The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

January 1994

XPro

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Microsoft has put forward the following positioning for their database development products, with some paraphrasing for easy comprehension:

1. Access is a tool for power users who need to query data and build applications by themselves.

2.Visual Basic is a general purpose Windows development tool with some database capabilities.

3. FoxPro is the tool of choice for “data” oriented applications, now and in the future.

if you have listened to Microsoft sales reps you may not have gotten this message because there is an apparent lag in the sales force’s understanding of Microsoft’s position.

This positioning has an obvious weakness when WAN throughput calls for a client- server solution. Many people and organizations have opted for Visual Basic as a front- end with SQL Server or a non-Microsoft backend as the solution of choice. Enter the promised FoxPro 3.0.

FoxPro 3.0 will not only be object based (or oriented, depending on who you listen to) but will have a data dictionary and “client- server”. What that client-server capability will look like, at this point in time, is known only to Microsofties. Whether that will be more tightly integrated ODBC links or transparent links to SQL Server or a new technology based on a WANable FoxPro Rushmore engine is anybody’s guess. My guess is that it will transparently translate FoxPro Xbase commands, as well as SQL statements, into server table commands. This will make upsizing existing FoxPro applications possible at all, in a practical sense. Borland has already’taken this approach with Paradox for

Windows and their Interbase Server and purportedly will also do with dBASE for Windows when it is released. This is why you may see Borland promotional material with the phrase “Borland, the upsizing company”.

The best bright spot in the waiting for the 3.0 game is the optimism expressed by Microsofties and in-the-know adherents that they will go into early beta perhaps as soon as March and may deliver as early as July. That seems a bit optimistic but their focus of effort has been among the best in the business. The key phrase there was “main focus of effort”, which excludes peripherally focused products like FoxPro Mac and Unix, until they become the “main focus” of effort.

Last Meeting

As promised, a discussion of the Codebook 2.5 foundation was held. Besides offering a solid event-driven model with decent performance, Codebook also uses a procedural data dictionary and cross platform tool bars.

For a more in-depth discussion you should come to the meetings!

Next Meeting

Bruce Braunstein, editor of FoxMasters on- disk magazine for FoxPro developers, will be showing some of the techniques he used in putting together the program for his ondisk magazine. Bruce has been a recognized Xbase adherent for many years, writing books and articles on dBASE, Clipper, and FoxPro. This should be an interesting discussion, so come prepared to ask questions!