The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

May 1994

FoxPro Certification (Con't from page 7)

Tom Rettig - “...I just don’t see the harm in MSFT

providing another very good method for people to

do this for themselves. Should they not have a

DevCon because those who attend gain a market-

ing advantage over those who don’t? ... Good

marketing costs time and money, and it generally

pays off quite well to make the investment. Much

of our background is similar, and I see it as a

marketing opportunity. I also see it as an obliga-

tion because I don’t want people wondering why I

didn’t take the test and I want to remain competi-

tive with others who do.”

Pat Adams - “Well, if MS did a certification similar

to the method I proposed, it would be possible to

have certifications for different levels - FoxPro

Windows, FoxPro DOS, FoxPro Mac, FoxPro Unix,

single-user, multi-user, client server, etc. And

even within those categories it would be possible

to have subcategories or ratings.”

Bill Rankine - "...I do not think any CP scheme,

especially a vendor CP scheme, can actually do

that [measure programming and design skills]. The

scheme would have to be partitioned into program-

ming skills, system design skills, business analysis

skills, client interaction skills I’d love to see

MSFT put together a “Fundamentals of Database

Design” scheme and see Fabian Pascal’s re-

sponse! <s> ..."

Steven E. Davies - “...But let’s not take ourselve

too seriously. Being a FP “expert” is a bit like

being a big fish in a fairly small pond... As for a

test process, I don’t claim to be a great educator

but I rather prefer seeing how someone handles

valid problems rather than parrot information. Hell,

I bet most of the FoxPro Gods have to refer to

Help, occasionally. Give ‘em a situation to be

resolved and methods of measurement to grade

success. I want to know who knows how to think!’

Let us know what think... .we’re interested in

hearing from you. You may send your comments

to Barry Lee, CID# 72723,3422, or send your

comments directly to Microsoft at Lisa Brummel’s

CompuServe mailbox. I’m sure they’ll be inter-

ested in hearing from you on what may turn out to

be a very important issue. (Lisa’s CID# appears in

the adjacent column, “Reach the Stars”.)

From the Pen of Ken (Con't from page 5)

mate this conversion.

GENSCRNX supports the following in the

CON FIG. FPW:

_TRANSPORT=”GENSCRNX. PRG” to allow pre and

post processing of all transporter functions *without*

changing the supplied transporter. For example, you

can control all of the default settings that occur when

transporting from a DOS screen to the Windows

platform, overriding any settings that you don’t like

(screen background color to gray as default for ex-

ample). This same technique will be even easier in FP

3.0. As for resources and support for creating the

proper GENSCRNX utilities for the FP 2.5 to FP 3.0

conversion, there is no problem. With thousands of

developers using GENSCRNX including Flash, the

demand will be there. Also, any of these little utilities

that support a GENSCRNX upgrade for upward

compatibiltiy will remain in the public domain. Under-

stand that this will not require extensive effort.

GENSCRNX is public domain, so there plans, or

reason, for this to change. GENSCRNX for FoxPro

3.0 will only be required for backward compatibility

only. Any changes/additions for GENSCRNX to work

with FoxPro 3.0 will only be for backward compatibility

and will remain in the public domain. Categorically,

GENSCRNX, PTX Editor (coming soon), etc., will

remain public domain, similar to Flash’s QuickStart.

Flash will use them with their products (similar to

FoxFire!, INTL, etc. using GENSCRNXIGENMENUX),

but will *never* use them as a commercial product.

If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate

to respond.

Reach the Stars

Some useful CompuServe mailbox numbers:

Dick Bard

70744,2251

Steven Black

76200,2110

Lisa Brummel (MSFT)

73363,713

Mike Feltman (Neon)

76217,1043

Y. Alan Gnver (Flash)

71541,3150

Whil Hentzen

70651,2270

Nancy Jacobsen

72230,2664

Ken Levy

76350,2610

Les Pinter

76434,104

Tom Rettig

75066,352

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