The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

June 1994

Books and Toys (Con't from Page 8)

FoxPro 2.6 Codebook

We’ve all been waiting for Y. Alan Griver's sequel

to The FoxPro (2.0) Codebook. After a lot of talk

related to a “2.5 Codebook”, The FoxPro 2.6

Codebook is finally on the stands. That is, if you’re

lucky enough to find it. It seems to disappear as

soon as it hits the shelves.

The new Codebook is a substantial improvement

over the previous one. This one even has an

index.

All kidding aside, this effort by YAG was worth the

wait. At three times the length of the original (748

pages vs 260 pages, including the index), this

volume not only illustrates YAG’s attention to his

following, but his growing maturity as an author as

well. This book covers development issues on all

of FoxPro’s current platforms (DOS, Windows, and

Mac). The book is also fleshed out with articles

that have been previously published in FoxPro

Advisor. (These articles are integrated into the

rest of the text, but if you have a good recall of his

published articles, you’ll remember seeing them.

One example is an article that was published in

EPA/April ‘93, titled “Spiffing Up Your Apps” that

appears in the book as part of the chapter titled

“Usability Techniques”.)

As always, YAG emphasizes reusable code and

objects. But other issues addressed relate to what

he calls “the big picture” of developing applications

issues that relate to communicating with clients

and with the development team; technical stan-

dards and guidelines (which many of us already

follow); multi-user programming; testing; a very

basic discussion of DDE and OLE; and the in-

cluded application - "Codebook.PJX".

The bottom line on this book? Throw the old one

away (2.0 Codebook), buy this one, order the

companion disk, and dive into it. The new book is

better written, examples are clearer and more

abundant, and if you can’t remember where you

read something, you can look it up in the index.

The FoxPro 2.6 Codebook lists for $34.95 and is

available from Micro-Center for $29.75. It has also

been spotted at Software, etc. The companion

disk is available directly from Flash Creative Manage-

ment (YAG's company) for $24.95.

Did He Really Say That?

[I was cleaning out some old files last week and came

across an old issue of The Green Letter, a newsletter

that Adam Green used to publish for the X-Base

community. It was dated February 1992 and the cover

story was titled “First Impressions of dBASE for Win-

dows’. It made for interesting historic reading since

Green migrated from dBase to FoxPro to Power-

Builder since that letter was published. Here are some

excerpts: ]

“...My overall impression of dBASE for Windows is

very favorable. It is a well thought out product, that is

fun to work with and produces very flashy

applications.. .There is no doubt that dBASE for Win-

dows will have a major impact on the X-Base world.

The only doubt is when this will happen. I already

made my prediction last month that dBASE for Win-

dows will ship between September ‘92 and January

‘93.. .One factor that should be weighed against the

enthusiasm of gurus like myself over dBASE for

Windows, is that the greatest amount of profit... comes

soon after a new product is released.”

It Can’t Get Any Easier.......

We’ve come up with an easy way to submit articles to

the LA Fox Developer Newsletter one that has

been overlooked for a long time.

You can submit your articles to either Chuck Williams

(72330,2326) or Barry Lee (72723,3422) on

Compuserve.

These articles can be on any FoxPro-related topic,

whether it concerns a new technique you’ve discov-

ered, a certain development technique you may favor

over others, book reviews, etc.

The quality of this newsletter really depends on the

members that support it, not just read it. And I think

we’d all be surprised by the useful information that

could be circulated around the membership.

So.

How’boutit?

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