The LA Fox Developer

The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

President’s Column (Con't from page 2)

ing the database requirements of large enterprises, where they are in competition with Oracle, Sybase, and IBM more than Borland. Lotus, and Novell. The view contains the same “Backoffice” idea expressed at the recent Tech Ed Conference - an emphasis on multiple-server environments, with a large number of servers of several different types, widely distributed, highly connected, and well integrated. I think the message for us is that people who can understand and work effectively with the likes of Visual FoxPro today, will find an abundance of opportunities in the future. Incidentally, David is also the author of the excellent book called “Client\Server Strategies” that I mentioned last year - it’s still worth a read.

The entire April issue of Upside magazine is devoted to Microsoft. The focus is the business point of view, not the programming or development point of view, and not about any particular product. But this is a good source if you want some fuel for heated discussions about Microsoft conspiracy theories or its “monopoly” position. One of the underlying themes is that Microsoft leadership was a major factor in building the strong position that the PC software industry enjoys today, and their huge and risky investments in dollars and energy created the markets and educated the consumers for the benefit of all in the industry. The basic editorial position is that “the risk of government intervention screwing up the industry is greater than the risk of Microsoft thwarting innovation or extracting monopoly prices.” At any rate there are cogent arguments on both sides, and good interviews with the Microsoft management team - Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Mike Maples - and with a wide variety of other business leaders.

The annual dDay Fair is happening again this year. This is a major opportunity for local database oriented folks to meet and listen to several industry leaders, all in one convenient place, without the hassle and the price of most database conferences. The date is June 24, and the place is the Warner Center in Woodland Hills. The price is right - $25. We will have order blanks at the meeting - or call

Out and About (Con't from page 1)

Microsoft’s DevDays. He is a nationally recognized speaker, touring the country with Application Developers Training Company. He is the author of Template Programming in FoxPro 2 and President of his own company, Perpetual Data Systems. He’ll be speaking on developing apps in VFP, specifically moving 2.X applications into VFP.

July 17, 1995, 7:30 PM - Voysys. Mike Seto, from Voysys, will demonstrating his company’s wares. However, this is a sales pitch. One of the more popular exhibitors at DevCon, this company’s products provide functions to answer the phone, gather touch tone digits as menu options, the ability to “speak” numeric and date data to users who call in, and to accept numeric input for table updates. It’s an interactive voice response (IVR) toolkit and it’s done in FoxPro. We’ll probably get a peek at the code behind this technology, so don’t miss this one.

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 nightclub.

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:

Since We Last Met....

This is Really Important!! ! Due to a combination of scheduling conflicts and Torrance Airport rules for their meeting rooms, LA Fox meetings have been changed from the third Wednesday to the third Monday of every month from the June meeting through November. Meeting times will remain at 7:30 PM. If there are any questions, please call Chuck Williams at (310) 539-9439, CIS# 72330,2326, or Barry Lee at (714) 968-4225, CIS# 72723,3422.

Last month, I made mention of Neon Software releasing their latest offering, FoxExpress v2.6. Well,