Development Time

[edioguardi]

Hi all,
I've been working with a programmer that my company hired to build an attendance program in FoxPro 2.6 before I started working there. I personally am most familiar with MS Access and I know FoxPro is quite different. Thing is I've been working with this guy since September and he still hasn't got the program finished yet (he had been working with others in the department since 1999 but recieved little feedback untill I came in). To me the program is not very impressive, and it's like pulling teeth to get him to make changes-such as: View and then print a report (This took about a month). Is the development time for FoxPro really that slow- or is there something else going on?

Any input or opinions would be appreciated

Thanks,
E.D.

 

[ramani]

While programming in FoxPro is easy and is hard !!!!, you have given some of he answers yourself.

For a person knowing how to write in FoxPro and knowing what to write, the job is simple. Only the volume tells the time for development, but definetely, the course of development will be clear and some output can be seen clearly as it progresses (work in prohrss).

Obviously, the feed back is lacking, may be the follow up is lacking, may be what to check and where to look for is all in oblivion. You are the best judge !

If you know access, learning FoxPro will not be that dificult, and given the time frame you are talking (since September Last), you must be a near master now !

If you did not get the right travk, now is the time.. dont delay, dont depend on wood heads... take the charge and make your own progress.. fast fast.. and you are soon going to get into the core soon.

By the way, if you are thinking of developing yourself, Think of developing in VFP, as you will not be left out then! That shall be the key NOW.
Best of luck
ramani :-9
(Subramanian.G)
FoxAcc
ramani_g@yahoo.com

 

[edioguardi]

If only I had access (and was being to paid ) to work in the FoxPro environment for this program! I'm new to the Company so they don't like it when I make software requests just yet- (I'm in HR)

I have never taken any programing courses, but I've been working quite a bit in Access. I don't mean to offend anyone with my ignorance, but almost two years for an attendance program (tracks incidents, creates Disciplinaries, and a few other reports) for a single user, with less than 300 employees to track ...?

Not knowing the environment is one of the reasons I'm questioning myself on wether or not this programmer has been a bad investment. I'm pretty positive it wouldn't take some one whose programmed with Access 2000 before this long to accomplish the same.

By little feedback (in the first post) I mean no one in the department had time to constantly follow-up, he had all the framework information he needed and there were several conversations/meetings.

I don't want to jump to conclusions. If anyone wants to help me with this but needs more specifics on the events e-mail me: dioguard@hotmail.com

BTW: he gets to finish the job either way.

Thank You

 

[rgbean]

Since it's been 7 years since the last update to FPW 2.6 (and it was released a couple years before then), you should figure out that this isn't a "state-of-the-art" development environment. If you want to do some comparisons, try it against Visual Basic 3.0 or Access 1.0.

The real question is why hasn't the company / programmer upgraded to VFP 6.0? While VFP isn't as "easy" as Access 2000 to learn, it can be a much more powerful tool in the hands of a professional programmer.

Rick

 

[edioguardi]

His response- he can't upgrade, or can't yet - I'm not sure why, but it's been brought up. As far as my company's lack of involvement, my old managers hired the man, one of which I had to show how to forward E-mail (from Outlook) 3 times in a single day. Trying to explain this to them was more frustrating than testing & dealing with the program. If you meant the Company he works for- I believe that's basically just him.

As far as an upgrade is concerned, what would be involved?
Is it something I could do, or would we need to outsource, would we have to have him do this. If you happen to know an estimated cost of and update, that would be appreciated too.

Thanks alot!

 

[infinitelo]

CATCH 22 are we asking the programmer to make the program look like a windows application. A lot of things that we take for granted in cut and past application environments like acess, visual foxpro, and vbasic are just not included in an older language like foxpro2.6 (if he had to build the report preview from scratch it would take a long time). The major problem a foxpro 2.6 programmer faces is how to make the screen look. that may be your programmer's wall. The catch is the programmer may not be confortable switching to what he percieved as a whole new language.

suggestion: Create the user interface in acess useing foxpro 2.6 dbfs instead of mdbs and let him see what you are looking for. (this will really intemidate the programmer but he may at least see what you want the application to do). He may even keep your interface if everyone that has to use the interface has access.

foxpro can make stand alone applications that can be freely distributed. can acess do that?

 

[edioguardi]

I will admit that I would hae been more impressed with a more windows oriented program. Shortly after I began working with him he explained simply that the program he was building this in couldn't create the appearance I was looking for. It was hard- but I accepted that!

The attendance program is an add-on to our scheduling program which he had built for us in the past. The Attendance History report itself didn't take him a month to create (he was shortening it from 26 pages to 1 page per employee), it took that long just to get him to understand the rationale for it. Surpisingly even after I did what you suggested he had a hard time understanding the need - but it gave him enough motivation to start working on it.

As an answer to you question- As I understand it Yes Access can do that as well, but you need to have the Developer version.

Elizabeth

 

[fluteplr]

Just to summarize.

1. You do not seem to have a platform problem, you have a programmer problem.

2. You are programming a new application in a product that has been obsolete for around 6 years.

Suggestions.

1. Get a new programmer. If not possible, consider getting new job .
2. Do this in VFP.

 

[zimbaliza]

Darn, must be me or something, or i have been
programming in Fox too long, but nothing takes me
very long at all, have been programming in fox for
6 1/2 years, mostly maintaince, and a few new
projects.... and have a HUGE code base!

It did take a bit to get used to fox's screen sets
and report writer, (I started off writting raw code doing
screens)..... (from programming in clipper)....

Creating user/friendly, nice screens is more upto the programmer, we have one here... that is a master of the pink screen, (totally unfriendly user interface YUCK)... yet his code underneath is good....

is more of an art... takes time! to learn to think
like a user!!

anyway!

is my 2 cents

Zim