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The
LA Fox
Developer Newsletter
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March 1994
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One of the clients I recently finished a
FoxPro
project for had a requirement that the system be initially developed for DOS-platform machines, migrated to Windows, and then migrated to the
MAC.
As the initial DOS and Windows versions were being completed, Microsoft announced shipment of
FoxPro for MAC.
A few of the major retailers in the area had the $99 Standard Version, but it seemed that no one had the Professional. After an exhaustive search, two copies were located at Fry’s Electronics in Fountain Valley. Needless to say, I hot-footed it down there to purchase the package so that the project could finish on time. (As of this writing, I still haven’t seen the Professional package in any other stores, including CompUSA, Mico Center, or Egghead.)
To run the MAC version you need:
>
System 7 or above.
>
A disk drive and hard disk.
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68020 or higher processor.
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4 Megs of RAM (6-8 recommended).
>
Network
compatible with AppleTalk.
The machine I did the conversion on was a
Quadra, but I found it would work even on a MAC
SE/30 with acceptable results.
Transporting a DOS application to the MAC is fairly straightforward, as long as the MAC is either equipped with a SuperDrive or the MAC has DOS emulation software on it. As a matter of fact, the similarity to the transport is almost the same as from DOS to Windows.
You’ll encounter the same basic problems as the DOS-to-Windows transport, especially if you haven’t used the “Power Tools” (Screen Builder, Menu Builder, etc.) to build the application. This i probably the most important item to remember if you’re anticipating moving your app over to the MAC. Aside from the normal MAC quirks (i.e., no recognition of parent-child windows), most files ar compatible
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DBF’s, CDX’s, LBX’s, SCX’s, etc.
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Another consideration is backup utilities. If you’re like most developers, you offer some kind of data or system backup within your app, such as those produced by PKware (PKZIP) or lhArc. There are currently two MAC programs that are well-suited to this:
Stuffit,
a very popular commercial program, and
Compact Pm,
shareware that’s available on most BBS’s.
The Professional Version comes with the Distribution Kit, as well as API and Library Construction Kits. Apps may be prepared for distribution by using the built-in DK Wizard. The price is $549 ($591.55 w/tax) at Fry’s in Fountain Valley, if they still have the other copy.
Other than that, good luck finding it!!
by Barry R. Lee
Prompted by
a
C’serve thread sent to me from Bill Anderson, on March 6, and
a
passing reference to it at the last
LA Fox
meeting, I decided to investigate all these rumors regarding
FoxPro 2.6.
The thread, which apparently began about February 16, begins by discussing a 2.6 Windows Beta demo presented by a MS Fox product manager. It goes on to discuss several new features being introduced by Microsoft.
I immediately contacted Kirk Nason at Microsoft. He explained that
FoxPro 2.6
is going to be officially announced at the upcoming Tech-Ed to be held in New Orleans on March 28-31. He was kind enough to fill me in on some of the details and, two days later, at the Microsoft Foxusers Group (Irvine) made available a copy of what Microsoft is doing and how they are going to release the product.
Microsoft is taking a simplified approach to packaging
FoxPro
for DOS and Windows
...
similar to the one
they took with the MAC version. There will only be a
Standard and Professional version. This should
LA Fox President’s Column (con’t from Page 3)
I’m really looking forward to this session on a capability that is frequently needed and usually not very well handled.
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