rubberduck" in all ProgId's.

Hosch250

Yup.

Updated my SQL query:

data.stackexchange.com/codereview/query/303721/…

Not going to post another question, though.

Mat's Mug

02:06

E's

F's at last!

CLSID scrub completed

ooh now I'm discovering registry keys I never suspected

oh crap

starting over under the wow6432node

#FML

oddly the wow key is much cleaner

\Interface has a key for IRubberduckParser

another for _RubberduckMenu

ooh the search is taking a long long long while now

I think I'm done scrubbing HKLM

I.. think Rubberduck is gone from my registry now

YESS!! VBE WORKS AGAIN!!

Mat's Mug

03:00

@Hosch250 you have a real name or I'm adding "Hosch250" to the about box?

Hosch250

03:12

@Mat'sMug I have a real name.

But, I'm found all over the internet as Hosch250.

Mat's Mug

Hosch250 it is then!

Hosch250

Thanks, but I haven't done much at all!

Mat's Mug

more than some other names in that list

Hosch250

Well, I guess I did find a crucial clue in debugging this problem - the Wow6432Node thing.

OK.

Hosch250

03:39

@Mat'sMug:

Mat's Mug

lol

Hosch250

For your shirt.

Mat's Mug

@RubberDuck are you sure the project isn't supposed to register for COM interop? every single tag has that checkbox checked...

1.22

1.21

Hosch250

@Mat'sMug social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/…

Same problem we have, no solution.

Mat's Mug

it's simple. COM cannot be registered under the x64 hive.

COM is 32-bit.

I'm sure it's that

1.1

Hosch250

03:48

I mean, there isn't a solution in the thread.

Mat's Mug

I know

Hosch250

So, what can we do?

Uncheck the Register for COM box?

What would happen then?

Mat's Mug

I had it unchecked. checking it. hold on.

hmm nothing changes

searching registry...

it built but didn't register anything.

no wonder VBE still can't find the addin

Hosch250

Lol.

> But if you have an assembly marked with vsdraCOM for registration the resulting component does NOT have the 64-bit setting (the msidbComponentAttributes64bit is not set) so you get registration in the 32-bit registry.

social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/…

blogs.msdn.com/b/heaths/archive/2005/10/24/…

Rossco

If you guys are really hating the installer then you could consider using Inno Script instead. The upside is that everything is in a single text file and can be chained into the post build event for VS. I know I've suggested this before.

Unfortunately, I've lost access to a script that would have been very useful to you.

Mat's Mug

04:03

I was using that at my old job to build a VB6 DLL

Rossco

How did you find it?

Mat's Mug

I think VS2010 Installer project was unrivaled

Rossco

Its way better than NSIS IMO

Mat's Mug

yeah that InstallShield LE thing is the most horrible thing I've ever worked with

Rossco

@Mat'sMug Mmmmm, it does look complicated.

Hosch250

04:06

It is simple enough to set up, but it just doesn't register it.

We aren't the only ones with this problem, but I haven't seen any solutions yet.

41

A: Windows 64-bit registry v.s. 32-bit registry

I ran into this issue not long ago. The short answer is that if you run a 32 bit application on a 64 bit machine then it's registry keys are located under a Wow6432Node. For example, let's say you have an application that stores its registry information under: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Compa...

@Mat'sMug Could we change it so it could register in either?

Mat's Mug

IDK.. right now it's not registering anywhere for me

A 32 bit binary will work on both platforms, but if you specifically want to offer a 64 bit version of your binary then yes, you need to build one for each platform. — 17 of 26 May 17 '09 at 16:33

well....

Mat's Mug

04:29

looks like I should be using regsvr32.exe (64?) instead of regasm.exe

regsvr64.codeplex.com/documentation

Hosch250

Looks cool.

Rossco

How many of the build configs are actually used?

There are quite a number.

Including obsolete ones like CDROM

DVD5

Hosch250

I don't know.

I'm sick of my app.

I'm going to write a bunch of tutorials, get this release out, and open source it.

Mat's Mug

I think all we need is Debug, Debug64, Release, Release64.

Hosch250

I want to write a new one and learn more.

Rossco

04:42

@Mat'sMug I was hoping that was the answer.

Mat's Mug

lol

Rossco

Well I was surprised to see them all and was hoping they were created automatically by the installer projects

Mat's Mug

they were

tells you how much of a crapware ISLE is

Rossco

Yeah its annoying when tools add heaps of schlock when you use them.

So it appears that both configs are set to create AnyCPU binaries. Is that correct?

Mat's Mug

yup

Rossco

04:53

Its just the registration of the CLSIDs that differs?

Mat's Mug

I think so

Rossco

I love that confidence ;-)

Mat's Mug

I'm confused as hell about this whole crap

32-bit office on x64 works like a charm with 32-bit installer

Rossco

I reckon that the configuration of stuff like this takes about 50% of your time (mainly because you have no idea what is happening).

Mat's Mug

I wish I had a MSDN subscription with a separate desktop and 4-5 virtual machines to test all kinds of setups

Rossco

04:55

@Mat'sMug That's what I run. I learnt the hard way that 64ibt office is a pig

Mat's Mug

lol

Rossco

So when I upgraded to 2013 I made sure I got 32 bit.

Mat's Mug

I had 32-bit Office installed and everything worked like heaven. Then we started getting GitHub issues about RD not working on 64-bit office

Rossco

@Mat'sMug lol

Mat's Mug

so I uninstalled my Office and reinstalled 64-bit.

and problems started.

Rossco

05:02

I saw in the documentation that you need to create the directory %appdata%\Rubberduck. Does the installer create that? Why can't RD create that directory by itself like other apps normally do?

Hosch250

Darn, past midnight again :(

Mat's Mug

I'm pretty sure the installer creates it

otherwise we'd be getting much more bitching about RD crashing at startup ;)

Mat's Mug

05:20

ok I'm starting to have some hope here

I added regasm.exe $(targetpath) /unregister to prebuild, and regasm.exe $(targetpath) /codebase to postbuild - the postbuild is somehow not working, but if I run it manually then RD loads in Excel, which is a good sign - I'm about to get my debug build fixed.

done

I have a working debug build that launches Excel from VS with the process attached!

at fucking last

and the key to not creating hundreds of registry keys, is the prebuild /unregister step.

since the x86 / 32-bit debug build seems to "just work", I only added these steps to the debug64 config.

committing.

pushed to master.

oooookay ...now VBE/Excel just closes (crashes) on load when it's parsing code. I'm annoyed.

confirmed - it's the Code Explorer crashing it.

that doesn't make any sense

no, it's not the Code Explorer

wtf

"Excel has stopped working"

ah

well look at that

component.Name is null

oh it's a msForm

@RubberDuck and now I got a repro on the System.Reflection exception you had earlier. But it's an AccessViolation that's shutting down Excel

and we're not catching the AccessViolationException:

        catch (COMException exception)
        {
            return null;
        }

damn

        catch (Exception exception) // temp fix (cough)
        {
            return null;
        }

nope. not cutting it.

I'll look at that tomorrow. Committing for now, I've fixed the rename bug for form controls

fizzbuzz.xlsm loads fine

I bet it has to do with forms

don't ask why

way past TTGTB here.

Anyway Chris when you read this you can pull master knowing the rename bug is fixed, so if you manage to figure out that access violation you should be good to go with a 3.01 x86 release

Oh and the SetSelection bug is fixed too

Stack Exchange

07:43

0

Q: From VBA to R: what can I use in R that does the same as ReDim in VBA?

I am currently working with the explicit finite difference method and I have a code for this method. The code is written in VBA and now our teacher wants us to write the code so that we can use it in R. I am new to programming so I have a couple of problems. In the VBA code they use the functio...

Stack Exchange

08:46

@msdev excluding installers for x64 COM interop, yes!

Tweeted by rubberduckvba on April 19, 2015 at 12:57 PM in reply to msdev

Yesterday's release was a "little bit" rushed. I messed up, apologies. 1.31 coming as soon as we get it right. Shouldn't be too long.

Tweeted by rubberduckvba on April 20, 2015 at 3:07 AM

RubberDuck

09:04

@Rossco that is for dev environ. The installer creates it.

Rossco

09:19

@RubberDuck Yeah, I wanted to know because I'm having a go at making an installer script using Inno Setup.

Its just weird because I would have not expected that it would need to be created at all. But I can't be bothered substantiating that claim.

RubberDuck

09:43

That directory is hardcoded to hold the config file.

I think I might have set it up to create it if it doesn't exist after the fact, but I can't recall.

Rossco

09:57

I wish I hadn't lost my previous code, I had a working script for Inno Setup to handle 64 bit/32 bit registration.

RubberDuck

@Mat'sMug 1.22 assemblyinfo.cs

@Rossco I think we might look at WiX very soon.

Rossco

Oh but I nearly have finished it :-(

RubberDuck

I've looked into it a bit, and it seems to be a very flexible solution.

No arguments man! Didn't realize you were working on it.

Rossco

;-)

RubberDuck

Hmm...... errors are magically gone, but so is the rename refactoring.

Rossco

10:11

can't have one without the other it seems.

@RubberDuck I'm working on this script and I want to make a single installer to install both versions - since they are both compiled as AnyCPU. Just the registration differs. So I want to determine the bitness of Office. Is it possible that someone can have two different bitnesses of Office on the same machine? Do we want to let the user override the chosen bitness (radio button)? Other questions go here.

RubberDuck

I actually think you can have two different bitness of office installed. It's recommended to register for 32 and 64 when you run 64 office.

Problem is, libgit2 has two different *.dlls. One for 32 and one for 64.

Rossco

Yip I saw that, so multiple registration isn't going to work.

RubberDuck

Rossco

So the installer should only put the correct version in the installation dir.

So you can probably 'register' your type libs but it will break if you try to use the wrong bitness.

RubberDuck

No. Needs to be a build step so it works in dev mode too.

Rossco

10:24

Yeah dev mode is different, mainly because you probably want to run the files from the build directory and not install them to Program Files...

So really the installers are different from dev mode.

Or we are talking about two different things...

RubberDuck

The build step puts the correct libgit2 file into the primary output root so the installer doesn't need to know.

Rossco

OK I'm paying more attention to what you are saying now. I see what you mean.

I was looking at the libraries in the sub folders.

RubberDuck

Right. So, the installer can't find them there. Everything has to be in the root. So, the build step copies the right one into the dir.

Not sure if that could change or not.

Right now I'm trying to figure out where the hell my .tlb file went.

Rossco

So does LibGit2Sharp.dll change with the bitness of the compilation or is it compiled as AnyCPU too? Or is it that the installer needs to copy the correct version of git2-exxxxx.dll to the parent folder for debugging from VS? Because I'm not too concerned with the latter right now.

I can make the installer choose one of the git2-exxxxx.dll files to copy to the installation dir (I obviously can't do both).

RubberDuck

I think I only did it for the installer.

But it's kind of moot. You don't have to pick. Just grab everything in that folder. The build copies it all ready.

Or it used to.....

if $(ConfigurationName) == Debug64 (
c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework64\v4.0.30319\regasm.exe $(TargetPath) /unregister
)

Rossco

10:48

No worries, I think I'll sleep on it right now. I probably should aim for simpler at this stage to see if you guys like the approach or not.

RubberDuck

@Mat'sMug I'm out of time here, but if with the "register for com interop" button on the "Build" property page unchecked, it runs for me, but (obviously) doesn't register the newest version of the assembly.

If I check it, I get the crazy reflection error when I try to debug.

No clue what's going on here.

Rossco

@RubberDuck Yeah I was going to say, I don't think that option is good under any circumstance...

RubberDuck

Gotta go.

@Rossco Why? All it does is run regasm on the local dev machine.

This is the one you don't want set to true.

Mat's Mug

@Rossco No. I had to uninstall to switch to x64

RubberDuck

// Setting ComVisible to false makes the types in this assembly not visible
// to COM components.  If you need to access a type in this assembly from
// COM, set the ComVisible attribute to true on that type.
[assembly: ComVisible(false)]

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