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 com-

puter 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 work-

ers and entrepreneurs a break. One of the items on

his “Contract with America” is being largely over-

looked. 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 govern-

ment ... 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 possibili-

ties. 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 cover-

age. 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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