The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

March 1995

Out and About (Con't from page 3)

This was the first case of this nature to come to trial. She has since settled with Apple for a “sealed” undisclosed settlement amount, meaning she is not allowed to discuss the case or its settlement. Apple explained they were willing to reach the settlement because of a “technicality. However, IBM has vowed to see the case through to its eventual ending, fearing that a settlement at this time would set a precedent and open the doors to a raft of similar suits. This just in... .A jury has ruled that IBM is not liable for the disabling injuries that Ms Urbanski suffered from using the company’s computer keyboards. The decision came after less than four hours of deliberation to end the nine-week trial.

Speaking of Big Blue and suits.. ..IBM relaxed its dress codes recently, opting for more casual wear as opposed to its customary dark suits and white shirts. It should be quite a boon for funeral parlors and thrift stores alike.

AST and Samsung have inked a deal that will save AST from an almost inevitable financial crisis. After layoffs and cutbacks, downsizing of its domestic operations, increasing off-shore manufacturing, etc., AST could well be headed back to recovery if certain “internal” adjustments can be made.

Newt Gingrich, for all the political foibles that are attributed to him, is trying to give home office workers and entrepreneurs a break. One of the items on his “Contract with America” is being largely overlooked. He basically wants to overturn the Soliman decision - upheld by the Supreme Court - that severely limits the home office deduction.

Says Newt:

“We could create the greatest explosion of new opportunity ever in history. Yet we are currently moving in the opposit direction. At a time when the IRS should be making it easier to have a home office, they make it harder. Now that’s foolish - exactly the wrong direction.

“Taxation, regulation, the very structure of government ... have to be re-examined from the standpoint of what will make us the most competitive society on the planet, the most desirable place to invest, to

(Con?, page 8)

dBase for Windows (Con’t from page 3) Server data. It is, however, much better integrated than FoxPro 2.6 with the Connectivity Kit.

VFP looks like a more natural Client-Server front end, in light of its 32 bit ODBC connections, remote and local views and a Client-Server design that is neither a minor hack (dBase) or a major hack (FPW 2.6 with the connectivity kit)

In dBase 5.0, the big news is 225 work areas and

Scatter / Gather. It just doesn’t compare to VFP’s

Triggers, Defaults, Stored Procedures, Primary and

Candidate keys, etc. etc. Maybe in dBase 5.5?

Screen Stuff

The screen generation capabilities of dBase are a brighter picture than the data manipulation possibilities. dBase uses Borland’s 2-way tools, where screen design generates code directly. The 2-way part is that dBase will let you edit and change the generated code, and your changes will be preserved by the screen design tools. It is also much easier to see and understand what is going on when you can see the code. The generated screens are available to run immediately, no intermediate code generation process required! This is one dBase advantage that I think about that every time I build a large complex FoxPro 2.6 screen and go read the newspaper for 7 or 8 minutes while Genscm / GenscmX are building the .SPR file.

Against the form building capabilities of FoxPro 2.6, dBase looks mighty impressive. You get the full Windows event model, modetess screens, and instant screen rebuilds. Against Visual FoxPro, with its Visual Classes, ultra-rapid development tools, built in Tab Windows and FoxPro’s new dynamite grid object, dBase seems to be running neck and neck with Edlin.

What dBase did Right

dBase does have some things that I would love to see in Visual FoxPro. dBase will let you test coverage. Coverage basically means, was this block of code executed? How many times was it executed during testing?

Coverage testing will let you find dead, unused code and safely remove it. Coverage testing will also give

(Con?, page 8)

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