The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

Tricks, Tips, Techniques

Below are some of the VFUG’s latest tips, tricks, and FAQ’s.

These are so fresh, they may not even be loaded into the FAQ

section by the time you read this!

Stop Crashing VFP

If VFP crashes or hangs every time you try to start it here is

something you can try to fix the problem.

First, try re-installing VFP. If that does not fix the problem and

nothing else seems to work then here is a last ditch possible

solution:

Run VFP from the command like this:

VFP.Exe -A

The “-A” parameter starts VFP without reading registry settings

and ignores the configuration file. If VFP then loads successfully

you more then likely have either a corrupted registry entry or a

cross linked entry.

What you can do to possibly fix this is:

1. Back up all of your files and the entire drive and make sure

your Windows registry is backed up.

2.Edit the registry (RegEdit.Exe) and delete every reference to

VFP.

3.Try starting VFP. Now if it loads then good, if not you have a

bigger problem or did not delete all the registry entries.

4.If it did work the start VFP again with the “-R” parameter:

VFP.Exe -R

This will Refresh the Windows Registry and add many of the

entries you will need.

You should now be in good enough shape to recover and

continue. You may need to “Tweak” some settings or re-install

OLE settings but at least you can use VFP. Again, this is a last

ditch Tip when nothing else will work.

WARNING: Editing the Windows System registry could result in

total destruction of your system if you make a mistake. The

only recovery may be a total reinstall of windows.

DISCLAIMER: I in no way endorse using this method. Use it at

your own risk. If you are a novice at Windows, Computers, or

editing the registry do not even attempt this.

Two CLASSy Tips for Visual FoxPro 5.0 Developers — From

MSDNFIash

It’s easy to move classes with the Class Browser. Developers

often move classes between class libraries in Visual FoxPro

5.0. Did you know that the Class Browser can make this a

(Con't, page 9)

Guest Editorial...

Future Programming

By Tom O'Hare

Will future programmers suffer greatly from multiple personality

disorders? Good question, and quite possibly so. It looks like

the days of the single language programming environment are

quickly coming to an end. In order to survive, programmers will

have to learn multiple languages and learn numerous platforms.

Integrated systems and integrated programming languages are

quickly becoming the norm.

Let’s face it, the web (Internet/Intranet) is the future. With the on

rush of the Internet has come the end of the simple one lan-

guage programming era. Take a no frills web app for instance.

Let’s say all you want to do is set up some simple pages on a

site. What is involved? To start with you have to either rent

space on a web server or construct one yourself. If you con-

struct your own you will have to learn to be, for example, an NT

Server administrator, a network administrator, a hardware

technician and an Internet Information Server (IlS) administrator

(plus know how to hook all this up to the Internet or even

Intranet). You’re basically looking at wearing three or four hats

(minimum) just to get the server running.

Now, let’s move to the software angle. Let’s say all you want to

do on this server, whether local or remote, is record visitors to

your site. What is involved? OK, of course right up front is the

HTML to piuducè the web pages or maybe learn how to make

Active Server Pages (ASP). Next, you will have to get to know

something like VB Script or Java Script so you can handle the

data. Now, what data source will you use? A text file, a Visual

FoxPro data file, VB, or Access Jet engine? Then maybe an

ODBC link may be in order to translate the data. And, of

course, you must have that animated icon or something to

make your site cool, right? OK, Java, Visual Basic, VRML or

what do you want to use to create this? Getting thick fast isn’t

it?

We just went through some very simple specifics on creating a

simple web site. If this site is also connected to an Intranet now

we have to support operating systems such as Windows NT,

Windows95, or even MACs or other types of PCs. In a large

corporation you would be looking at a whole MIS department.

For one or two man programming shops, you’re looking at major

“brain strain”. Now, to put all of this together not only requires

knowledge of each aspect but also knowledge of integration

techniques. And, of course, let us not forget this was all sup-

posed to be done yesterday, right? Are you seeing my point

yet?

Integrated systems and integrated programming languages are

quickly becoming the norm, and that means more work to do

even the simplest tasks. Very soon it will not be a matter of

whatlanguage is better, Visual FoxPro, Visual Basic, Java, or

whatever is your favorite, but using multiple languages in order

to create an integrated environment will be required. Each

(Con't, page 9)

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