The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

May 2000

The LA Fox Developer is the monthly newsletter of

the LA Fox Developers Group. The purpose is

information sharing among application developers

and users working with FoxPro.

LA Fox Address

LA Fox

Barry R. Lee

714/375-3300

P.O. Box 6624

Huntington Beach, CA 92615-6624

LA Fox Board of Directors

Barry R. Lee, President/Newsletter Editor

Bill Anderson, Vice President/Programs

Twila Miller, Treasurer/Membership

Jonathan Melvin

Wayne Stahnke

David Salson

Mike Cummings

Michael Meer

George Porter

LA Fox is the oldest FoxPro developer’s group in

Southern California. The newsletter contains regular

columns as well as articles from other user groups.

XPro User Group

Randy Unruh

310/399-9159

2210 Wilshire Blvd. - #161

SantaMonica, CA -90403

OC FoxPro Developers Group

Mike Vincent

(714)970-9147

Membership/Subscription

The annual membership fee for the LA Fox Develop-

ers Group, including subscription to The LA Fox

Developer Newsletter, is $48.

Disclaimer

Neither the LA Fox User Group, the XPro User

Group, the OC FoxPro Developers Group, their

officers or board of directors or their members make

any express or implied warranties of any kind with

regard to any information disseminated, including,

but not limited to, warranties of merchantability and!

or fitness for a particular purpose.

Opinions provided by newsletter articles, or by

speakers, members, or guests who address the

meetings, are individual opinions only, and do not

necessarily represent the opinions of the group. All

opinions and information should be carefully consid-

ered, and the group is not liable for any incident or

consequential damages in connection with, or arising

out of, the furnishing or use of any information or

opinions. Brand names and product names may be

trademarks or registered trademarks of their respec-

tive owners.

Out and About (Con’t from Page 1)

may be registered for the VFP conference, he or she will be able to attend

any of the SQL conference sessions absolutely free. Featured speakers at

the keynote address will include Robert Green, Product Manager from the

Developer Division of Microsoft, and Ricardo Wenger, Visual FoxPro Group

Manager from Microsoft. For more info, visit the website at http://

vwvw.vfpdevcon.com.

September 24-28, 2000, Advisor Visual FoxPro DevCon,

Fountainebleau Resort Hotel and Towers, Miami, FL. Speakers are

yet to be announced and no other details are forthcoming as of press time.

For more info, visit the website at http://www.advisor.com/cmf0009p.nsf.

(Any material relating to this con ference...speakers, sessions, etc.... still

haven’t been announced orreleased. I wonderhow long we have to wait.]

November 5-8, 2000, Great Lakes Great Database Workshop 2000,

Hyatt Regency, Milwaukee, WI. More affectionately known as “Whil

Fest”. The fourth semi-annual (bi-annual?) Great Lakes Great Database

Workshop features 20 internationally recognized Visual FoxPro and

software development experts presenting over 45 different sessions on

Visual FoxPro 7.0 and related areas. For more info, visit the website at

http://www.hentzenwerke.com/con ference/great_lakes_2000.htm.

Since We Last Met

Does this sound familiar, anyone? I picked up the latest copy of Visual

Basic Programmer’s Journal because I figured the timing was “right’. You

may or may not have heard about the recent VBITS conference in San

Francisco orb-February 15th, where Microsoft announced that the new

version of Visual Basic, VB7, is going to be truly object-oriented. Yes, it

now has inheritance! (Among other features...) So it was with interest that

I picked this magazine up, just to see what the editors (and the VB com-

munity) were saying about the new product. Jeff Hadfield, the publisher,

was particularly enamored of all the new Web development features. That

was basically all he talked about in his column, while only devoting a very

short paragraph to the inheritance issue. On the other hand, Patrick

Meader, Editor-in-Chief, devoted his entire column to the new 00 feature

sets of VB7, including code-based and visual inheritance; free threading;

and structured exception handling, eliminating the need for GO TO error-

handling statements. Here are some quotes from his column:

“I suppose... Microsoft knows it faces a tough sell. Many long-time VB

developers are going to be stunned by the breadth of VB7’s changes, and it

will take them a while to adjust.. ..lnheritance is notoriously easy to abuse

and misuse, and part of your responsibility as a programmer is to learn

what it takes to implement such techniques properly... .Another significant

cost: ease of migration.. .VB7 is a ground-up rewrite... .lt took courage for

Microsoft to take this step, but it’s the right one...”

I’ve heard this somewhere before. haven’t you? <s>

Well, that’s it for now. I’m off to the brand new, first ever, New Orleans

DevCon. My condolences to those of you who aren’t going. But if you want

to get a flavor, tune in to the live WebCast Sunday evening. You can go to

http://www.vfpdevcon.com to find out all the details....

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