====================================== FoxPro Developers Network of San Diego ====================================== FoxDev TipsLetter #05-02 May 9, 2005 Website: Editor: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS: * Calendar * From the Editor * Tech Tips: The Latest on VFP9 Microsoft AntiSpy Dan Covill * Other Stuff: The Committee to Look at Denny's Dan Covill How to Grow Thin Computers vs Autos Nick Nikula MS Builds a Google Killer Shallow Americanism R. Emerson * Knowledge Base Updates New/Updated KB articles on VFP * Links: Where Can I Find...? * Administrivia ====================================================================== CALENDAR: *** NOTE: OUR LOCATION IS CHANGING STARTING IN JUNE!!! *** At Sizzler: May 12 - Doug Hennig ---------------------------------------------- Main Topic - Mine for Code in XSource Visual FoxPro comes with source code for most of the "Xbase" tools that ship with the product, including the Class Browser, Code References, Toolbox, and Task Pane. Looking at source code written by top VFP gurus often gives insight into new, powerful coding techniques. This session looks at various files in XSource to show you cool ideas you can incorporate and even better, code you can directly use in your applications today. At Microsoft: June 9 - Developer Potporri ---------------------------------------------- A few of our members will be showing some cool things they've done. At Microsoft: July 14 - Burt Rosen ---------------------------------------------- Topic: TBA At Microsoft: August 11 - Rick Strahl ---------------------------------------------- Topic: The Making of Help Builder Help Builder is a rich and powerful Help and Documentation generation tool that was created using Visual FoxPro. Take a look behind the scenes at the technology that went into Help Builder to provide advanced functionality for a very rich desktop application. Find out how to utilize and integrate rich user interface controls that rely heavily on ActiveX control, how to use the Web Browser control effectively for displaying of content as well as editing HTML, see how to integrate Word into your applications both as an editor as well as an automation engine for generating output. We'll also talk about how Help Builder integrates with .NET by using COM Interop in both directions to access .NET functionality for .NET class documentation and by plugging into Visual Studio as an Add-in using .NET -> COM interop. This session provides a whirlwind tour of a host of advanced Visual FoxPro topics that are sure to spark ideas on what is possible with Visual FoxPro. At Microsoft: Sept 15 - Rick Schummer ---------------------------------------------- Topic: TBA At Microsoft: Oct 13 - Barbara Peisch ---------------------------------------------- Topic: Printing with the XFRX preview container The XFRX preview container has a lot of advantages over the native VFP preview screen. XFRX give you the ability to chaing multiple reports together, and these will appear as a single report in the previewer with continuous page numbering across the reports (if you want). The previewer also offers a search feature that the native VFP viewer doesn't have. However, printing from this previewer has its quirks. We'll cover the considerations for different printing options, including the use of the new print dialog included with version 10.2, as well as using your own print dialog. This session will get into the use of the windows API for controlling the printer and the use of the Devmode structure. All meetings start at 6:30 pm. Back room of Murphy Canyon Sizzler: 3755 Murphy Canyon Rd Take I-15 to the Aero Dr exit (South of Balboa) Head west to first light west of freeway Turn right Sizzler is on the right almost immediately PLEASE TRY TO COME EARLY ENOUGH TO ORDER YOUR DINNER BEFORE 6:30! We'll have our Q&A session while we eat. ====================================================================== FROM THE EDITOR ====================================================================== Changing Locations: Sizzler has indicated that they need a bigger group to justify giving us the meeting room. So we'll be moving, starting with the June meeting. We had two alternatives. Art Bergquist found a Denny's on Clairemont Mesa Blvd that would be happy to have us, and it also turns out that we are welcome to meet at Microsoft! We're going to start by trying Microsoft for the months of June thru October (or until we get kicked out, whichever happens first). Microsoft: 9255 Towne Centre Dr., Suite 400 San Diego, CA 92121 Directions: http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/info/usaoffices/southernca/sandiego.asp For more info on Denny's, see my article further on in this newsletter. This is a work in progress, if you have a preference let someone on the board know. Dan Covill dcovill@san.rr.com ====================================================================== TECH TIPS ====================================================================== THE LATEST ON VFP9 Get the latest information about Visual FoxPro 9.0 from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/letters/ This in Ken Levy's monthly newsletter and is well worth reading. [I went to run my VFP9 Beta the other day and it had expired. Guess it's time to actually buy one! DC] Worth noting in Ken's letter is that the April survey yielded 5600 responses, far more than any previous survey! Since it's their survey, they're going to decide when and whether to release the results, but Ken did mention two interesting ones: 1. SQL Server usage among VFP developers is at 56% which is up slightly since May 2002. 2. Visual Studio .NET usage among VFP developers is currently at 27%, up 50% from Oct 2003 and up over 2x since May 2002. Yes, .NET usage is up, but it ain't exactly a landslide! Dan Covill ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MS AntiSpy by Dan Covill You may be aware that Microsoft has entered the anti-spyware arena. They bought a program called Giant Anti-Spy, fit it more closely to Windows, and released a free Beta. After reading some favorable reviews, I decided to give that Beta a try. Spyware is a HUGE problem these days, the consensus seems to be that about 80% of all PCs are infected to at least some extent. Many of those PCs are effectively crippled by the accumulation of spyware. In terms of lost effectiveness, it's worse than viruses. I find it absolutely infuriating that some marketing slime has the gall to secretly install HIS program on MY machine, without asking my permission, then use my own CPU cycles to gather information about me he then sells to other marketing slime. These people are beneath contempt, but unfortunately they're making money, so they're going to be around for a while. I've been running anti-spyware regularly for at least two years now. I have both AdAware and SpyBot on my system, and I use them weekly. With the SpyBot "inoculation" feature, I haven't detected a new exploit in at least six months. So the question is, will MS AntiSpyWare find anything that AdAware and SpyBot have not? Here are my results, running Windows XP Professional, SP2: 1. Run AdAware SE 1.05. No threats detected Scan took about 2 minutes. 2. Run SpyBot Search & Destroy 1.2 2 tracking cookies detected and removed. Scan took about 2 minutes 3. Run MS AntiSpyware "Smart Scan" No problems detected Scan took 2 minutes 23 seconds 4. Allowed MS AntiSpyWare to schedule a "full scan" overnight. 1 spyware detected, which I removed The detected spyware was something called Spyware.loader, and it was hiding in \Program Files\Asus\Insthelp.dat. (I have an ASUS motherboard.) Two features of MS AntiSpyWare seem especially valuable (aside from the fact that it really finds things!). Like SpyBot, it has a prevention routine that examines proposed installations, particularly from websites (where most spyware comes from), and will either refuse to install them or warn you. Unlike the others, it is trivially easy to schedule a full scan at night. Mine runs daily at 2:00 am. The user interface is pretty good, except that it keeps whining because I turned off the auto-update. The Beta is free, but it is limited to July 15, 2005, at which time it will presumably turn into a pumpkin and you will have to buy the real one. In the meantime, you can't go wrong in giving it a try. Dan Covill dcovill@san.rr.com ====================================================================== OTHER STUFF ====================================================================== THE COMMITTEE TO LOOK AT DENNY'S by Dan Covill To: FPDN Board Members The Committee to Look at Denny's met on Wednesday, April 27th. Based on Art Bergquist's opinion that the location was on Clairemont Mesa Blvd near I-805, the committee proceeded to that junction and headed East. Arrived at I-15 without having seen anything looking like a Denny's. Voted unanimously to table the issue pending information on where the hell Denny's is. Internet research turned up a Denny's on Clairemont Mesa Blvd that sounded like the one Art was talking about. It's in the Clairemont Square shopping center, near the junction of Clairemont Mesa and Clairemont Drive. On May 3rd, the committee refueled the official vehicle and proceeded to that location. Interviewed one Ed Peralta, who turned out to be the Manager himself. The "Banquet Room" is at the rear of the dining room and up a ramp. It is completely closed off from the rest of the building (good), and holds about 8 four-person tables. I judge it to be a little larger than the one at Sizzler's, but a more convenient shape. Mr Peralta said he would assign a waitress to us, so that we would simply go to the room and sit down, and order from the regular menu there. (Unfortunately, he didn't offer to provide us with our own chef!) After serving, they will set up and leave a coffee urn for us. Wednesday evenings are taken, but Thursday's are currently available. I explained our scheduling method, and said we would contact him to reserve at least 30 days in advance. Unfortunately, I forgot to check for electrical outlets, but there are obviously some at the front of the room. Plus: Room is better and more private than present one. Serving arrangement seems better than present one. Manager seemed cooperative and willing to work with us. Minus: Location isn't real near any freeway exit. It's about 3 miles and several lights West of 805, or up Balboa from I-5 and North on Clairemont
drive, still about 3 miles. It's still Denny's. The committee voted unanimously to dissolve itself and turn all unexpended funds over to the chairman. The Committee to Look at Denny's Dan Covill, Chairman and Executive Director *--------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW TO GROW THIN [Got this in my e-mail the other day. !! DC] Fatblast is a foremost grease - binding addendum that withdraw corpulence from the foods you have! It assistances you grow thin taking a entirely another axiom than the vast majority of diet drugs on the market. Our tabs will not make you sense jittery, our pills does not include any influences. Our product includes simply real components and is quite drug free. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Computers vs Autos submitted by Nick Nikula At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon." In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics: 1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day. 2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car. 3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this. 4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine. 5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads. 6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light. 7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying. 8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna. 9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MS Builds a "Google Killer" The Register ran a review of Microsoft's new search engine that is supposed to put Google in the shade. An excerpt: "In short, Microsoft has produced a search engine that's better in almost every way than Google, except for one: its search results are terrible. ..... "Equally, computer networks will continue to frustrate everyone except the kind of people who design computer networks. After so long smelling only your own shit, the whole world starts to smell tangy and brown, and both Microsoft and Google allowed themselves to indulge in this whimsy yesterday. "On Google's PR blog, we learned that Google's index had doubled overnight to 8 billion pages. (Where had they been keeping the new 4 billion pages all this time, you might well ask.)" [The great thing about being a pessimist is that you're usually right! And in the rare instances where you're wrong, you get a pleasant surprise! DC] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Shallow Americanism R. W. Emerson I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship. Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist ====================================================================== VFP KNOWLEDGE BASE UPDATES ====================================================================== (None received since October.) How To Look Up These Articles: To get to a specific KB article: a. Go to support.microsoft.com. b. Click on "Knowledge Base Article ID Number Search" c. Enter the document number in the page that appears. d. Click on the green arrow. To Subscribe: Subscribe at . You can specify any MS product to receive alerts on. ====================================================================== LINKS ====================================================================== This is 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: There's a ton of stuff here, look at the MSDN Magazine. Heavy on .NET, you'll have to dig to find the VFP stuff. ADO VFP and ADO - Part 1 of 2 FoxPro 2.6 procedure library: http://members.aol.com/FoxProResources/fpfp.htm ODBC: MSDN Library: "Using Visual FoxPro to Access Remote Data" ODBC drivers are part of MDAC - Microsoft Data Access Components - and are available for download at: "www.microsoft.com/data" VFP Publications: www.advisor.com FoxPro Advisor www.pinpub.com FoxTalk magazine www.hentzenwerke.com Hentzen Publishing (Books, discussion, and downloads) VFP Run-Times: FTP library with complete VFP run-times from 3 thru 8. VFP General: msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro Microsoft's official VFP home page www.foxcentral.net Joint effort by Microsoft, West-Wind, and the Universal Thread Lots of news and development info. The History of FoxPro (submitted by Steve Settimi) www.foxprohistory.org The Universal Thread http://www.universalthread.com The "Wiki" fox.wikis.com fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~FoxForumWiki fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~VisualFoxProLinks Here's another extensive set of FoxPro links: http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_visual_foxpro.html Private websites with useful free info and downloads: www.prolib.de/foxlinks.afp wOOdy Wondzinski www.gatwicksoftware.com Allen Pollard www.ukfug.org.uk British user group www.lafox.org LA user group www.pinter.com/ Les Pinter www.vfug.org/ Virtual Fox User Group www.leafe.com Ed Leafe, ProFox listserve www.jamesbooth.com white papers and tutorials www.foxforum.com www.foxite.com (registration required) A group of Dutch developers - refreshingly geeky. (Don't be put off by the registration - they're not selling anything.) www.stevenblack.com INTL Toolkit and lots more www.craigberntson.com the Crystal Reports guru WEB Development: These products all work well with VFP. AFP www.afpweb.com and www.afpages.com DotFox www.elsoftware.com FoxWeb www.foxweb.com Web Connection www.west-wind.com X-WORKS www.x-works.com Windows General Win32 API (with VFP examples) [Contributions solicited. DC] --------------------------Administrivia------------------------------- This newsletter is a service to all FoxPro developers, provided without charge by the FoxPro Developers Network of San Diego (FPDN). Anyone may subscribe (or unsubscribe) at our web site . The link is on the home page. The Resources button on the website will take you to the back issues of the newsletter. The editor (Dan Covill) is solely responsible for the content. E-mail him with YOUR tips, comments, or complaints. Editor: Dan Covill 858-272-2448 dcovill@san.rr.com Board of Directors: Eric Lendvai - President 760-734-4929 eric@elsoftware.com Art Bergquist - Vice Pres 760-740-0428 abergquist@sbcglobal.net Barbara Peisch - Treasurer 760-729-9607 barbara@peisch.com Claude Nikula - Secretary 619-615-6318 crndev@verizon.net Dan Covill - Director 858-272-2448 dcovill@san.rr.com Pete Rios - Director prios@eltoroexport.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------