====================================== FoxPro Developers Network of San Diego ====================================== FoxDev TipsLetter #99-12 December 5, 1999 Website: Editor: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS: * Calendar * Tech Tips: NODEFAULT, DODEFAULT Dan Covill * Other Stuff: Election Christmas Comes Early Dan Covill Jobs For Sale Steve Settimi Stone's Way Dan Covill Consulting Solutions Group * Administrivia ====================================================================== CALENDAR: We are now alternating meetings between Escondido and Sorrento Mesa. All meetings are at 7:00 pm. Dec. 8 - Xmas party at Trophy's ------------------------------- As a way of wishing all our members a happy holiday, we are sponsoring our annual Christmas dinner - free food and drink for all members in good standing. The party starts at 7:00pm on the patio. We are returning to the site of last year's party--Trophy's in the Hazard Center (Mission Valley). To get to Trophy's, take 163 to Friars Road and head east. Turn right at the first light (Frazee), and then right into the parking lot. Go straight to the end and Trophy's will be on your left. Jan. 5 - Escondido ------------------ Dan Covill will present an introduction to XML. This will be an overview, not a code demonstration. Dan will cover how XML came to be, its relationship to HTML, what it's good for, and (some) of what's going on in this fast-moving (and rapidly fragmenting) area. You'll get a list of sources to start your own investigations. Feb. ? - Sorrento Mesa ---------------------- Nick Nikula and Steve Settimi are teaming up to give us an overview of VFP Com Objects and VFP Com Objects running on MTS. [I assume MTS is the Metropolitan Transit System. DC] Escondido meetings are at Bergelectric, 2222 Meyers Avenue. Take the Nordahl exit from Highway 78 (west of I-15). Head South. Right on Meyers Ave, first right past Mission. It's a one-story building on the right (there's no sign). Sorrento Mesa meetings are in the PS Business Center, 6450 Lusk Blvd. From the Lusk Blvd driveway, go straight back to the furthest corner of the rear bldg and park. The conference room is upstairs over the Fitness Center. ====================================================================== TIPS ====================================================================== NODEFAULT, DODEFAULT Dan Covill If you didn't see the latest FoxTalk, you need to. An article by Jim Booth (with approximately the above title) points out some scary idiosyncrasies of the the VFP inheritance model. You need to read it, but the bottom line is this: "VFP implements programming by exception for behavior inherited from your classes. The default behavior of the VFP base classes ARE NOT programming by exception; rather, you need to actively stop the base class behavior using NoDefault. ... So if you use DoDefault() during your code, you'll likely need NoDefault at the end of the code TO PREVENT THE BASE CLASS BEHAVIOR FROM EXECUTING TWICE." [emphasis added - DC] ====================================================================== OTHER STUFF ====================================================================== ELECTION Our last meeting included our annual election. Since Steve Settimi had decided not to run for re-election, and Thad V'Soske was the only new candidate, the slate was elected by acclamation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY I just got a new system. This isn't my work machine, it will be my experimental system - the one with Windows 2000 on it. It replaces a Pentium 133 that couldn't handle USB or ultra-DMA hard drives, both of which are becoming necessary. My priorities were a fast disk system - after all, I do database work - and ability to handle USB devices. So what did I get? The system: CPU is a Pentium III - 500 Mhz, with 128 Mb of RAM. Moderately fast, but still reasonably priced. Motherboard is an Abit BE6, the newest version of the (soon to be obsolete) 440BX Intel chipset, with 100Mhz front-side bus. The big feature is that it has two Ultra-DMA/66 IDE channels IN ADDITION TO the usual two channels of UDMA/33. In other words, it will handle up to eight IDE drives, four of which can be UDMA/66. Hard drive is a Western Digital Expert 27.3 Gb, 7200 rpm UDMA/66, with 2 Mb of on-board cache. And there's another just like it in a pull-out drawer! These are the fastest IDE drives available, and only cost about $300 each. Video is a Matrox G400 Max, with 4X AGP and 32 Mb of ram (and its own fan!). This is the latest 3D version of the old Matrox Millenium, which I have had for at least four years and liked a lot. The big deal with the Max is two video outputs; you can hook either a second monitor or a TV set to the other output, and it can have its own view and refresh rate. Sure, I'll probably never use it, but for an extra 30 bucks... Oh yes, there's a 48x CD-ROM, a 56k generic modem, a 3Com 10/100 Ethernet card, a Creative Labs sound card, and Windows 98 Second Edition. How much? $1965, custom-built and ready to go. And I paid over $3,000 for the old Pentium 133 with a 1.2 Gb drive! Testing: How fast is it? I tested the disks by copying my entire Client directory from one hard drive to the other. That's 427 Megabytes in 3972 files, including 95 folders. It took a grand total of 53 seconds! I make that to be 8.06 Mbytes/second, or about 64.5 MegaBITS/second, close enough to 66 that I'm happy. Now the real challenge begins. Cleaning the junk out of Win98, partitioning the drives, installing Windows 2000, and loading up all my stuff. And learning what/where all these wonderful new drivers are! Dan Covill ---------------------------------------------------------------------- THE JOB MARKET Steve Settimi contributed this URL for those looking for a job. While this is a general-purpose job site, I tried entering "FoxPro", and up came 114 job listings! Most of them (alas) not in San Diego. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- STONE'S WAY (Column) Dan Covill Found something neat in the Microsoft Flash. It's a link to a really interesting column, on the MSDN website, by a guy named Victor Stone, who happens to be on a Microsoft product design team. His columns are most definitely NOT politically correct, and they're a mix of off-the-wall satire at the foibles of development in general and some amusing insights into the bizarre world of Microsoft. Example: Dialog between Manager and Developer Client: "Hey can you do some work for me? Here's a cookie." Server: "Sure, I do just that kind of thing all the time; keep your cookie. Here's the result of me and all my buddies on the farm cranking our brains out." Client: "Fantastic! I'll be sure to display all your work as if it came from me!" The current column is "Do You Trust Authority", and depicts the programming world as something out of Blade Runner. But the back issues are fascinating as well. "Don't Do Me Any Favors" discusses pitfalls in using frameworks. "Schedule Chicken" looks at the big Microsoft Re-Org. Here are three links (there are others): * "Stone's Way": Do you trust authority? * "Code Corner": Fun with HTML forms * "More or Hess": One app's security, another app's prison ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SOLUTIONS CONSULTING GROUP Solutions Consulting Group, at 6540 Lusk Blvd, is the host for our Sorrento Mesa meetings. But who are they, and what do they do? "Since its inception in 1993, Solutions Consulting Group has grown to more than 40 employees with over 65 active clients throughout Southern California. We are a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider Partner and a member of the Oracle Business Alliance Program." They do: Corporate Application Development Data Warehousing Network Services They work in FoxPro, VFP, VB, Access, SQL, and Oracle. They are looking for more employees and they do use contractors as well; contact Armando Andrade at if you're interested. For More Information... --------------------------Administrivia------------------------------- This newsletter is a service to members of the FoxPro Developers Network of San Diego (FPDN). The editor (Dan Covill) is solely responsible for the content, Barbara Peisch does the distribution. E-mail the editor YOUR tips, comments, complaints, and rebuttals. Editor: Dan Covill 858-272-2448 Board of Directors: Eric Lendvai - President 760-439-6617 Art Bergquist - Vice Pres 760-740-0428 Claude Nikula - Secretary 619-615-6318 Barbara Peisch - Treasurer 760-729-9607 Dan Covill - Director 858-272-2448 Thad V'Soske - Director ----------------------------------------------------------------------