'Upgrading' from Access to VFP

[BTilson]

I'm a long time Access user, but I'm getting to the point of hitting walls and limitations in my development, and it's frustrating. I've been told that Visual FoxPro would be an excellent choice for me to move to, development wise.

What I'm looking for is input and opinions. How does VFP compare to Access, functionality wise and feature wise? What areas are better or worse than Access? Basically, I need to have a rock solid case to present to my manager if I want to convince him it's worth the money to switch from Access to a more advanced DBMS system.

Any and ALL input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Brooks Tilson
Database Development
Tilson Machine, Inc.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Hi Brooks,

it must be called Upgrading from Access to VFP, not 'Upgrading' from Access to VFP. That really is a step forward, not sideways or even back. So keep your hands down and dont 'quote' upgrading.

VFP compares to Access in being a file based database with integrated development language or vice versa. So the same easy backup of data.

What's better IMHO with VFP is, that you have multiple files with each database and even single tables split to several files for a) data, b) indexes and c) memos or blobs. Each of these files can grow up to 2GB, so databases may grow very large. In fact mostly one or two tables of a database grow faster than anything else and it's that table(s) limiting the overall size. Nevertheless much more than Access can handle.

You can also use VFP just as a frontend (GUI) and use another database as backend, eg. MS SQL Server, if you need more security or hit even that high quantity limit. Say you may handle about 10.000 to 100.000 records within an Access table, you can maintain millions of records within a VFP table.

A shared VFP database can handle more users, apropriate and various locking mechanisms are available. Say Access applications using an MDB database may work fine with 10-20 users, you can handle 100-200 with VFP.

Concerning the GUI possibilities, you have a finer event model in VFP than in Access, which enables you to do ingenious controls and forms.

The VFP language in it's basic structure and syntax differs less from VB compared to C, C++, C#.net.

You could call VFP the big brother of Access.

There are certain pitfalls for beginners, but you know where to come to, to post your problems and ask your questions.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[alvechurchdata]

it must be called Upgrading from Access to VFP

My fault Olaf. I saw the original post in an Access forum and suggested he post here about upgrading.

you have a finer event model in VFP than in Access

I develop in Access as well as in Fox and although Access has its strengths I do get very frustrated about the restricted choice of events. Not having a RightClick or MouseWheel event is a trivial matter until the client asks you for a shortcut menu when they right-click.

Geoff Franklin

http://www.alvechurchdata.co.uk

 

[pthalacker]

Hi Brooks,

Take a look here

http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~VFPvsAccess~VFP

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Hi Geoff,

Nah, don't feel foolish ;-).

Brooks may really use quotation marks wherever he want's.

I just wanted to point out the main statement of my posting at the beginning: That VFP really is a progress when coming from Access, no doubt.

Not having a RightClick or MouseWheel event is a trivial matter until the client asks you for a shortcut menu when they right-click.

True, isn't it? Customers don't make a difference between Access, VFP, C, .Net or other languages, it's all Windows applications to them, although there are different engines under the hood.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Brooks,

Bear in mind that we are all committeed VFP folk here, so don't expect the answers to be totally unbiased.

That said, I think the most important argument is that VFP is a professional development tool with a built-in database engine, whereas Access is an interactive database to which a programming language has been grafted on almost as an afterthought (early versions of Basic didn't have VBA).

More specifically, VFP is -

- a true Windows development tool, in that supports the full range of Windows events, so you can create a much richer user interface.

- able to create stand-alone EXEs, so you can distribute apps without giving users access to any source or design modules (but you do need to distribute large run time files)

- a true OOP system, with all the advantages of OOP in terms of easier maintenance and re-usability

- a good front-end in a client-server environment

- readily extensible by means of COM, DCOM and similar technoligies

- extremely fast; the database engine is reckoned to be the fastest anywhere

- great for interactive working, that is, executing ad hoc queries and other commands in the development environment

- has excellent debugging tools.

No doubt other folk will add to this list.

Mike




__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)

 

[Mike Lewis]

One more point (as you saw in thread1252-1120290), with VFP you only need to buy one licence per developer. There is no cost per end user.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)

 

[GrigoreDolghin]

Altough I'm a dedicated VFP developer (12 years experience), I had the opportunity to work in Access. Well... there is a thing in Access I would love to see in VFP: report writer. IMO Access is better here than VFP (however, VFP 9 changed this). Still, I'd love to see a "right-align text" option in VFP's Report Writer.

Grigore Dolghin
Class Software
Bucharest, Romania

 

[GrigoreDolghin]

Just to make sure I am coherent (my native language is not English): align text to right, enter text and field goes to left as needed.

Grigore Dolghin
Class Software
Bucharest, Romania

 

[Mike Lewis]

Grigore,

I take your point about VFP's report writer.

However, an important point about VFP is that integrates well with a huge variety of other components. Thus, many of us interface VFP with other reporting tools, and this works very well.

Nevertheless, you are right to mention the weaknesses in the native report designer.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)

 

[Mike Gagnon]

Grigore Dolghin

>>Just to make sure I am coherent (my native language is not English): align text to right, enter text and field goes to left as needed.

This is off the topic, but you can achieve any kind of justification (or alignement, or bolding a single word in a phrase, or changing font in the middle of a phrase) by sending RTF code to your report.


Mike Gagnon

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