The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

March 1994

XPro User Group News (con’t from Page 5)

sibilities are changing or reinforcing my various points of view. I’m perfectly serious when I say I have become precisely the stereotype of the person this committee is doing the work for. I can’t afford to let my preferences or prejudices make decisions for me. The users of Clipper apps are just as important as users of FoxPro or Paradox or Informix or AS400, etc. apps. I can’t just say “I like product X so let’s migrate all non-X apps to X” without considering the costs and problems.

Sb: Xbase Standard

Fm: DBADVISO REP 143598

To: Jeff Winchell 76066,533

Jeff,

>>.. .why would someone want to upgrade their Xbase product to run old code unless it offers a performance improvement?

Besides performance, there is the need for Client] Server architecture (do to WAN and LAN throughput consderations). My basic hope for many Xbase products is that the vendors will realize the importance of this as well as the value of making this possible with little change to the syntax or code of most existing Xbase apps. It would be nice, for instance, if dBASE or FoxPro apps, could be turned to client/server architecture with nothing more (in terms of code changes) than setting up a parameter in the CON FIG.DB/FP file that would point table and index commands to the server. As a MIS manager in a difficult situtation, I’d tend to favor the major Xbase product that made it that easy.

FoxPro 2.6 (con’t from Page 4)

eliminate “SKU-confusion” on the retail side of the product. Registered users of the product will be provided an upgrade path so that they may upgrade to 2.6 without having to purchase the entire Professional version.

What follows are excerpts from the press release:

“... Helpful wizards step you through common tasks that make building screens, reports, and graphs, as easy as a few mouse clicks! And advanced tools for developers make it easy to create applications without limits.”

FoxPro 2.6 (con’t from previous column)

“... HIGHLIGHTS

“Flexible, interactive tools offer easy access to relational database power.

Take advantage of Screen Wizards, Report Wizards, and Application Wizards - built-in experts that quickly walk you through the steps necessary to complete common database tasks.

Send data to your word processor easily using the Mail Merge Wizard.

Use the Table Wizard to make table definition much easier.

Simplify database queries using the Query Wizard.

Build screens easily using the Screen Wizard.

Create reports automatically with the Report Wizard.

Choose from more than 85 label formats and quickly create labels using the Label Wizard.”

• .FoxPro Professional Edition gives you added powei by offering you FoxPro 2.6, as well as three add-on kits (no longer available separately):

1. Develop client-server applications with the FoxPrc Connectivity Kit.

2. Compile and distribute your applications royalty- free with the FoxPro Distribution Kit.

3. Tap the extensibility of FoxPro with the FoxPro Library Construction Kit.”

It sounds to me like Microsoft is adding a bit of the Access front-end. Another feature, the “Auto-migrate function brings in programs written in other xBase languages, such as dBase IV. One has to wonder if this isn’t Microsoft’s response to Borland’s announcement that dBase For Windows won’t be released until July ‘94.

Kirk Nason indicated to me that this upgrade isn’t necessarily for everyone.

For a complete copy of the press release, as well as current pricing and upgrade paths, please see Chuck Williams or myself at the meeting.

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