Has anybody noticed the significance ... ?.

[Mike Lewis]

Has anybody noticed the significance of the date: July 2015?

It is exactly 20 years since Visual FoxPro was released. That's right. VFP 3.0 (the first version of Visual FoxPro) come out in July 1995 - just a few weeks before Windows 95.

How many of us were around at the time?

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[GriffMG]

Yo VFP

I didn't really touch VFP before 5.0, I did inherit a version 3 app to look after - that was
horrible.

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are not good for you. ​

 

[Dan Olsson]

In the early 90:s I developed an entire mini business system in FPW 2.6, with parts starting as FPD apps.
I think the first versions where FPD 2.0. I did not really touch VFP 3.0 although the nice touch that it was crossplatform. (As I recall that did not work very well though.) Starting with VFP 5, I ported the system to VFP and it is still used in some 40 offices around Sweden. Not many IT-systems live 20 years plus

 

[JackTheC]

I started in 1987, the DOS days, with Ashton Tate's dBase III+. Since 1989 I was programming in FoxBase 1.0 (1.2?) later 2.0 and in 1997 I started programming in VFP3.0b. For many years that was my main programming language until the 768 MB memory limit forced me to VFP 6.0. Although I have also VFP 9.0 installed I still do most of my home-programming with version 6.0.

 

[TamarGranor]

Me, me, me. <g> Started with FoxBase+ 2.0 in 1988. Was a beta tester for the first time on FP2.0.

Tamar

 

[vfp9guy]

I was a beta test site for Wayne Ratliff (Ashton-Tate) in early 1981 for the original dBaseII shortly after it was renamed from Vulcan (complete with its 7 .OVR files) running on CP/M and Turbodos.
I designed and released 2 distributed systems in Canada to > 150 users using dBASEII.
(I folded my company after one of my distributors pirated and resold my programs.)

I then took a 5 year contract developing in Clipper.

In 1997 I joined a software company here in Canada and learned FoxPro.
Have been a FoxPro / VFP developer ever since.

Unfortunately (thanx to MS), we have been forced to redesign over the last 3 years using .NET (C++ / SQL / Crystal).
If I could, I would stay permanently with VFP ... awesome system, flexibility and performance...
We have > 2,500 installations of our Law Office management package, with some sites of > 115 concurrent users.

Roy

 

[Dan Freeman]

I've been in it since the FoxBase+ era, too. (And dBaseIII+ before it.)

After a number of phoned in (!) bug reports in FPD 1.x it was suggested 1) we should join CompuServe and 2) we should fill out a beta application and I was on every beta after that.

When VFP3 was still in beta I did several public presentations of it (with permission, of course). One was a VFP "Bootcamp" for Boston Computer Society. Another was an "Intro to OOP" at the Mid-Atlantic regional user groups conference.

Several years later I did a presentation of Visual J++ (Microsoft's short-lived Java platform) at the University of Illinois. The response lacked the excitement that was always typical of presenting a new Fox product. (But at least MS armed me with free t-shirts, which makes ANY presentation to college students go better!)

I've been in the community for a while. And I'm not going anywhere.

 

[vgulielmus]

I had short contacts with FPD 1 and 2, FPW and dBase (including the CP/M version), but have worked only with the latest versions of VFP, for the past 12 years.

FPW was used by someone to create a small piece of software for my parish, and I made some updates.

In 1991, FPD 1 / 2 was my main programming language.

For fun, I saw various versions of dBase and VFP 3 or 5, but wasn't anything serious.

Respectfully,
Vilhelm-Ion Praisach
Resita, Romania

 

[Mike Lewis]

This is all good reading. I hadn't intended this thread to be a biographical showcase, but it's interesting that it is.

I was going to say that I can beat you all in the longevity department. I claim to be the first person in the UK to develop an application in dBASE II. (At least, I've been saying that for the last 30-odd years, and nobody has ever contradicted me.)

I happened to be visiting the offices of a computer dealer in London. This was around 1980 or '81. A package arrived containing two large grey manuals and a set of 8-inch floppy disks. It was a sample of dBASE II. The dealer didn't know what to make of it, so he handed it to me to have a look at. A few days later, I landed a job to develop some software for an apple marketing group (the fruit, not the computer). They had a top-of-the-range dual-floppy 64 KB Xerox computer running under CP/M. I decided to try this dBASE II stuff for the job. It was very successful, except that it was slow. I advised the client that the best way to speed it up would be to install a 10 MB hard drive, but their budget didn't run to such a big expense. Still, dBASE II turned out to be way ahead of anything else that was around at the time.

However, I have to admit that this claim isn't as impressive as that of VFP9Guy (see above). To be a beta test for Wayne Ratfliff - now that really is impressive.

Mike



__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[GriffMG]

Mike, I hereby contradict you (or at least I'm close)

I developed a drawing office library system in dBaseII in (oh crikey) about 1980 too!

A chap called Evan 'accidently' left a guide to programming in dBaseII on my drawing board
one Christmas... it was almost a novel by a guy writing an alumni system to get money for
his college, it explained all about files and indexes and I was hooked.

I got to work on an HP touchscreen thing with floppy disks and a weird scsi implementation
called an HP-IB... crazy stuff!

When I got good at it, I got an interview at Ashton Tate (in Surrey I think, maybe Reading)
and finally went to ICL to work on their DRS thing... multiuser CPM stuff

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are not good for you. ​

 

[SebastianK]

Well... I'm working with FoxPro since April 2015, soooooo.... I think I'm quite late to the party! But nevertheless I'm looking forward to learn something new every day!

While we are on it: Thank you all for your help in this forum! It's good to see that so many experienced programmer and developer are still around to help each other out!

Cheers!

- Sebastian

 

[Mike Lewis]

Sebastian, welcome to the forum, and to the world of Foxpro. As you will see from this thread, some of us have been around a long time, but it is always good to see newcomers. Feel free to ask for whatever help you need.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[Mike Gagnon]

I started with FoxPro 2.0 in 1986.

Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

I am actually also doing development since the 80s, but only came to databases and foxpro in 1999 with VFP6. I did some 6502 assembler, BASIC on C-64 and C, C++, 68000 Assembler on Atari ST and then DOS plus Borland C++ on Win 3.11 and 95, also the web stack of html/css/javascript, ASP and PHP/MySQL before coming to VFP. So I've come a long way, too, but a totally diffferent route.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[SebastianK]

And, Olaf, you are quite everywhere. I think I've found almost all FoxPro-Forums over the Net an you are everywhere! (not that I'm stalking you ;-) ). Keep up the good work and help for the others! It is much appreciated!

 

[DSummZZZ]

I'll go ahead and throw my 2 cents in too.
I started using dBaseII while attending college, but dBaseIII+ was just out, so we were actually learning and using both. After school I got a job using Clipper (WOOHOO!!! Compile and distribute an executable!!!). A different job developing with Foxbase 1 and 2, on to FoxPro Windows, then every version since with the exception of VFP8. We went from 7 to 9.


-Dave Summers-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.dave-summers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[dbMark]

I was in NYC when the office was trying out Peachtree, not flexible enough. So I developed a custom accounting system to meet requirements. I started with dBase II but it could only handle 2 tables at a time. Developed in dBase III which was immediately replaced by III+. Since early dBase didn't compile, we did some work with QuickSilver, then FP.

That was all part time work until new job in 1998 where we used mostly FP2.6 and a little FPW, a hybrid DOS/Windows attempt. I was Mr Y2K Fixer so I made it a nonevent, the world didn't end then. They decided to switch to VB6 (soon replaced by .NET) but used VFP 6 to import FP table data into SQL databases.

Job change. For legacy apps used dBase 5 for DOS until our switchover out of Windows XP. Newer apps were written in VFP 6-9 as each new release came out. However, even with VFP flat tables the fileserver is impacted by the traffic and larger files have been transitioned to SQL database. Our other divisions use Java, our destination in the next year, give or take.

 

[Koen Piller]

Hi,
This old man started with dBaseIII+ jumped to dBaseIV and quickly adopted FoxPro2.6 Then to VFP3 (a nasty thing) to VFP5, jumped from VFP7 to VFP9.
I rest and have decided not to go for VFP10.

Jockey(2)

 

[newtofoxpro]

Are you talking about Chen's VFP10, or something else.

 

[NasibKalsi]

Remind me of the old exciting days, when foxpro was claiming to be the faster executer than dBase and convinced my manager to go for it. It is a crazy glue, still stuck to the fingers.