Advantages of upgrading to VFP 7 from Fox 2.6 Win

[psparrow]

I have a program I wrote for a customer several years ago in Foxpro 2.6 windows. It has been working very well for them and is vital to their business.

My client would like me to rewrite the program in Visual FP 7 and I have presented her with a proposal. However, she needs to present the proposal to the powers that be in her company and she wants me to outline some advantages to upgrading. What would you tell her?

 

[dbMark]

FoxPro 2.6 was released approximately 10 years ago and was written primarily from the perspective of the DOS or hybrid DOS/Windows environment. That programming model is now outdated and growing increasingly difficult to maintain in today's networks, computer systems, intranets and internet. Just about every facet of its functionality has been enhanced in the 10 years since. As just one example, directories and file names are limited to the old DOS 8.3 format. The language written then could not anticipate future operating system enhancements and methodologies. A major issue is that it is virtually unaware of Windows printer installations, USB printers, etc.

By the way, VFP 8 SP1 is the current version and VFP version 9 will be released in a couple months with additional enhancements.

 

[rgbean]

First, make that it's VFP 8.0 or 9.0 (it'll probably be out in October) - there is no sense in starting with a ~4 year old product.

VFP is a product written for 32-bit OSs (e.g. XP), where FPW was written for a 16-bit OS (Win 3.x). FPW was last updated 10 years ago - back in the last century 1994. (The high-speed CPU patch for systems running faster than 166mHz wasn't an update to FoxPro, but to the linker's load code.)

Due to much improved developer tools, both new development and maintainance should be quicker. The many new capabilities can really make the application look and work like other current Win 32 applications. There is also much more support for working with COM servers, outside data sources (like SQL Server) and other new technologies.

A big advantage is of course that it's still supported (see

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;

[ln];LifeDevToolFam). VFP 9.0 till 2010 and 9.0 till probably 2013 or 2014!

There are many more specific advantages - a lot depend on what you application does and what it'll want to do in the future. VFP's limitations are few (especially VFP 9.0 now in beta).

Rick

 

[dbMark]

For additional reading, see thread182-792972.

 

[dbMark]

An important point that will not be lost on them is that while using the same hardware Visual FoxPro will be much faster than FoxPro 2.6, with the difference depending on what you're trying to do. Why not write a few routines with sizable loops and run them with both languages. There will be quite a speed difference. Likely, VFP run 2-3 times faster than FP, at a minimum.

 

[psparrow]

Thanks for your responses. You are all very eloquent.

 

[Mike Lewis]

psparrow,

Forget about the superior programming language and all the other technical features of Visual FoxPro. Your boss should concentrate on the business advantages.

Typically, these are:

- Lower maintenance costs (because VFP is object-oriented, it is much easier to maintain and enhace an application).

- Better performance (so lower hardware costs or better user productivity)

- More convenient for end users (because a VFP app integrates fully into the Windows environment, so users can more easily transfer information between applications, etc).

- Easier for users to learn (because the app will more closely resemble other modern Windows apps like Word and Excel [but only if you, the programmer, designs it that way]).

Good luck with this.

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

My Visual Foxpro web site:

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

My Crystal Reports web site:

http://www.ml-crystal.com

 

[OhioBill]

In addition to the items Mike listed, I would also add:

Data integrity can be maintained. Since VFP uses stored procedures, business rules for data validation and reasonableness can be implemented as part of the database.

Add Internet functionality, Email, etc.

Interface with MS Word, Excel, etc.

Although Mike mentions the learning curve for new software, VFP will make it possible to write the application so that it follows the windows software specs. I find that users will learn the new package much faster this way.

 

[jdhilljr]

Actually the Beta version for 9.0 is available now.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...7b-93b0-4cb7-b376-53ca04fca159&displaylang=en

You might check out some of the new bells and whistles.

Jim

 

[medic]

And don't forget that you won't have to maintain your Y2K compliance codes (for date type entries) in the latest versions of VFP.