Are There Any Valuable Changes in Pdox10 over Pdox9

[Bystander]

Hi Everyone,

This may sound a bit lazy of me, so I apologise now, but I would rather hear from your goodselves than a
salesperson.

Please could version 10 users advise if it is worth moving from Pdox9 to Pdox10. Is there any new functionality that would make it worthwile? My clients are happy with Pdox9 but it wouldn't hurt to upgrade if it would add value.

Kind regards

Bystander

 

[footpad]

Bystander,

Well, first off, there's no longer any separate packaging for Paradox 10; you can only obtain it by upgrading to WPO 2002/Pro.

Most of the major changes were internal. For example, Paradox 9 SP4 was never released separately; it was only provided as a replacement set of CD's that you had to obtain from Corel. (See

http://www.corel.com/support/wordperfect/sp4.htm

for details.)

This service pack fixed some printing problems, along with other issues. However, there have been reports that some folks have had problems obtaining the replacement CD's at this point.

(Here are the ones reported in the SP4 Release Notes; there were others:

-- Color dialog has been expanded to include system colors
-- Paradox now functions properly with High Contrast colors
-- Large high resolution JPEG images are now imported correctly
-- Microsoft Excel spreadsheets with more than 32 columns are now imported correctly
-- Attempting to repair a password-protected table without the correct password no longer corrupts the table
-- Publishing a report with a tableframe that contains no records to WPD, RTF or DOC no longer causes an error
-- Fixed several printing issues with HP printers
-- Truncate function now returns correct values)

In addition, Corel added a StringList file type, which is very handy for specifying hotkeys and menus; they can reduce a lot of time consuming code, especially in keyPhysical.

Finally, the most important change--for developers--is the inclusion of Paradox Runtime with the Professional Edition of WPO 2002. Since the upgrade for WPO 2002/Pro is less than the Paradox 9 Developer Edition, this means developers no longer have to buy a separate product to distribute their applications.

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

 

[Bystander]

Lance,

Many thanks. It looks to me like Corel have not done much to enhance Paradox since v7. Suddenly developers and their clients have to buy an office package in order to deliver a database.

I wish there was some way that forums like this could be consulted on these 'developments'.

Regards

Bystander

 

[footpad]

Bystander,

I understand, however, the best we can hope for is that either Corel knows about these forums and checks up on them (it's been known to happen) or that people involved with the beta process are active in the forums. that's been known to happen, too--and far more often than one might realize. (Naturally, those involved with beta programs are usually under NDA's; however, I know I've seen people in such programs offer ideas though them.)

In the mean time, the best we can hope for is that the community grows and thrives under its own power.

Speaking of which, I've just updated (and fixed) my own site's listing of Paradox resources (

http://techtricks.com/paradox/resources/),

which includes updating the lists of sites offering online forums and other support avenues. As always, feedback and additional information/ideas are appreciated.

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

 

[Bystander]

Dear Lance,

I haven't visited your site for a bit, but when I do it is always a very valuable experience. I sometimes think that if it were not for people like yourself and Mike Prestwood Paradox would be in very dire straits.

Many thanks

Bystander

 

[footpad]

Bystander,

Thanks for the kind words. I know I let the site languish for some time (I had good reasons, honest), but I've been putting in a lot of work over the past few weeks.

Also, I've managed to dig up a wealth of old material that I'll be reworking for current versions (and to avoid copyright problems).

I've also been retooling some of the posts I've made here, as there have been some interesting questions posed over the last couple of years and some of that should reach a broader audience. (For example, that changeValue code just got posted there.)

Also, don't forget the articles on

http://thedbcommunity.com

(which are written by many of the people that frequent the newsgroups). It's a terribly useful resource.

Hope this helps...

-- Lance