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The primary reason for
creating a
user group is to provide better opportunities for sharing information and ideas among people with similar backgrounds and interests. The LA Fox group intends to provide sharing opportunities for several communities of interest, including the Foxbase Mac community. As the “Mac member” of the Steering Committee and writer of this monthly Mac column, I will act as a focal point for communication and action within the Mac group. I’m anxious to know what kinds of things you would like to see at our monthly meetings, what kind of information you are interested in, and what kind of interaction would be useful to you.
To get the conversation started here are some of my ideas.
1
Since microcomputer database systems using Foxbase can be used beneficially for such a wide diversity of environments and purposes, I think presentations about what kind of results have been achieved (rather than technical details on how the result was achieved) provide a useful stimulant to the imagination of both developers and end-users. I believe that Mac users can gain this kind of insight from hearing about FoxPro and Fox- base/PC applications, and vice versa.
2-- Foxbase has a very rich set of commands and tools which takes a long time to master. Those of us who develop applications are interested in exploring programming and development techniques with others who are further up the learning curve. I believe the systems are similar enough that Mac developers can
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learn from listening to FoxPro and Foxbase/PC developers and vice versa
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I certainly learned a lot from the Tom Rettig and Richard Grossman FoxPro presentations.
3
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There are a myriad of factors that influence the performance of database systems, and in fact there are many definitions of what constitutes good performance. It gets particularly complex and fuzzy in a multi-user situation. Since performance is a Foxbase strong point, presentations on that topic should be informative to all. Many folks in the industry don’t think about the Mac as a database machine, so an interesting question for us to explore is how Fox- base performance on the Mac compares to the PC.
4
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Since Foxbase is a leader in cross-platform products in an increasingly mixed personal computing environment, we have a unique opportunity to develop an understanding of what is really practical. That is, how much and what kind of work is involved in moving an application from Mac to PC or PC to Mac, what are the limitations, and how does one design for this eventuality.
5
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The design of database systems is probably more difficult, controversial, and important than programming them. This is an area where end-users should be an active participant with their developer. I think there are several design topics that would be of equal interest to all of us
Mac and PC, end-user and developer and would thus be good candidates for monthly meetings.
6 I believe that loosely structured and highly interactive meetings
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with lots of free-flowing questions and answers are much more beneficial than formalized and flashy “product presentations”.
We need ideas, suggestions, and arguments from the Mac community to make this an effective user group. Please give me a call or talk to me at the monthly meeting-- let’s make this work to our advantage, rather than ride along in the background as a silent minority.
Charles Ls
Secretary
for the
L.A. Fox
Steering Committee. He
can
be reached by voice phone at (213) 539
9439;
orbyfax at (213)325-3584; orby mail at
977 Ashbridge
Lane, Harbor City CA
90710.
FoxPro Under Windows
Although FoxPro runs under Windows 3, those attempting to run
it
on networks have encountered RAM CRAM. With network drivers and other necessary TSR’s loaded in regular DOS memory along with FoxPro, there isn’t enough space left to do much real work.
Those accustomed to using Quarterdeck’s QEMM to load drivers in high memory have been disappointed to discover that the current version of QEMM is incompatible with Windows 3.0. But Quarterdeck, coming quickly to the rescue, has already announced QEMM 5.1, a Windows-compatible version, due for release later this month!
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Introduction to xBase Programming
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Dialect-independent “hands-on” instruction in dBase language programming for those wanting to work in Foxbase, FoxPro, dBase
III+
dBase
IV,
Clipper, or other “xBase” dialects.
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LA. FOX
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