The LA Fox DeveloDer Newsletter

March 1995

Review of .

dBase for Windows

by Michael Cummings

Borland has sent evaluation copies of dBase for Windows to various FoxPro User Groups, including Orange County and LA Fox. Borland’s timing was a little off, in that it was just too easy to put off reviewing dBase until after Devcon.

So, what would be a fair comparison? dBase vs Visual FoxPro?

dBase vs FoxPro 2.6? dBase vs Edlin?

Borland has plans to make a fairly major release around the time of the release of Visual FoxPro, but that is all that is known at this time. What is in dBase 5.5? Can it stay alive in the market against Visual FoxPro? In short, dBase has not been going too well for Borland. dBase was supposed to be the killer product that would bring Borland back to financial health. Instead, Phillipe lost his gig and will have to play his saxophone somewhere else.

In all the white papers, videos, and manuals included with the evaluation copy of dBase, I have been looking for something that would make me want to switch from FoxPro. In all the playing around I’ve done in dBase, I’ve been looking for some key feature or aspect of the product that would make me want to switch to dBase from FoxPro.

Database Stuff

As far as database manipulation, dBase has caught up to FoxPro .2.6 in a few areas. dBase now supports up to 225 work areas. dBase’s Arago heritage shows up in AUTOMEM, a sort of Scatter / Gather construct.

dBase does not, however, support SQL against DBF Data. The dBase Query tool actually writes Xbase code as the query. dBase also does not seem to have anything equivalent to a FoxPro Cursor (temporary table). In fact, if you use dBase as a Client Server front end, dBase actually manipulates SQL Server data with Xbase commands. As interesting as this achievement is, and I’m sure it wasn’t easy, its an strange way to work with SQL

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Out and About (Con't from page 1) application product, Tom Rettig’s Office (TRO) to Visual FoxPro. Tom has presented at every DevCon and spoke again this year, giving a presentation on “Introduction to Databases”.

May 9, 1995, 7:30 PM - George Goley. What can you say about George that hasn’t already been said? George is the founder of Micro Endeavors, Inc., the world’s most successful FoxPro training and development firm. He is the author of four database management books, as well as a contributing editor to and member of the Technical Advisory Board of Data Based Advisor. His articles have appeared in DBA, Fox Talk, Byte, and many other publications. His benchmark tests are still in use by vendors and users alike to determine the relative performance of PC databases. George has presented at all six US DevCons, where his performance sessions are standing room only. (Please note the change In schedule for this very special meeting.J

This is indeed a rare opportunity to see these people when they’re not surrounded by hundreds of people clamoring for their expertise. It’s like comparing a sold-out stadium concert with the intimacy of a small night club.

These people will join a list of speakers who have presented to LA Fox that reads like a “Who’s Who” in the Xbase/FoxPro development community:

FoxPro Advisor Special Issue

For those of you that either haven’t received your copy in the mail or picked one up at your favorite bookstore, the March issue of FoxPro Advisor is devoted almost exclusively to Visual FoxPro. It’s well worth reading.

Since We Last Met....

In the January LA Developer, I wrote about Nancy Urbanski, the former high school administrator who was suing Apple and IBM over what she claimed was repetitive stress injuries, allegedly caused by the amount of time she spent on computer keyboards.

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