saoe.net: A Nifty Oddity on saoe: The Nifty Oddity

Mini-Reviews #58

Sascha Offe — 2026-07-01 00:00:00 +0000

Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2026-01-08.

How to use Git (on Windows)

Sascha Offe — 2026-07-01 00:00:00 +0000

Still Work-in-Progress!
Needs to be revised and reduced more.

Powershell Snippets [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-06-28 00:00:00 +0000

A collection of code snippets, small pearls of wisdom and bits of knowledge that may come handy at times.

Powershell: Parameters for Scripts and (Advanced) Functions [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-06-22 00:00:00 +0000

Some notes on parameters for scripts or (advanced) functions in Powershell.

Powershell: Working with JSON [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-06-21 00:00:00 +0000

A few tips and tricks for handling JSON data with Powershell.

Powershell: PSCustomObject [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-06-13 00:00:00 +0000

Powershell’s PSCustomObject type has been a great tool, but since I don’t use it every day, I jotted down some sample code and links for my future self (or any other interested reader 😄 ), as a reminder.

Powershell: GUI

Sascha Offe — 2026-06-07 18:05:56 +0200

This is not a tutorial article, just links to other scripts of mine that show (by example) how to make use of GUI widgets with Powershell.

Powershell: Splatting [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-05-29 00:00:00 +0000

Some notes on the method of “splatting” in Powershell code.

Powershell: Dynamic Parameters [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-05-20 00:00:00 +0000

This is an extension to my notes on parameters for scripts or (advanced) functions in Powershell:
Dynamic (or conditional) parameters are an interesting and cool feature, but also a bit tricky and cumbersome to set up.

C++ Snippets [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-04-04 00:00:00 +0000

A collection of code snippets, general notes, small pearls of wisdom and bits of knowledge, that may come handy at times.

Image to Icon

Sascha Offe — 2026-03-27 16:36:37 +0100

A short guide on how to generate a program icon file (*.ico) for a Windows application from a PNG image by using a command-line tool.

Building SDL 3 [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-03-27 00:00:00 +0000

The Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) recently released its new major version 3 (as version 3.2.0) and that was a good oppurtunity to check it out and play a bit with it. But before I could do that, I had to build the library first.

On Software: Introduction [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-03-24 00:00:00 +0000

In this series of posts I plan to write down some of my views regarding all things “software”, both as an user of as well as a developer of software.

Getting Started with SDL [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-03-21 00:00:00 +0000

After building SDL, here are the next steps: Setting up and testing SDL with a simple test program.

Mini-Reviews #57

Sascha Offe — 2026-03-09 00:00:00 +0000

Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2025-10-27.

C++ Diagnostics and Debugging Utilities

Sascha Offe — 2026-03-08 09:50:05 +0100

Some tools and techniques for detecting, reporting and investigating errors and unexpected behavior in C++ code.

Building wxWidgets [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-03-07 10:15:24 +0000

A short guide on how to build wxWidgets (the cross-platform GUI toolkit) from source (the recommended way), on Windows, by using CMake and Visual Studio.

Coding Style & Design Guide [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2026-02-02 00:00:00 +0000

This page is a collection of guidelines, advices, notes, tips and recommendations that I found over the years, in books and on the internet; they are not hard and fast rules or laws set in stone!

Calling a Lua/C++ function from C++/Lua code [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-12-31 00:00:00 +0000

(Part 3 of my little series on “Lua”)

Another post in my series on how to use C++ with Lua; this time it’s about calling a function of one language from code of the other language.

How to set up GCC on Windows [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-12-18 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a short tutorial on how to set up the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) on Microsoft Windows via MSYS2 (Minimal SYStem 2).

Programming Quotes [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-12-17 00:00:00 +0000

Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen.
— Edward V Berard

You can’t have great software without a great team, and most software teams behave like dysfunctional families.
— Jim McCarthy

Perl – The only language that looks the same before and after RSA encryption.
— Keith Bostic

I don’t care if it works on your machine! We are not shipping your machine!
— Vidiu Platon.

Mini-Reviews #56

Sascha Offe — 2025-11-30 00:00:00 +0000

Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2025-08-05.

Building Lua (on Windows, with Visual Studio) [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-11-27 00:00:00 +0000

(Part 1 of my little series on “Lua”)

Although one can get pre-built binaries of the Lua (programming language) interpreter, to me that seems to be just a semi-offical or lackluster way.
But luckily, building it yourself from source is very easy (especially with the help of this post from Dennis D. Spreen).

Powershell: Console Colors [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-11-15 00:00:00 +0000

A brief reminder for the topic of Console Colors and Powershell.

About [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-11-09 00:00:00 +0000

I’m a guy from Germany who goes by the name of Sascha Offe and has an interest in software programming, SciFi, music and other (geeky) topics.

The main reasons for me to maintain this space are…

to create my own, but also shareable, knowledge base; to have various notes for my own benefit in one place.
to provide a central hub for my endeavors.
to train and improve my skills of writing (documentation) and other means of communication (in english).
to function as a rubber ducking device, which in turn can also help with the aspect of “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”.

Domain

Name: Well, the name saoe is short, was available as a domain, has a nice (lowercase) look to it, and it has a personal connection: It’s the combination of the first and last letter of my given and family name.
The only downside: It’s not really meant for pronunciation, so I prefer to use it only in written form, or else will spell it out like an acronym.

Python Snippets [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-11-03 00:00:00 +0000

A collection of code snippets, small pearls of wisdom and bits of knowledge, that may come handy at times.

Journal #18

Sascha Offe — 2025-11-02 00:00:00 +0000

Konnichiwa!

Notes on Pico-8

Sascha Offe — 2025-11-01 00:00:00 +0000

After reading and hearing quite a bit about Pico-8 in the last weeks¹, I dipped my toes into these waters one weekend (2025-10-18/19) and made a few notes about it…

Powershell: Working with XML

Sascha Offe — 2025-10-26 19:33:58 +0100

A few tips and tricks for handling XML data with Powershell.

Software Overview [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-10-26 00:00:00 +0000

An (alphabetical) overview of my personal and published software (projects):

Autologon
A small utility program (written in C#/.NET) to modify the Windows Autologon settings in the registry with a GUI.
Hotkey (Old repo)
A small utility to scratch my own itch: Having global shortcut keys for often needed actions.
Written in C++, against the Win32-API; registers global hotkeys and uses an icon in the taskbar notification area (’tray’) as the user interface.

Hotkey 1.0 [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-10-26 00:00:00 +0000

A small utility to scratch my own itch: Having global shortcut keys for often needed actions.

Journal #11 [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-10-26 00:00:00 +0000

Well, looks like I somehow caught a severe case of “summer blues” last year, that’s why I didn’t code much in my spare time in the last couple of months. But now I’m slowly getting back in the saddle.

How to set up a SSH key pair with PuTTY on Windows [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-10-25 00:00:00 +0000

When these steps are done, you’ll only need to enter the passphrase of the SSH key(s) once when Windows boots, instead of each time Git wants to communicate with the remote repository.

Powershell: Profile [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-10-19 00:00:00 +0000

A Powershell profile is a script file that is run each time a new Powershell is opened.

You can define session-specific items in it (variables, aliases, functions, etc.) or call other scripts and commands at the start of a new Powershell session.

Mini-Reviews #55

Sascha Offe — 2025-09-21 00:00:00 +0000

Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2025-05-20.

I realized that, due to life circumstances, I don’t (want to) watch a lot of stuff at the moment…

Windows: The tree command [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-08-11 00:00:00 +0000

The tree command graphically displays the directory structure of a drive or path on the command line prompt — nice gimmick; haven’t used this in ages and completely forgot about it, but came in handy recently.

On Software: Open Source Licenses [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-08-03 17:35:02 +0200

I mostly prefer permissive open source licenses that allow a lot but don’t restrict (or demand) much.
But this may also change, depending on specific projects and/or use cases…

Mini-Reviews #54

Sascha Offe — 2025-07-06 00:00:00 +0000

Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2025-02-16.

On Software: API Design

Sascha Offe — 2025-06-22 16:33:23 +0200

I recently had the inspiration of writing a new post about my current thoughts on how to design/make a good Application Programming Interface (API), for functions/methods, classes, programs/scripts, and other things that offer such an interface.

Doxygen Cheatsheet [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-06-15 23:47:08 +0200

This is my personal Doxygen cheatsheet: Its initial (and primary) purpose is to be a compact help on this topic for myself.

It’s not meant as a general introduction or comprehensive reference for this tool, but it is meant to be a small knowledge base or collection of basics & “gotchas”, often-used commands, snippets, tips, and instructions on how to do certain tasks.

Building Qt 6 on Windows with Visual Studio [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-06-10 21:20:33 +0200

Time for another short guidance on how to build your own copy of the Qt framework from source.

Building Qt 5 on Windows with Visual Studio [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-06-10 00:00:00 +0000

Short guides on how to build your own copy of the Qt 5 framework from source.

These were originally separate blog posts, but since they are now pretty outdated (since they are for old versions of Qt, Windows and Visual Studio), I combined them here on a single page, for archival purposes (with many dead links…), and edited them a bit.

How to use CMake [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-06-09 19:47:07 +0200

This is just a reminder for some syntax/parameter details on how to invoke CMake (i.e. the actual cmake program), mainly from the CLI, to configure/generate/build a project – it’s not a tutorial on how to write a CMakeLists.txt file!

On Software: Documentation [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-06-09 17:38:53 +0200

Some background: I am indeed interested in writing documentation, for myself and for others.

The initial trigger is usually to note it down for my future self, and/or for helping me to understand a topic better; if it’s also useful for others: great.

Mini-Reviews #53

Sascha Offe — 2025-06-09 17:33:55 +0200

Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2024-12-08.

C++: Namespace [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-05-15 17:36:21 +0200

I moved the (growing) section on namespaces from the C++ Snippets page to this separate page, where I had already written some notes about using anonymous and inline namespaces in the same translation unit/file (see below).

The page therefore now also got a more generic and encompassing title.

Mozilla Firefox: Tips on usage

Sascha Offe — 2025-05-12 17:45:13 +0200

These tips for using Mozilla Firefox were originally spread over multiple blog posts, but they are rather short and also pretty old (so maybe not valid anymore), that’s why I now collected them all on this single page…

A C++ program that calls a Lua script [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-05-01 14:37:15 +0200

(Part 2 of my little series on “Lua”)

Alright, so after preparing Lua, here are a few small first step on how to make use of this language within a C++ context.

Mini-Reviews #52

Sascha Offe — 2025-05-01 00:00:00 +0000

More mini-reviews of films and TV shows that I’ve watched (since 2024-10-11).

Powershell: Using Regular Expressions [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-04-10 00:00:00 +0000

This is not a introduction or tutorial on what Regular Expressions (RegEx) are or can do, but on how to use them with Powershell!

Mini-Reviews #51

Sascha Offe — 2025-02-19 00:00:00 +0000

More mini-reviews of films and TV shows that I’ve watched during the past months (I began with this list on 2024-07-13).

Always a busy signal on a smartphone when using a Multi-SIM for the same number in a notebook [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-01-25 00:00:00 +0000

Last year at work, we had the curious case that many of our notebooks, which were using a SIM for their UMTS/LTE modems, caused a smartphone with the associated Multi-SIM (same contract, i.e. same telephone number) to respond with a busy signal as soon as the notebook was powered on (didn’t even had to have a connection established via their WWAN modem at that point!).

Mini-Reviews #50 [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2025-01-25 00:00:00 +0000

Another posting with mini-reviews during the past months (for orientation: I began this list on 2024-04-28).

Mini-Reviews #47 [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2024-12-08 00:00:00 +0000

Time for another overview of what I’ve watched over the last couple of months…

On Software: Configuration [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2024-10-13 00:00:00 +0000

These are a few thoughts (from the point of view as an user and also as a developer) on handling configuration data for [application] software.

On Software: Some Golden Rules [Update]

Sascha Offe — 2024-09-14 00:00:00 +0000

Here are some rules of thumb for program authors.

Mini-Reviews #49

Sascha Offe — 2024-07-14 00:00:00 +0000

Lots of rewatches, mostly of quite old films; and even a few first-views, also of older films…
Seems like the current movies don’t really appeal to me much. I mean, even the recently and newly made films are often very generic, bland and too long…

Journal #17

Sascha Offe — 2024-06-14 00:00:00 +0000

Konnichiwa!

I began writing this issue on 2024-03-10; so I guess now, around three months later, it’s as good of a time as any other to finally release it.

Mini-Reviews #1 [Update]