FoxPro Developers Network of San Diego ====================================== FoxDev TipsLetter #00-10 October 1, 2000 Website: www.foxdevsd.org Editor: dcovill@acm.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS: * Calendar * Tech Tips: Utility - Access Tools ProFox Archive Search Dan Covill Where Do I Find...? * Other Stuff: Elections Are Coming! Call Me A Naysayer The Trouble With Startups Accept Checks OnLine! Im A. Crook What's An Alitum? * Administrivia ====================================================================== CALENDAR: We alternate meetings between Escondido and Sorrento Mesa. All meetings are at 7:00 pm. ****************************************************** *** NOTE: NEW LOCATION FOR SORRENTO MESA MEETINGS! *** ****************************************************** Oct 4 - Sorrento Mesa *** NEW LOCATION *** --------------------- Duke Lotherington and Peter Stephens will be showing a product they have developed called Visual Record. This product is a vertical market application geared toward medical records keeping. Nov 1 - Escondido ----------------- Board member Art Bergquist will show us how to use dynamic controls in a grid. Dec ??? --------------- Our annual holiday dinner party. The date and location are still TBD. This traditional get together is a great chance to hob nob with other members, and dinner is free for all paid members! 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 now at Alitum, 10509 Vista Sorrento Parkway. From 805, take the Mira Mesa Blvd exit. Head east. Turn left just east of the freeway on Vista Sorrento Parkway. Alitum's office is just before you reach Lusk Blvd, on the 2nd floor. ====================================================================== TIPS ====================================================================== UTILITY - ACCESS TOOLS Access Tools is a set of utility functions that will: 1. allow you to create Access Database files and tables from Visual Foxpro tables 2. allow you to repair an Access Database 3. allow you to compact an Access Database All WITHOUT having Access present on your computer. The program is written in VFP and uses a VB ActiveX dll to accomplish some of the work. Source code is included. There are two VFP forms (to speed use) and the dll file. Access tools is shareware and cost is $25 with a $7.50 discount for members of The ProFox Mailing Group, The Universal Thread, or The Virtual Foxpro Users Group. (Sorry. only one discount per customer.) For more information about the product.. Scheduled enhancements.. Or to place an order..send your email to: edrest@alltel.net [Found this somewhere out there as a result of a tip in ProFox. DC] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PROFOX ARCHIVE SEARCH by Dan Covill The ProFox listserve, hosted by Ed Leafe of CodeBook fame, is an exceedingly valuable and busy (50 - 100 msgs/day) source of FoxPro and VFP tips. You can subscribe at www.leafe.com. Ed has just made a huge improvement to his Archive Search facility, so you can find past posts on practically any topic. The archive link isn't referenced on his home page (on purpose, I suppose), but you can have a look here: www.leafe.com/archiveSearch.html There's no membership or registration; it's a service to the FoxPro community. Thanks, Ed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WHERE CAN I FIND...? A (semi) permanent list of places to look for technical help when you get blind-sided by the latest urgent requirement. We don't give specific URLs for MSDN articles because (a) they're too long and (b) they change too often! ------------------------------- MSDN ON LINE: msdn.microsoft.com There's a ton of stuff here, look at the Magazines tab, and read some of the regular columns. MSDN Library msdn.microsoft.com/library Look in Technical Articles | Visual Studio | Visual FoxPro 3-Tier Apps: MSDN Library: "Building Three-Tier Client/Server Applications with Visual FoxPro" ADO MSDN Library: ADO Jumpstart for Microsoft Visual FoxPro Developers John V. Petersen, April 1999 DNA (Distributed interNet Architecture): MSDN On-line: "Top Windows DNA Performance Mistakes and How to Prevent Them" msdn.microsoft.com/msdn-online/start/features/windnamistakes.asp MTS: Microsoft Transaction Server MSDN Library: "Microsoft Transaction Server for Visual FoxPro Developers" ODBC: MSDN Library: "Using Visual FoxPro to Access Remote Data" VS Installer: MSDN Library: a. "Using Visual Studio Installer for VFP 6.0 Applications" b. "VFP 6.0 and VS Installer Tutorial" Windows General www.winfiles.com XML - What's New in XML for Microsoft Windows 2000 msdn.microsoft.com/voices/xml.asp [Contributions solicited. DC] ====================================================================== OTHER STUFF ====================================================================== ELECTIONS ARE COMING Barbara Peisch reminds me that our annual election is scheduled for the November meeting. How about running for the Board of Directors, and throwing us rascals out? Projection of historic trends indicates that most of the lazy incompetents on the current Board are probably willing to continue, but why should you let them? Arise! You have nothing to lose but your free time! If you'd like to be famous too, call any board member. We'll file your application in a safe place! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL ME A NAYSAYER by "Rhank N. Phile" [submitted by Stephen Settimi] Call me a naysayer or just the Devils Advocate, but I'm not thoroughly convinced about the efficacy of using XML. In practice, XML is nothing more than a structured markup of data. It does nothing on it's own. "well formed" and you can view as is. To view it a certain way you will also need an XSL (extensible style sheet). To do anything with it you'll need to parse it first. There is a MS parser that works on IE. To do anything with the parsed data you need interpretive scripting or code. To allow I/O (data updates, modifications, verification) you need to bind the data objects and maintain persistence. To insure across the board validity of the XML between stations add a DTD (Document type definition). I'm thinking to myself. How does the new Microsoft .NET paradigm which relies extensively on XML improve on what is already being done today? Data files, like a DBF, Excel sheet, or flat files like CSVs or SDFs, and even the embedded structural files of a SQL server or Access, do nothing on their own; they present a markup of the data in some mix of text and binary code. To view it you need an interface that reads the markup and slots the data. To view it in style you need objects that can carry attributes like a grid or textboxes --the same way a browser applies styles to objects on the screen. And finally to do anything with it you need to bind the control, persist the data, and modify and validate it using code. So what's the premise or need for XML? To take a quote from an article in the MSDN Library by Charlie Heinemann Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation: "It's About Sharing. XML is not meant to replace proprietary formats; it is meant to provide access to data that is stored in a propriety format. Data should be stored locally in the fashion that makes the most sense within the confines of the situation. If it makes sense to store your data in an Access table, then that's where it should be stored. If it makes more sense for you to ship your data around locally in proprietary formats then that's how you should ship it. XML is not about what you do locally, it is about what you do globally. XML is a format that makes it possible for you to connect with the rest of the world, to those beyond your local machine or intranet. " The question then is, what is meant by global? Or, what is the domain in which you conduct business? If you just operate B2B, you're not really global. You're just extranet even though you're running on the internet or a WAN. You and your business partner will need to talk XML. What do you talk now... Greek? If it's B2C, you're not global when it comes to data. (What customer of yours do you want modifying your data anyway?) You still will process orders on the backend and display confirmation back to the client. Do you need XML for this? As long as everyone else uses a proprietary format... hey, wait a minute; are CSV,SDF, DBF, XLS proprietary formats when everyone uses them...hmmm. Is there a business need to deploy yet another format like XML/XSL and DOM (document object model)? Regardless of the method, the bottom line is that you still need scripts and code and still need some client GUI. It could be argued that the only company that needs to 'connect to the rest of the world', who's domain is truly global in a world as vast as this one, would be none other than Microsoft or other ubiquitous companies (thinking cables, telcoms, etc...). And wow!, What a concept! What better way to finance your Tower of Babble than to have the rest of us buy into the idea that there is such a thing as a single common language in the first place! [This is an interesting argument, but I think he's missing the point. The advantage of XML is not how it compares to other possible candidates, but lies in its status as a STANDARD. Standard, meaning that it has been discussed and an "a priori" consensus reached on its definition, so that there is some possibility that we're all talking about the same thing (don't often happen in this business!). The value lies in its status as a standard, not its efficiency. DC] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- THE TROUBLE WITH STARTUPS [from Ziff Davis "Smart Business", October 2000] "It's like when little kids play soccer, they all clump around the ball - I call it magnet ball. We had the same kind of mindset. It was always about the next big contract or the next big order and we had to be really flexible with our vision. But that was the big mistake. Your vision should be something that you can see only from a distance. Even your strategy should be a few years out. It's your tactics that need to change on a daily basis, otherwise you end up playing that magnet ball." Melanie Ripps, MBA candidate, on her experience at a dotcom startup. "Lots of people are saying that the Internet is changing everything. Forget the old rules. But the laws of physics are the same, the laws of economics are the same, the laws of finance are the same, and they will stay the same regardless of information technology. If we just abandon everything we know, then we won't have anything to build on." Haim Mendelson, professor of information systems and management at the Stanford Graduate School of Management. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ACCEPT CHECKS ONLINE!! [Unsolicited e-mail] Draft money from peoples checking accounts!! With Direct Checks software you can create a check right from your PC and instantly deposit the funds into your checking account the same day. NO WAITING, AND NO EXCUSES! ORDER NOW! Only $39.95 & 100 FREE checks! How it works... Direct Checks is a software program that installs to any Windows operating system 95/98. To process a check you just take your friends, clients, or relatives bank information and enter it into Direct Checks. Then you print the check out on your printer and take it to the bank, it's just that simple! ..... [How's this for a scary thought? Just think of all those new-minted entrepreneurs happily entering everybody's bank info into their new copy of Direct Checks. Makes your blood run cold... DC] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ALITUM Solutions Consulting Group is now Alitum, and have moved their office to 10509 Vista Sorrento Parkway. They remain the host for our Sorrento Mesa meetings. --------------------------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 dcovill@acm.org Board of Directors: Eric Lendvai - President 760-734-4929 eric@elsoftware.com Art Bergquist - Vice Pres 760-740-0428 abergquis@cs.com Claude Nikula - Secretary 619-615-6318 nikula@worldnet.att.net Barbara Peisch - Treasurer 760-729-9607 barbara@peisch.com Dan Covill - Director 858-272-2448 dcovill@acm.org Thad V'Soske - Director 619-544-9900 tvsoske@hanoverdirect.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------