The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

March 1994

The MAC Attack

by Barry R. Lee

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 Profes-

sional 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.

> 68020 or higher processor.

> 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 .... DBF’s, CDX’s, LBX’s, SCX’s, etc.

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 pro-

duced by PKware (PKZIP) or lhArc. There are cur-

rently 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!!

FoxPro

2.6 ... Not a Rumor

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

(See “FoxPm 2.6”, page 6)

LA Fox President’s Column (con’t from Page 3)

I’m really looking forward to this session on a capabil-

ity that is frequently needed and usually not very well

handled.

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