Dear FoxProSIG attendees and potential attendees,
This email is the minutes from the second meeting of the Capital PC User Group - Microsoft FoxPro Special Interest Group.
Date of meeting: Monday November 9, 1998
Place of meeting: Second Floor Basement Cafeteria of the National Institute Of Health
Time meeting started: 9:15 p.m.
Time meeting ended: 10:00 p.m.
Number of participants: 16
Administrative Topics:
1. Meeting Place Required:
All participants agreed that the cafeteria location is inadequate. Some participants provided suggestions on meeting places. The group agreed on Barbara Conn's suggestion of the Chi Center at 1010 Grandlin Avenue.
!!! Fritz is in charge of reserving this room with the president of the CPCUG, Lillian Milliner. !!!
2. Meeting Time Too Late:
All participants agreed that the current meeting for the FoxProSIG (9:15 p.m.) is too late. All participants agreed that the next meeting commence at 7:00 p.m.
3. Focus of the FoxProSIG
Some participants showed an interest in having a separate SIG that deals solely with development issues. No agreement has been reached on this topic.
4. The Correctness of the Monitor's Users Helpline Directory
Some participants questioned the correctness of the FoxPro support person's contact information. The Monitor has that John Scott, whose phone number is (202) 686-3373 and email address is root@ccicnetworks.com, is the FoxPro support person. However, the email address listed bounces back emails as undeliverable. Fritz Francis provided his contact information to be used an additional support person. His home phone number is: (301) 585-7489. His mobile phone is: (301) 442-1136. His email address is ffrancis@bellatlantic.net.
!!! Barbara Conn is responsible for verifying the contact information for John Scott. !!!
5. FoxProSIG Website
!!! Fritz is responsible for contacting Larry McGoldrick, larrym@cpcug.org, for web space. Fritz will provide an update on the status of the website at the next FoxProSIG meeting. !!!
6. FoxProSIG mailing Lists
!!! Fritz is responsible for contacting David Michelson, david@acm.org, for the FoxProSIG mailing lists. Fritz will provide an update on the status of the mailing lists at the next FoxProSIG meeting. !!!
Presentation Topic: none
FoxPro Questions:
1. Ralf Keuhnel asked: Is there a way to create an executable setup program in Microsoft FoxPro, similar to Visual Basic. He then asked, what are the differences between FoxPro and Visual Basic.
Fritz Francis answered: In order for a developer to create an executable setup application, in both Microsoft FoxPro and Visual Basic, the developer must run his/her application through the Setup Wizard that Microsoft provides with its visual integrated development environments (IDE). Microsoft provides the Setup Wizard as a standard component in Visual Basic. Microsoft, however, does not provide the Setup Wizard as a standard component in Microsoft FoxPro. The developer must purchase the Office Developer's Edition (ODE) in order to receive the FoxPro Setup Wizard. Both wizards will create a setup.exe that end users need to install the developer's application.
While the concept behind Visual Basic and FoxPro are similar, many differences do exist. In general, FoxPro and Visual Basic, like many other IDEs today, are based on the concept of visual and event-driven programming. That is, both software has the concept of the creation of forms, placement of controls, and the programming of control properties and events. FoxPro and VB are made even more similar in that the language used to program FoxPro, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is a subset of Visual Basic. However, FoxPro and VB have many differences. Some of them are:
a) Visual Basic, unlike FoxPro, is not integrated with the Jet Database Engine. In other words, you can not separate the front-end FoxPro from the Jet Database Engine. In Visual Basic, however, you choose the database engine that you wish to attach to.
b) Visual Basic has much more controls than MS FoxPro.
c) The control that are similar to both FoxPro and VB do not support the same events and properties. For instance, the text box control in VB supports the Text property while the text box control in FoxPro supports the Value property. The text box control in FoxPro support BeforeUpdate and AfterUpdate events; the text box in VB doesn't.
d) Visual Basic supports more object-oriented constructs than FoxPro. For instance, VB supports interface inheritance with its Implements keyword. FoxPro supports no kind of inheritance. VB supports events with its WithEvents, RaiseEvent, and Event keywords. FoxPro does not support events. VB supports the For Each ... Next construct on user-defined collections. FoxPro does not. Both products support abstraction, encapsulation, and polymorphism. Both software products can simulate implementation inheritance through the use of containment and delegation.
e) One would think that the development time in VB would be shorter than MS FoxPro because of its additional power and flexibility. However, I find that the development time for a narrow-scope to a medium scope application is much shorter in MS FoxPro. The learning curve for VB is steeper, but not much steeper, than FoxPro.
2. Robert McAllister, and a few other members, asked what good books are available for Microsoft FoxPro.
Fritz Francis answered that:
a) "Running Microsoft FoxPro" authored by John L. Viescas and published by Microsoft Press is a good book for end-users. This book has three editions. The first edition is for FoxPro 2.0, the second edition is for FoxPro 7.0 (a.k.a FoxPro 95), the third edition is for FoxPro 8.0 (a.k.a FoxPro 97).
b)"Microsoft FoxPro Developer's Handbook" authored by Paul Litwin, Ken Getz, Mike Gilbert, and Greg Reddick and published by Sybex is the best book for developers. This book also has three editions.
c) "Inside Microsoft FoxPro" published by the Cobb Group is a good magazine for end-users.
d) "Smart FoxPro" published by Pinnacle Publishing, "FoxPro-Office-VB Advisor" by Advisor Publications are the best magazines for FoxPro developers. The Microsoft Office Developer's Journal published by the Cobb Group is somewhat good for FoxPro developers.
Concluding Topics:
1. Next Meeting:
The next FoxProSIG meeting will be on Wednesday December 2, 1998 at 7:00 p.m. at 1010 Grandlin Avenue.
2. Presentation Topic:
a) Report of the VBA Conference by TJ Racoosin
b) The Fundamentals of Relational Data Modeling tentatively by Fritz N. Francis
c) The CPCUG Membership Database Requirements by Ralf Keuhnel