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 review-

ing 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 in-

cluded 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 sup-

ports 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 manipu-

lates 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

(Con't, page 4)

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 develop-

ment firm. He is the author of four database man-

agement 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:

Bill House

Lisa Slater

Les Pinter

Adam Greene

John Miller

Savannah Brentnall

Nancy Jacobson

David Anderson

Dick Bard

Mike Feltman

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.

(Con't, page 4)

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