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Andrew MacNeill - AKSEL Solutions
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by akselsoft1
Rick is wondering about where to put Ajax technology in something like the West-Wind store.
I've been reading a lot of the Michael Mahemoff's posts about Ajax as well as I become more and more familiar with Ajax.
Certainly, it makes certain things easier to work with but it is just an approach that reduces screen redraws and server trips.
That said, where could it be used in an e-commerce approach?
1. Searching for products in a large inventory. As it finds new items, they get added to the list of what's available.
2. Recommended items based on what a user has chosen.
3. Reducing the way "pages" are handled in a web -based application. Instead of having to go back to the server for each page, it could "flip" automatically.
Sure, these are things that can be done today with a traditional approach but they all require server round-trips. You order an item and then once it's been processed, it makes some suggestions. When I am just looking at a product, it would be cool if it could make recommendations without requiring an obvious trip back to the server.
Take a read through Rick's post, though - as he makes some valuable points about the impact Ajax may have on scalability.
In the end, I think the AJAX approach will be just that - an approach to making web applications work better. It changes the expectation that users have about web applications - web apps don't have to be slow and cumbersome - they can be instant and fast just like their desktop counterparts.
(Of course, if developers just made their desktop apps slower, then we wouldn't have this problem would we?)
Past the AJAX Hype - Some things to think about - Rick Strahl's WebLog
by akselsoft1
As noted on Cnet's Buzz Out Loud , all for tax reasons - ah yes...
Not for partnering with other companies such as Google? Of course not.
Let's see...Mozilla provides a full cross-platform development environment with Xul and then Google provides the home page...who needs a GoogleOS? Would this be called Mozoogle or simply Goozilla?
Mozilla Foundation Announces Creation of Mozilla Corporation - MozillaZine Talkback
by akselsoft1
Well that was fun. Just got a Skype call from Dave Ciccone at Dave's ipaq. Looks like I won the iPaq hw6300 they were offering through their podcast.
Nothing like being "skyped" when you won! Thanks Dave!
Can't wait to try this phone out.
by akselsoft1
Craig's GDI article is now online at the FoxTalk 2.0 site. As Craig shows, GDI+ isn't just for FoxPro reports. You can also do it with forms as well.
by akselsoft1
Kevin notes that the entry for xBase says you have to use Clipper to shoot yourself in the foot. But if you read a little further,you'll see:
dBase
You buy a gun. Bullets are only available from another company and are promised to work so you buy them. Then you find out that the next version of the gun is the one that is scheduled to actually shoot bullets.
That sounds like an awful lot of other products that aren't mentioned in this article too.
But I love the ones near the bottom :
Perl
You shoot yourself in the foot, but can't figure out how you did it so you find a dozen new ways to do it.
Python
You shoot yourself in the foot and everything goes so smoothly that you go ahead to to shoot yourself in the other foot then your legs, then your torso and then your head. Problem solved.
by akselsoft1
Alex Feldstein notes that Claudio has started two blogs - sounds like the boys at EPS are really embracing the blogosphere.
Welcome aboard!
by akselsoft1
The latest version of GoToMeeting now includes recording functionality as well as annotation.
This means that you can record a meeting (yes, you still need a microphone for the audio) and annotate it during the meeting and then play it back.
Yes, for more advanced usage, you may still want to use Camtasia or the free Camstudio product.
by akselsoft1
Great article on hiring great programmers, as opposed to good ones.
What's interesting is when Joel takes the stats of min vs max hours and then only looks at the top 25% (in terms of grades) - the differences in time are still there. As he notes with these studies: The quality of the work and the amount of time spent are simply uncorrelated.
It's not just a matter of "10 times more productive." It's that the "average productive" developer never hits the high notes that make great software.
by akselsoft1
Glen Taylor just released a plug-in for WinMerge that makes it easier to compare Visual FoxPro's VCX, SCX ,FRX and LBX files.
This is "for those who are not using the Source Control integration in VFP where you put the project into Source Control and VFP uses SCCTEXT to build the VCA, SCA and etc files."
Definitely interested in that!
by akselsoft1
Claudio - I always thought that it was because C programmers didn't know how to count (or was it ActiveX developers?)
Maybe it was just the Microsoft ActiveX guys - because by the time they got to the Outlook object model, at least they remembered that 1=1.
It may just be a throwback to when people said "I'm going to punish the punchcard guy by shuffling his cards" or wouldn't it be fun to do
#DEFINE True .F.
#DEFINE False .T.
right at the start of my code?
But your comment on "logic" reminded me: I took a philosophy class in university and after going through Plato, Aristotle and others, we came to logic. Do you know what the prof said? (this is why I hated that class)
"Don't try to understand logic - Logic doesn't make sense - just memorize it" - Philosophy professor , Trent University, Canada around 1989.
In fact, Logic (and Aristotle) were about the only things that made sense in that whole class.
(I think the prof must have become an ActiveX developer )
by akselsoft1
I was listening to The Bradcast: Biz Tech Ruminations from Calgary Alberta | The Bradcast: Engineered Thought from Brad Gibson and when he was mentioning his favorite Business podcasts, I just had one thought:
If you've never read Steve's posts, they are amazing. I don't like that his Atom feed only shows the shortened text version (the posts themselves are full - Thanks Rick for clarifying that in comments) but it's rare that I don't forward them onto my business associates.
And he was a FoxPro guru too....Great blogs Steve.
by akselsoft1
Definitely something to check out.
by akselsoft1
Rick Borup notes that he's reaching the point of information overload, even with RSS.
What is needed to make it easier to read 1000 RSS feeds a day? It would be useful if the News reader learned about the types of items that you DID read and then suggested key ones to you. (I can envision an interface similar to that of the Automatic Playlists in Windows Media player - feeds I read at night, feeds I read during the day, random pick, etc)
This might make it a little easier - it would also be useful if the NewsReader aggregates the feeds themselves - so that if 10 sites all referenced the same main story - it only appeared as one news item, instead of ten (but with 10 different "story comments")
Hey Greg and Nick - you guys listening?
fiat volpes: Deja View, or Why Too Many RSS Feeds May Not Be A Good Thing
by akselsoft1
This has been discussed numerous times before but Windows Vista brings it up once again.
I went on a rant on this on this week's FoxShow related to user interface design but I agree.
"As I pointed out last week, it's not a beta until it's feature-complete. Microsoft is showing off a prototype, a demo. When they have the new UI in place, and lock down the features they plan to actually ship, then it is time for beta evaluation and testing."
by peter spande
What about the opposite syndrome? Google's gmail and other
projects are classified as Beta. I'd say gmail might be ready for
prime time.
by akselsoft1
Well Scoble can't talk about it yet but the fact that Blogger now offers a Blogger add-in for Word in "kind of cool", I guess.
I spend more time in other products than I do in Word but I do know where I'll be enjoying it - when writing articles.
by akselsoft1
I heard this mentioned by a few people but still haven't seen any real news reports on it.
Wal-Mart supposedly has RFID readers in many of its stores since the Jan 1 deadline is looming but are they now going to pull the plug?
While I can certainly see it from a privacy perspective , there are a lot of benefits of RFID for inventory management.
Does anyone know any published source on this?
by akselsoft1
Dijjer, is kind of like BitTorrent, only it doesn't require you to have special software loaded. Instead, just add add "http://www.dijjer.org/get/" to your link and it should work.
Hmmm....but where is the file located?
It's on their site and you do have to install some software to get it going but it offloads the bandwidth requirement from your server.
Interesting.
by akselsoft1
The Wiki is such a wealth of information but i recently saw this topic being updated and just had to post on it.
As developers we often hear critics say "what can you build with FoxPro or VFP?" - well, with a few of these pages, you have the answer.
List of Applications by Industry
If you don't see your application listed there, be sure to add it.
by akselsoft1
The FoxShow is one of my FoxPro and development business-related podcast. The latest episode (issue, cast, whatever) had an interesting piece that a colleague suggested I share in other areas as well.
It starts about 8 minutes into it and talks about how even though every one may have a different title in a company, when it comes to customers, EVERYONE is a sales person, a support person and a developer.
Part of this comes from the Return on Customer book I'm reading but it's also something that I think many people see in their every day life.
You're always selling something - an idea, a product, a service, a design methodology
You're always supporting something - same as above
and everyone is always developing something - it may be an idea, a software product, a hardware product, - you're always trying to take it and make it into something more.
The key takeaway - if you see someone in your organization that isn't thinking this way, then think of the consequences. Do you want that person speaking for you in front of others?
by akselsoft1
Gregory Greene (sorry for mis-saying your name in this quick screencast) recently posted the GKK Project Manager for Visual FoxPro in the Universal Thread for downloads.
Here's a quick screen-cast on what it looks like and how you use it.
It combines a lot of the great features found in separate tools in VFP and puts them into a new Project Manager, with built-in search, file compare, todo list, custom editors and more.
Check it out! You can download the GKK Project Manager here
by akselsoft1
Nothing quite like it when the original architects get interviewed and attempt to debunk recent statements on the criticisms of the implemented world. Such is the case with this interview that Ted points to with Chris date.
I think he may have a point when he refers to the fact that "an object/relational system done right would simply be a relational system done right, nothing more and nothing less. "
But he does sound like a bit of the arch-typical college professor when he says "But the trouble with the relational model is, it's never been implemented--at least, not in commercial form, not properly, and certainly not fully."
Great interview. Thanks for the link, Ted and congrats on your MysQL Certification!
by akselsoft1
Wow - never even saw this function until Calvin highlighted it here.
ALANGUAGE() returns an array containing the names of all valid Visual FoxPro commands, functions and base classes.
You can even pass it a second parameter to dictate what the array will contain:
1 - One dimensional array with the Command Name
2 - Contains functions with the second column showing the number of parameters
3 - Base Classes
4 - DBC Events
Very cool - almost saves the trouble of having to look into WIZARDS\FDKEYWRD which contains operators as well.
Never looked into FDKEYWRD?
USE HOME()+"WIZARDS\FDKEYWRD"
The Token field shows the actual word or operator (including #, !, .AND. etc)
The Code field identifies more of its purpose. P for Property, M for Method, C to identify that the term is more of a complementary keyword. Example: CURRENCY is marked for a CODE of "C"
That's because there is no CURRENCY function - rather it's simply
SET CURRENCY TO $
Very cool function!
by akselsoft1
Take a look at Craig Boyd's FoxPro calendar class (source provided). Ya, ya - it looks like the ActiveX one except check out the second picture - you can highlight multiple days - very cool!
The SPS Weblog - Visual FoxPro Grid - A Tip and a Calendar Class
by akselsoft1
Colin provides the answer.
Why? GDI+. Really want to know why? Read further...
by akselsoft1
Joel explains why XP isn't the answer to everything:
"Many times, thinking things out in advance saved us serious development headaches later on....As I worked through the screens ... I realized that Aardvark would be just as useful, and radically simpler...Making this change in the spec took an hour or two. If we had made this change in code, it would have added weeks to the schedule. I can?t tell you how strongly I believe in Big Design Up Front, which the proponents of Extreme Programming consider anathema. I have consistently saved time and made better products by using BDUF and I?m proud to use it, no matter what the XP fanatics claim. They?re just wrong on this point and I can?t be any clearer than that."
by akselsoft1
Cool - Andrew Coates shows how to call the MapPoint Web service via a COM component and VFP.
I do a fair bit of MapPoint stuff but it's all desktop based. This will make getting into the Web service much easier.
Thanks Andrew!
Andrew Coates ::: MSFT : MapPoint Web Service COM wrapper and VFP Sample
by akselsoft1
A customer asked me recently about how to build a FoxPro expression that would give them a string like 21/08 for the week ending based on a 7 day week.
Using DOW , this is fairly easy;
? PADL(MONTH(DATE()-DOW(DATE())+1),2,'0') + "/"+PADL(DAY(DATE()-DOW(DATE())+1),2,'0')
Why do the +1? Because DOW() gives you the day of the week and by subtracting the DOW ( ) would take you to the end of the previous week.
Now, if you're sorting by this, you'll see I use the PADL so that it always put a zero in front of any single digit months (01 for January, etc).
by akselsoft1
Those of you in the US, and those who really don't listen to government sponsored radio, may not be aware of this but our national broadcaster (CBC, similar to the UK's BBC) went on strike last week.
So Tod Maffin of ILoveRadio, who reported a number of items prior to the lockout (including a post that said "email is no more, oh so is my voice mail"), started CBC Unplugged.
The locked out workers have been doing podcasts, blogging and more. Even doing competing shows
Even the managers from within the locked out building are posting.
Some have suggested that this isn't the way to get people to appreciate them.
My brother, Keith, works for the CBC - at one time as a producer (even won some awards) and now I believe as a Manager. Haven't heard from him on this although he lives up in Yellowknife so who knows.
I'm not a big fan of strikes or lockouts but then I don't like unions to begin with. But what would be interesting would be if what Tod had talked about doing with CBC Unplugged actually came true.
Have a REAL online network - don't just gripe about your picket lines and blah, blah, blah. Show the world (and I guess your managers at the same time) that you love what you do so much that you are going to do it WHILE you're on the picket line and you're going to do it SO MUCH BETTER than the normal CBC could do it.
But enough anti-union spat, I think that it's very cool that if enough like-minded individuals wanted to get together and start a "network" for news, music, commentary anything - that they don't have to get the handouts from the government to do this. (CBC gets almost 1 BILLION dollars annually - maybe instead of looking for advertisers for the TheFoxShow, I should just go to the people who take all my money anyways)
Speaking of a "real network", I'm going to fire up the TechPodCast Network live feed. Why is this cool? Well, all 40+ members of the network upload their latest shows onto the Live Stream. As a result, you get the equivalent of "tech radio" - all day, all night.
by akselsoft1
Heard on ProFox - you think the Visual FoxPro EULA is bad?
A woman wanted to resell software that she would no longer use.
...She met neither requirement, Livingsoft told her, particularly because "when the president of Livingsoft contacted you personally to remind you of company policy in this matter, you informed him that your reason for selling was that the software 'sucks' ... that reason doesn't qualify for an exception to our general policy."
...I find it similar to buying a car, deciding to sell it, and then being told that I can do whatever I want with the car but transferring the keys to someone else is illegal."
by akselsoft1
Ah yes - Regular Expressions - the expressions that make regular people say "back when I was a programmer, we could only code with 1s and 0s"
Could an expression be any more geekier?
"The following expression works well for this:
<(.|\s) ?>"
This almost looks like swearing in most cartoons.
by akselsoft1
Here's an article that was previously promised to Advisor but they didn't feel it was useful specifically for Foxpro developers. Oh well. Enjoy.
It used to be that building a self-running video or demonstration of software required a great deal of expertise and money, hiring a production company who did the work in their own studio. Today, developers and trainers are building these "screencasts" themselves and in this article I'll go through several options that are available to you.
by btucker
You can see screencasts in action on The Blogcast Repository!
by akselsoft1
A month ago, I complained that Newsgator needed to make it easier to add new feeds into individual folders.
Whaddaya know?
Today, I was subscribing to the Skinny on Sports and voila! I could now move it directly into my Podcasts folder.
Way to go guys!
by akselsoft1
Never knew this either, Rick.
Funny the way a critical feature like this never gets openly documented (so that people can find it immediately) or made easily accessible through the user interface.
by akselsoft1
GOod podcast about blogging by Brad Gibson, fellow TechPodcast network member and the importance of figuring out what you actually want to talk about.
This is why I have several blogs (one just for links, one for real content (this one), one for other stuff as well and of course, the FoxShow)
by akselsoft1
Good luck Alex ( I *think* you should be out of the worst by now) and to all of those who are embracing for Katrina's impact.
Hope everyone was able to get out when they could.
by akselsoft1
I go out of commission for 5 days (due to eye surgery) and look what happens.
Good luck, Randy!
Your efforts have been amazing and well appreciated!
by akselsoft1
Southwest Fox is shaping up to be an exciting conference filled with great Fox talks, the beginnings of FoxPro-like data access in Visual Studio and more....
In the latest FoxShow, I spoke with the organizer, Bob Kocher, about what goes into the conference, why it's so unique and how he goes about choosing what speakers are there.
by akselsoft1
Great post about how the changes in iTunes 5 show that the concept of consistent user interfaces does not have to be about colors and styles but more about the behavior. Best comment from Chris Mear:
"Consistency in the look is gone, yes. But consistency in the behaviour is here to stay, and this is what makes Apple so fab"
How consistent is your application?
How consistent is FoxPro for that matter? I'm personally getting peeved at the fact that my graphical radio buttons keep getting resized if they are less than 25 pixels in height and width.
The days of consistency are over - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)
by akselsoft1
Calvin made a post about using the CREATE REPORT xxx FROM command , a tool which I've used numerous times and is extremely handy for quick reports.
What Calvin didn't completely note was some of the added features with that.
CREATE REPORT dummy FROM test FORM - creates a form instead of a column based report - GREAT for coming with with screen output for single records
CREATE REPORT dummy FROM test FIELDS custno,custname,street, address - lets you specify exactly what fields and the order
CREATE REPORT dummy FROM test WIDTH - lets you even specify individual column widths
No - it's not a replacement for a good report writer but it is a good start.
But Calvin's post also discusses outputting it directly to HTML using the new VFP 9 Report Listener options. Very cool.
Calvin Hsia's WebLog : Creating a quick report from any cursor
by akselsoft1
Markus opens up the hood under Code and other magazines' audits and it shows some very interesting numbers.
Visual Studio Magazine:
* 2001: 109,610 paid copies
* 2002: 106,066 paid copies
* 2003: 74,274 paid copies
* 2004: 38,294 paid copies
"So they are basically at a point where they lost two thirds of their paid readership. Ouch!" (from Markus)
What he noted excitedly was that Code Magazine was continually increasing - which is great news - it's a great magazine.
But what are people reading? if you're reading this, you're likely in the same boat I am - I have magazines that I still haven't gotten into but I'm getting the same great information online via Blogs, RSS and podcasts.
It must be quite a struggle for magazines these days - I think I'll ask Markus that when we get together for our FoxShow interview next week.
by akselsoft1
Nothing I like more than a good rant.
Basically: everyone should think about backward compatibility.
Rant aside, one great statement:
In this field of binaries, bits and data, one should design/create applications that are designed to last for decades, if not years. Something that should stand the test of time.
Amen to that!
by akselsoft1
Craig,
You beat me to it!
Well, actually, I guess some of the FoxShow will be like an accompaniment to your videos.
However, kudos to Craig Boyd, for putting up some initial videos on "Learning Visual FoxPro". One of the new segments I'll start covering in the FoxShow this week are "what is ____" or "how does ____ work" and the first topic is "what is a database?"
by akselsoft1
Wow - for years, the familiar File, Edit, View menu approach has become synonymous with the "Windows" and "Office" experience (even though it was pioneered by Apple, PARC, etc) and now in one swoop, MS has decided to do away with it (at least once version 12 comes out)
The slide show is linked about half-way down.
While I'm a big fan of "task-groups", I'm not sure how this user interface will fly. Why?
1. While every application is different, having a standard interface does make it easier to learn and train new users on. Menus are "complexity browsers" and while Office continues to try and make it easier to use, having spent the last 10 years convincing people that menus are good - to come around and say they are no longer there, may not be quite the best default option.
2. By grouping items into categories, it certainly helps improve the interface but if you look at the last slide (the "less-intimidating" Access), you'll see that there's a real danger when you continue to have lots of options available.
3. I do like the idea of when you click on Write in Word, it shows "galleries" of areas where you can make changes like fonts in one section, paragraphs in another. It almost reminds me of the "toolbars" that appear in "other" operating systems and applications.
Now, I'm sure MS has done their user research on this so I'm excited to see what it will look like in the end but don't forget - MS User research also suggested that people would like "MS Bob" and Clippy. And some people do.
What does this mean for the FoxPro developer? It will be interesting to see - because while FoxPro has kept up to speed on the "Windows XP" compatibility (Theme support, etc), it has always lagged behind with the Office user interface compatibility. With the new Office 12, the UI will most certainly be affected.
I'm looking forward to what Ken has said regarding Sedna's compatibility with Office 12- it's likely more to do with the new XML file formats.
But I think developers will face another round of "why doesn't my application look like...." - sounds like a job for Arg Software Design!!
by akselsoft1
Craig's at it again.
The LINQ (Language INtegrated Query) project in Visual Studio (yet another reason to hold off upgrading until Orcas!) is all about making data access easy.
The idea?
dim smallCountries = select country from country in countries where population<1000000
And the result is a collection that can be accessed via any language.
Well, check out Craig's VOSQL: same results today. No need to wait.
As Craig points out, he hasn't seen LINQ in detail and has no idea as to the internals - but the basis for it is in the output.
by akselsoft1
The most recent FoxShow has a great interview with Steve Black who hosts the Fox Wiki about a variety of topics, including his two sessions at Southwest Fox: "FoxPro's Dead- Now what do you say " - a guide to how to sell FoxPro to larger IT departments and companies as well as "Application Metadata".
We also got into a discussion about the evolution of the INTL Toolkit, a tool that really hasn't changed that much since its last VFP version back from over 10 years ago. Steve talks about why its architecture, using the Design Patterns found in Gamma and Helms book, has helped make it so easy to work with for advanced developers.
Definitely an interesting interview from one of the FoxPro community's best speakers.
by akselsoft1
I just heard the news and am shocked and saddened to learn of the tragic death of Drew Speedie and his son Brent, while on vacation at Yellowstone Park.
He was a regular fixture at FoxPro conferences, filling sessions with his humour, knowledge and joy of life. Brent and Drew's wife, Irene, attended many conferences with him.
My thoughts go out to Irene at this time. My life was certainly richer for knowing Drew.
by akselsoft1
Are you having problems with gMail?
While some of these comments seem to be related to logging on (which I've never had a problem with), I just experienced what I would consider to be kind of a major issue.
I sent three emails to my own other accounts this morning via gMail and none have arrived yet. Granted, this is the Internet and while many of us take instant speed for granted, there may be very many real reasons for the delay. (or, said with my conspiracy hat on, maybe other email systems are purposely delaying gmail mail as an attempt to discredit the service - if so, shame on them!)
However, no problems with receiving emails. Maybe it is a good thing to simply use your gmail account as a "backup" for inbound email.
by labobcat56
I have only received a couple of issues with Gmail. One as you have already stated for some reason I have been unable to receive from certain people even though they have been accepted and added to my address book. One other issue that I do not like is that you are unable to refresh the screen and have your inbox functioning afterwards.
by akselsoft1
If you have not listened to his interview with Amar Gandhi about Microsoft's plans for RSS, you need to.
Key highlights:
- RSS Built into the OS with an Object model to access it
- Built in security that essentially sounds like one-click subscriptions are going to be problematic
- Future use within applications (RSS Calendar and RSS Contacts beware)
Jon Udell: An interview with Amar Gandhi about Microsoft's new RSS platform
by akselsoft1
A variety of memories of Drew and Brent have been filling the web the past few days.
I often think of Drew when I think of frameworks and approaches, not just because of MaxFrame but because he had a great way of completely disagreeing with someone without making it personal - instead he made it humourous.
I remember he joked about possibly being put on a "do not invite" list for an Advisor conference after making negative comments about the Fox team's updates for the grid. His actual sessions were always packed with both attendees and information, and he was always there at other sessions, showing how much he was willing to give and still willing to learn more from others.
I appreciated so much when he would come into one of my sessions and participate through questions and comments, envigorating a room. It amazed me that even when at the back of a room, writing notes for his next session or supporting other users on new features in FoxPro, he was always aware of what was going on and participated.
And by his side, almost always, was Brent, watching, learning, coding and with them both, just as often, Irene. I first met him at the International Database Interchange in 1993 and looked forward to seeing them at every conference I attended.
Anyone who met Drew knew almost instinctively, he was more than just a great speaker and amazing developer, who loved his work, he was a great father, husband, and human being, who loved life.
Tamar marked a valuable sentiment in her tribute that I share wholeheartedly:
Drew has been one of the cornerstones of the FoxPro community for more than a decade. His family has been part of our family. It's hard to imagine our little corner of the world without Drew and Brent.
I am a richer person for having known them and send my deepest sympathies to Irene and his entire family.
by akselsoft1
Episode (uh, issue, uh show) #22 of the FoxShow has been posted and includes a fairly long interview with Markus Egger , about a variety of things including Drew Speedie, the purpose of VFP Conversions, Southwest Fox and what's happening with EPS and Code magazine.
There was going to be a lot of other content but as you can see from the length of the show, it went on a bit (interview is almost 45 minutes).
by akselsoft1
Another great Case Study using Visual FoxPro, once again in the law enforcement area for the Shelby County Sheriff's Office.
by akselsoft1
Craig notes that EPS is shutting down their offices due to Rita. Hope they all fare ok - I'm glad I got that interview with Markus earlier this week.
by akselsoft1
Andy Kramek has a great post describing different ways of adding non-table columns into a cursor result set with SQL and Visual FoxPro.
I use many of these approaches constantly. SQL Server veterans will be happy to know that they can use CAST in VFP now as well, reducing even more code portability between the two environments.
by akselsoft1
The Fox Team has released a public beta of service Pack 1 for VFP 9.
Download it and report any bugs to the Universal Thread in the FoxPro beta section.
by akselsoft1
I'm jealous - I could be going but I'm going to be here in Ottawa, waiting for the news to come via the various MVP forums.
Have fun Alex!
by akselsoft1
Rick Schummer offers some tips on the VFP 9 SP1 installation as well as a reminder for testers:
"Making a post noting "the report designer is broken" just does not cut the mustard. Provide concise reproducible steps, code examples, observed behavior, detail what you expected to happen, your hardware configuration, and any additional notes you think are important."
by akselsoft1
Sure hope I didn't write one of those articles that contributed to Kevin's "not based on any actual event"...but definitely a great initiative - which is why I like putting real details right onto the blog.
Great initiative, Kevin.
by akselsoft1
I'm with Chris on this one. Case in point: my server hard drive was getting close to full so I decided to clean up some stuff.
Removed about 10 GB of storage. Now I try to load up Outlook that runs with 4 different PSTs, NewsGator, Tasklineand the new Google and MSN search.
And wait....and wait...and wait...
So I cancel it out. It says "Newsgator is to blame" so I disable that.
Now I try again. and wait and wait and wait....
Makes me glad that I use gmail as my email backup and forward all emails there - at least I won't be completely OUT of pocket.
And all this after I've rebuilt my PSTs in the past 2 months.
I realize Chris notes that he was close to the 2GB limit - but me? I'm talking two or three PSTs that are under 500MB each. Maybe Outlook is still choking because of the TOTAL MB.
My big concern right now is that even though I use Newsgator online - what happens if these great posts disappear off the web? I always like to have them at least in archive format.
Anyone found a news aggregator for Thunderbird? Oh yeah, I forgot - it already HAS one built into it.
by akselsoft1
I feel your pain, Alex.
Right after my last one, I've taken to running an XDrive backup on my Dev work and regular other updates otherwise. The big problem I always face is that FoxPro generates so many additional extra files that it's really easy to get a massive backup file for a fairly simple project.
I'm also posting my install keys to my TiddyWiki on my USB stick.
by akselsoft1
If you have never listened to this podcast, it is GREAT!
Twenty minutes - informative, funny and just plain great!
by akselsoft1
The latest FoxShow is up and features an interview with Craig Berntston, author, blogger, speaker and FoxPro developer. He talks about his Southwest Fox session on Coder to Developer and some of the recent showings at the PDC.
It also features a quick poll on when are you most creative.
Actually it ends up being one poll on when are you most creative and another on how do you get yourself creative?
Enjoy and send feedback to foxshow at gmail.com
by akselsoft1
The Fox Show has been featuring interviews with the Southwest Fox speakers and other community members. Now every time I do an interview, I prepare a list of questions that deal with an upcoming session and their views on development, yada, yada, yada.
Now, although there is some advertising on the FoxShow, it's more to help cover costs than to make a million. In fact, in the last show, I made the point that if anyone in the FoxPro community wants to talk about a particular product, topic or just come on and tell me how wrong I am about everything, by all means please do. So it really is, similar to the Working Podcast, a community podcast.
So that said, I have an interview coming up with a member of the FoxTeam (KL) - and so now I'm asking you - what question do you want answered?
You can immediately dispense with the obvious ones: where is MS Marketing on VFP, when is VFP going to be in the CLR, etc- those are questions that have been asked and answered. And you can also see a lot of questions the group has already answered in David Stevenson's interview right during DevCon.
So with all the things that have been said at DevCon, on the VFP Web site, on the blogs, what is the one thing you want to know?
Let me know.
by webx
What is most important to me as a 10yrs+ experience fox programmer
SQL and fox just don't do well together... Select distinct and group seems to forget to include records in target table....
Upon when will the most expensive, irrealistically expensive programming language going to do that right ?
by akselsoft1
Cindy's talking about some of the cool stuff she saw at the MVP Summit (I'm sure other posters will be shortly).
In my recent interview with Ken Levy on the FoxShow, he noted how everything he discussed at the summit will be made publicly available (almost joking "what nda?") - within the next few weeks.
It's an interesting interview because I had asked members of the community for questions - well, Ken had seen those and went to great lengths to answer most of them (even the ones about EULA and 64-bit).
by akselsoft1
Argh! I got mega-comment spammed this weekend.
I'm thinking of turning them off or forcing logins but we'll see.
by akselsoft1
David,
Here's the solution: go to your Blogger settings under comments
Turn on Word Verification - that should clean it up.
David Stevenson's Talking Fox: Republished Blog to Stop Spammer Comments
by akselsoft1
Now this makes it easier to decide : do I want VS Team for Architects, Designers or Developers.
Thanks Beth.
by akselsoft1
Rick's post from the summit talks a little about Windows Vista but something else that I'm more excited about : a revised MenuDesigner from WhiteLight.
So when does the beta begin, Rick?
by akselsoft1
This may have been around for a while now but 37Signals is fast turning into my favorite Web-based software company.
First BaseCamp, now this.
Collaborative writing software online with Writeboard. Write, share, revise, compare.
by akselsoft1
Ken's letter introduces Craig as the newest MVP - congrats, Craig! Well deserved.
As well, he notes that What's New In Nine is now available online here!
by akselsoft1
There's a great story in the Big Moo on page 69 (actually there are a bunch of good stories on pages 1 through x) but this one stood out to me this morning.
It was about how Isaac Newton "discovered" gravity. Of course , he didn't discover it - in fact the biggest part of what he did was NAME it.
Which brings us to Avalon's renaming. Yes, I know it's been known for a while but I was listening to Buzz Out Loud (Cnet's podcast of indeterminate length) and Veronica ("I love apple above all else) commented on how she had seen the new Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and really liked it...except what's with the name?
In the days when people complain about Miicrosoft's ability to come up with cool names, Avalon wasn't bad but its renaming has me scratching its head. It's easy to get excited about a new operating system named "Tiger" (roar!) or , heck, even "Vista". But hey, everyone raise your hands and get excited for the brand new ......
"Windows Presentation Foundation"
Doesn't exactly send a chill through your bones....
But enough about WPF - it's only a feature right - sure it doesn't Flash right out at you - but then when was the last time a product launch sent a Zorro to Europa (or Sedna, for that matter)?
It only takes a nano-second to realize that the name game is still constantly being played. MS may feel obligated to stamp the Windows trademark name on everything, but as long as they do that, this is a game that they will always lose. Who cares, right? No one really cares about the acronyms, right - Mr. WIMPy interface - who needs a WIMP when you've got a LAMP?
"The product is what matters. "
Maybe in the minds but not in the hearts of consumers and users.
(as a side note, hotel buildings change names regularly - the hotel in Ottawa with the revolving restaurant has been the Holiday Inn, the Radisson and most recently a Marriott - when we were in Hawaii, the Hilton resort in Waikoloa was formerly the Hyatt, AND STILL referrred to as the Hyatt but the people on the Island - names DO stick!)
So as I was reading the Big Moo, I thought of Avalon and WPF and what Newton could have called gravity instead?
How about the Newton Declivity Theory? (NDT) - that would have stuck, right?
Or IEM - Isaac's Elevation Model?
What if to this day, we continued to use the old way of announcing one's self, I am Andrew, son of Donald, son of Karnac? My name isn't Andrew, I am DO2 - Donald Offspring #2. Or better yet, DO70?
It's a moot point now - as the product has already been named but there is definitely something to be said for a product to be keeping its name.
Check out the book - it's short, funny and absolutely worth every penny (and proceeds go to charity)
Meanwhile, I'm back to Europa.
by akselsoft1
You may have seen the FoxCentral ad for +Macros 3.5 - I'm writing a review of it for FPA but it's also being talked about in the upcoming FoxShow. It's essentially a collection of useful FoxPro pieces, including some text editing macros, a better Data session window, and stuff like that. (many frameworks provide similar tools for viewing tables) The ActiveDesktop has a very cool surprised me with a Project Manager pane (shown here) that only appears when you click on it - you then find the file, double-click and the project pane disappears. Very cool.
It's inexpensive ($60 US) and has a free 30 day trial.
by akselsoft1
There's still a lot of older FoxPro code that relies on the old IDX file - especially for temporary indexes that only need to be created on an as needed basis.
Now, you can create indexes on temporary cursors just as with regular tables but there's a trick to be aware of.
When you create an IDX file on a DBF file that physically exists , the IDX file will still be there after you close the table.
However, if you create an IDX file on a temporary cursor, as soon as you do anything that may close the index, the IDX file is instantly deleted.
Try it:
USE HOME(2)+"DATA\CUSTOMER"
INDEX on customer.city TO t
DIR t.idx && the file is there
SET INDEX TO
DIR t.idx && the file is STILL there
SELECT * FROM customer WHERE region ='WA' INTO CURSOR wacust
BROWSE
INDEX on city TO wat
DIR wat.idx && the file is there
SET INDEX TO wat.idx && Error file does not exist
Why ? Because the SET INDEX TO statement clears the previous index and attempts to reset it. But when it clears it, FoxPro recognizes that it is a temporary cursor and thus deletes the index.
The solution?
issue a SET INDEX TO ADDITIVE and that should keep it there.
by akselsoft1
Alex Feldstein has done a great job outlining what was discussed at the MVP summit. As Ken noted in the FoxShow interview, it was NOT NDA and thus, everyone in the community can be aware of what's coming.
by akselsoft1
Scoble notes Google's new RSS Aggregator - but I'm in the same boat as he is - I'm not swithcing from NewsGator.
I LOVE the Podcasting support within it.
Google needs to get back onto the cutting edge instead of trailing as they have been with Google Talk and now Google RSS.
by akselsoft1
Ah - it's almost here...the VFP Solution explorer...but even more - so is FoxTabs.
Thanks to Malcolm Greene for pointing it out on the ProFox list.
How will you use it?
by akselsoft1
Sounds like Jason's been reading Bill Jensen's Do Less Accomplish More Simplicity Survival book.
You need Less More, Less People, Less Time, Less Abstractions, Less Software - oh, and more constraints.
Well put - from one of the minds behind 37signals.
by lukcad
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by akselsoft1
Saw this on ProFox (thanks AGAIN , Malcolm)
It's interesting that Neilsen jumps over the new "results-oriented user interface", as noted by Office 12's interface. His big statement: "We know from user testing that users often demand that other user interfaces work like Office"
It will be interesting to see how this plays out - but keep the key poitns in mind from the new Office 12 interface - it's still all about the document-centric vision.
What do I mean by that? The O/S used to be application-centric - that is you choose the application to do the job you need done. Windows (and the web for that matter) has always tried to be more
document-centric - you work in a document and choose the right tools to do the job.
This new results-centric approach says you choose the tools based on the results you want and it's the job of the interface to make it easier to show what the results are - in short, you don't have to deduce or figure out what the tools mean, the interface should make it plainly obvious to you.
MS has been doing this for a few years now -still it's very telling that Jakob Neilsen is noting the big change in Office 12 as the telling signpost for the next generation user interface.
His comment: "But Microsoft Word 2003 has 1,500 commands, and users typically have no clue where to find most of them." Well the question really should be - do you NEED 1500 commands? (ask that to any Fox developer who knows all about dBloat) - maybe the real solution is the 37signals approach of less is more.
Most people who are starting with word processing (and there are a lot of them) don't get the difference between spaces and tabs or tables or columns so having 20 different commands for each of them essentially creates the UI conundrum.
It's a good article to read though - whether or not you agree or disagree with his conclusion that the Office 12 interface is going to be the defacto standard.
by dalicoder
I read Nielsen's article (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/wysiwyg.html) a couple of days ago. I was particularly drawn to this quote:
"The new interface displays galleries of possible end-states, each of which combine many formatting operations. From this gallery, you select the complete look of your target -- say an org chart or an entire document -- and watch it change shape as you mouse over the alternatives in the gallery. The interaction paradigm has been reversed; it's now What You Get Is What You See, or WYGIWYS."
I interpret this remark to mean that mousing-over the gallery options gives you a "live preview" of the end result. The current method is to select an option, look at what it does, then undo the command if you don't like it. If nothing else, I think I will love this new feature!
I always find Nielsen's articles on usability interesting and worth the read. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. You can subscribe to his newsletter at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/. [I received nothing for this endorsement and am not affiliated with Jakob Nielsen in any other way than as a loyal subscriber].
--Dave
by akselsoft1
Mike, Toni and the team at F1 have put out Visual FoxExpress 2005 - smart naming idea , especially seeing that no one really knows what VFP 9 + Sedna will be called.
Looks like a lot of new features are available - first and foremost a multi-user DBCX explorer and an improved App Builder interface.
I'm hoping to hook up with Toni for an interview right before Southwest Fox for the FoxShow so I'll be sure to ask her about it.
by akselsoft1
Sheesh - the things that just seem to slip through....
Someone on the ProFox list was asking why his VFP objects created with
SCATTER NAME didn't have an AddProperty method.
For example, if you do USE HOME(2)+"DATA\CUSTOMER"
Then
SCATTER NAME loCustomer
The object is essentially an Empty object and has no methods or events.
Which means you can't add new properties to it, right?
Not in VFP 9. Kevin Cully of http://www.cullytechnologies.com noted the new
AddProperty function that lets you add properties to objects that don't have
the AddProperty method.
=AddProperty(loCustomer, 'NewProperty', .T.)
Very handy as I use SCATTER NAME in lots of different places. Thanks for the
tip, Kevin!
by akselsoft1
Sheesh - the things that just seem to slip through....
Someone on the ProFox list was asking why his VFP objects created with
SCATTER NAME didn't have an AddProperty method.
For example, if you do USE HOME(2)+"DATA\CUSTOMER"
Then
SCATTER NAME loCustomer
The object is essentially an Empty object and has no methods or events.
Which means you can't add new properties to it, right?
Not in VFP 9. (uh correction, not in VFP 8 either - thanks Colin for noting it) Kevin Cully of http://www.cullytechnologies.com noted the
AddProperty function that lets you add properties to objects that don't have
the AddProperty method.
=AddProperty(loCustomer, 'NewProperty', .T.)
Very handy as I use SCATTER NAME in lots of different places. Thanks for the
tip, Kevin!
by akselsoft1
So the Southwest conference has begun and I'm not there - but I did manage to slide in a last FoxShow interview with speaker Toni Feltman.
It was a fun interview because Toni teaches database design at the university of Toledo as well so she sees both beginners and advanced users and the types of mistakes they make.
She also lets us in on what's in the toolbox for F1 Technologies and the new release of Visual FoxExpress.
Check it out.
by akselsoft1
Looks like Kevin Ragsdale is right into blogging Southwest.
What's the wifi situation there? Will be getting live blog posts during the keynote?
by akselsoft1
Interesting post - How well do you manage the last five minutes of a customer's experience?
by akselsoft1
Craig's first posts from Thursday are a riot:
"This is my first face-to-face run in with Rick. He exudes confidence and a certain amount of energy which makes me think... should I challenge him to a coding duel, or should I join forces with him so we can try and take over the world?"
Looking forward to the rest of the posts....
by akselsoft1
Calvin shows one of the cool features found in the FoxPro Wizards.
You can tell it wasn't part of the actual spec - after all, who would have made a requirement that the third parameter be "snoqualmie::flew"
In the last FoxShow, I noted how everything in Visual FoxPro is about extensibility. This illustrates the point further. Want to mess around with a wizard? This way you can do it interactively.
by akselsoft1
This is a tremendous read for every software developer who works on his own or in a small company. It outlines what happened this past week with the acquisition of NetNewsWire, the Mac RSS reader by NewsGator.
It was found from Scripting News but it's so hard to read everything in there that I've separated the link.
It's hard to imagine the days of indie sw developers but there are lots of them. Rick Strahl manages to straddle being both primary coder and the business person behind West-Wind, along with other various jobs. But it's certainly not the life for everyone, especially when you develop an RSS reader that is being used by thousands of people.
But it would also do well for those "shocked" about the purchase to realize that Newsgator started as one of those types of tools as well and only became the entity it is in the past little while.
NewsGator is in an interesting position - while today, they can claim to be one of the leading (if not the leading) RSS aggregator companies - they are also in the arena that is waiting for the 600 pound elephant (named Microsoft) to arrive. With their acquisitions and new tools, I think they are heading the right way - for example, with a Newsgator subscription, you can view your feeds on virtually every device (Mac, PDA, Win, Outlook, MediaCenter, Linux, etc) and still only get the LATEST news - not just all of it.
They've also made it easy to localize which information you want to read on various sites. This reminds me of Rick Borup's post about too much information. With NewsGator, you might set up your PDA to only look at specific sites whereas your Outlook may get all of them and your Media Center may only show family oriented feeds. It's a great solution because it's something that although they are aware of it, Microsoft isn't dealing with it head-on in IE 7 (where the solutions are expected to be machine-based).
So read The Life - it helps show the reality of the single developer with that one great idea.
by akselsoft1
I really like the concept behind Gada be - I mean hey, you can do a search by saying http://foxpro.gada.be and there it is.
EXCEPT - this is what happens when I do something like trucking.gada.be. Hmmm.....
Chris - you always struck me as a Windows fave and here you are wearing a red hat ....
by akselsoft1
What a weird problem....
My application uses a Cursor Adapter class connecting to SQL server. When it runs in the VFP IDE, no problems whatsoever but as soon as I take it out to run it as its own EXE, after every few minutes, the Connection becomes invalid.
Frustrating as...well, you know. Something is timing it out but I'm just not sure where it is...then again, it may be because I'm running the VFP 9 SP1 beta.
Go figure.
by akselsoft1
And you wonder how the little secrets get found out...
Calvin points out that on any VFP dialog, you can hit Ctrl+C and the entire text of the dialog is put into the Windows clipboard.
This goes for errors, messagebox, any native VFP form (in other words, ones that are built directly into VFP - not done through the FoxPro code itself like the Wizards)
Does that work for the C5 errors though?
Have to try that....
by akselsoft1
Remember Jon?
Wow - remember File Maker? I recall, I think it was at the Miami FoxPro DevCon that Jennifer, Geri from Advisor commented on the similarities between the FoxPro and the FileMaker communities (Advisor puts on both devcons)...now they have even more in common.
FileMaker Names Jon Sigler Vice President of Product Management: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
by akselsoft1
Now that's a good sign.
Yesterday, there was only one lonely member in the Visual FoxPro SednaX community and now there's 19.
I sense Craig is hearing some pushback from former community members but his post "Want to invent VFP's future?" is certainly a good read.
No, the community may not be able to get MS to do everything they want - but there have certainly been a number of times when a lone FoxPro developer has come to MS and said "here's what I did" and the reaction was nothing short of "wow".
And if you think about it - all of the little pieces found in VFP today - the FFC, the component gallery, the object browser, even the new Report Listener architecture - all of them are initiatives written, supported, developed, or architected by members of the community (heck, with few exceptions, most of the Fox team at MS is "FROM" the community)
So how to start? Maybe the best idea would be to look at the Wiki list of things people want to see and figure out which ones are definitely NOT going to be handled by MS. Ah the list has already begun on the message board.
by akselsoft1
Don't understand Buffering?
You're not alone - Andy Kramek gives the whole low-down as to the hows and whys but still doesn't explain why the functions are named the way they are.
As he states
"For example, to set buffering for a Visual FoxPro DBF file (which is a table) we have to use the heavily overloaded CURSORSETPROP() function. Why not a separate, unambiguous, ?SetBufferMode()? function? To confirm a pending transaction, the command is END TRANSACTION. Why not ?COMMIT? as in every other database language - a choice which is even more peculiar since the standard 'ROLLBACK' command is used to reverse a transaction?"
Could have been worse - we could have to issue a
SYS(2011,3) or something else that would have made Ken proud.
by akselsoft1
There were a few videos of various sessions at Southwest that should be showing their heads shortly. I heard from Bob that he was just getting them all edited and arranged and stuff.
The opening keynote, Tips and Tricks I learned from Drew and Steve Black's What Do I Say session (as noted in Andy's own review of Southwest:
SW Fox 2005 is over, Get Ready for SW Fox 2006 - kudos to Bob for getting Steve to give that original session) - what else was taped?
The latest FoxShow has interviews with first time attendee Kevin Ragsdale as well as Doug Hennig, who managed to turn a 75 minute session into 20 minutes.
by akselsoft1
Saw this on Scoble and of course, it's DotNet only.
So the next question will be is either the Argus Software labs who gave us CommandBars or the SednaX project going to be able to give us this in Visual FoxPro?
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