What's your wish list for VFP 10.0? 4

[dbMark]

What's on your wish list for Visual FoxPro 10.0? I know there are some request and wish lists on other sites (universalthread is one I can think of), but we've gotten so many great features in versions 8 and 9, what else is left to add? Tell the world here!

I'll start with a real biggie that's probably on your minds too...

Port Visual FoxPro to 64-bits! With Windows XP 64-bit edition already released to manufacturing and a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 in the works, it's clear that true 64-bit native functionality will quickly become the standard. Running VFP in Compatibility mode is okay for backward compatibility for a few years, but for VFP to have a strong and viable future, it must keep pace with this new architecture. It was dealt a blow when Microsoft excluded it from Visual Studio .NET, but I feel the port will be a crucial milestone that must be met.

If you think porting 64-bit is not an issue, how many 16-bit programs do you have that aren't considered outdated? That's because we've had 32-bit operating systems for about 10 years now and anything less is virtually ignored and considered as "legacy" program languages. Yes, I know they usually still work but usually with each new version of Windows more quirks and incompatibilities arise. The biggest concern is they aren't considered up-to-date anymore. Looking 3 years into the future, how many program designs and proposals do you think would get approved and aplications sold if VFP were still a 32-bit program? So a 64-bit port is critical to our survival!

Yes, I know the Visual FoxPro team hasn't said yet what's in store for version 10.0, but I for one wouldn't mind at all if the only major change or addition was a 64-bit port. Rah, rah, sis, boom, bah... for 64-bit!

Awaiting anxiously, dbMark

 

[terosoft]

Well, besides 64-bit I have only two wishes.

The first is a very simple one, so simple -I think- that I don't understand why they never implemented it. Field controls on reports should include justified alignment for character fields. I have some customers who need documents with that alignment as mandatory and currently I solve it using Word documents an automation.

The second is probably utopic: a Linux -and maybe a Mac- port. If on the ol' days FoxPro had Unix and Mac ports, why they don't do it again? I know that VFP is quite integrated and dependant on Win and that Linux & Mac are the "enemy" for MS but still a port would be great.

Gerardo Czajkowski

 

[crewchiefpro6]

Definite vote for 64 bit, then the communication programs will work properly, we can sell more programs, and we will be good to go for another 10 years.

A far better report writer, similar to other packages would be very important also.

And a snazzy tag name also which could incorporate the Foxpro name but with a better additional name....

 

[rob444]

A native compiler would be great.

 

[alvechurchdata]

Intellisense to work inside With ... EndWith

Geoff Franklin

http://www.alvechurchdata.co.uk

 

[craigsboyd]

A far better report writer, similar to other packages would be very important also.

Have you worked with the report writer in VFP 9? It's amazing. I've done stuff with it and seen stuff done with it that still blows my mind. Between the reportlistener object and access to the gdigraphics handles I am hard pressed to think of another report writer that is it's equal for a developer.

There are a few bugs fixed and enhancements I would like to see in VFP 10. Most noteable are:

1. Image control picture file dimensions restriction of 9999 pixels in either direction. Either this restriction should go away or it should be well documented and a better error message for the developer

2. Image control speed for rendering TIFF files, is really slow and eats up a lot of resources

3. Multiple nested containers in a toolbar bug. If you nest a few containers and then put a control nested inside of that, and happen to have that control selected and close the toolbar (during design) the system blows up and closes

4. I second alvechurchdata's request for intellisense to work inside of With... Endwith

5. Automatic subclassing of all vfp base classes as an option when creating a new project. I have a vcx of these that I keep on hand that I copy and add to every project I make. This would be a nice little shortcut for those who don't use frameworks and such.

6. Make olecontrol containers respect the ZOrder that is set. As it is now ActiveX controls are always on top, so you can't draw or use any other VFP controls over the top of them.

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com

 

[craigber]

Native compiliation won't get you anything. It will only take away things like macro expansion.

Mac won't happen...and no way Linux is gonna happen. We're talking Microsoft here. BTW, Microsoft does not see Mac as the enemy. MS happens to be the biggest supplier of Mac software other than Apple.

You can wish for 64 bit all you want:

From

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/productinfo/faq/default.aspx:

Q: Are there plans for Visual FoxPro to support 64-bit versions of the Windows operating system?

A: No. While Visual FoxPro will remain 32-bit and not natively use 64-bit addressing, it will run in 32-bit compatibility mode. Visual Studio 2005 will support creating native 64-bit applications.

Geoff,

Have you even looked at VFP 9.0? Intellisense works inside WITH/ENDWITH.




Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

Author, CrysDev: A Developer's Guide to Integrating Crystal Reports"

 

[Mike Lewis]

Terosoft.

The second is probably utopic:

Utopic? New word for me. What does it mean?

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[Mike Lewis]

I'd be happy if they could just fix those pesky toolbars. Let us put a toolbar where we want it, and keep it there.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[Mike Gagnon]

Mike

Utopic? New word for me. What does it mean?

Most likely a couple of letters missing. Utopical (or Utopia). Ideal, pefect .


Mike Gagnon

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

 

[awaresoft]

My Top 20 wishlist, prioritized as follows:

1. A .NET version, giving us 64 bit support for "free" (despite whining to the contrary, I believe this could be done; hell, EVERY - and I mean every - other language known to man has been ported to .NET but VFP)

2. Support for menus and toolbars that support Office XP/2003 look and feel (gradients, etc)

3. Hook into pre-processor/compiler so we can write our own language/pre-processor extensions (the ultimate "builder")

4. Ability to customize keywords and parsing rules (regular expressions?) used for syntax highlighting; this info is currently hard coded to support the VFP language; I would like to be able to syntax highlight key expressions in my client side applications using customer specific keywords;

5. A format() command and/or format class (new FFC class?) that supports .NET style format rules for numeric, date, time and boolean values; basically this would replace VFP's weak transform() with a .NET compatible formatting function that would allow developers to use the same formatting expressions/syntax used in .NET;

6. Compilation mode that detects undeclared variables (vs. depending on runtime detection via _VFP.LanguageOptions = 1)

7. KeyPressUp, KeyPressDown events

8. The ability to cancel "cascading" (sic) events, ie. the ability to cancel a MouseUp and Click event within a MouseDown event; same principal for KeyPress events

9. Ability to declare and assign in a single statement, i.e. local lcMyString = "some value"; also extend this to declare and fill an array in a single line (alines() only works for pre-filling arrays with string values)

10. Ability to set default values for parameters in a functions header, i.e.:

function MyFunction( pnNumParm = 0, pcStrParm = "" )

11. Enums supported as part of class definitions

12. Minor enhancements to pageframe control:
- Vertical tab orientation with with horizontal tab labels
- Ability to color tabs with Themes enabled
- Different tab styles (square, curved, OneNote, VS Studio)

13. Minor enhancement to grid:
- Grid and header border color (defaults to black) property
- Ability to lock columns on left or right edge so that other columns can not be dragged past a "locked" edge

14. Minor enhancements to listbox/combo/dropdown:
- Set Alignment on a column by column basis

15. Have labels support captions > 255 chars (want a label vs. readonly editbox so we have an AutoSize property and "&" type hotkey support)

16. Built in support for binary structures for use with Declare DLL calls (I know we can get around this via Struct.Vcx class, but hey, this is a "wishlist", right

17. Ship with VS Studio 2005 icon sets (VFP's current set of icons are "old enough to vote")

18. Rewrite the _Crypto class with a simplified interface and documentation that allows it to be used reliably across different versions of Windows.

19. Cosmetic improvements to tooltip window - larger margin around text to match look and feel of Office 2003 tooltips.

And finally ...

20. A new product name - the term "FoxPro" positions the product as ancient vs. sexy new technology

Malcolm

OK, I lied, one more ...

21. Ability for visual classes to have a DESIGN TIME refresh event fired when control is resized or properties changed so that control can change its visual appearance at design time, ie. a container control might resize and reposition child controls when its size or fontsize changes at design time;

 

[alvechurchdata]

Have you even looked at VFP 9.0? Intellisense works inside WITH/ENDWITH.

I didn't do any heavy production coding with the Beta so I missed that. Everyday work is still stuck in VFP 6 and 8.

Geoff Franklin

http://www.alvechurchdata.co.uk

 

[mm0000]

My wish lish would include:

1. Overcoming the 2 GB table size limit

2. Table security

3. The ability to run queries on the server side and pass only results to the client.

 

[dbMark]

CraigBer

<sigh> Yes, I'd read the VFoxPro FAQ page. </sigh> Here's another Q/A there.

Q: What will be added to Visual FoxPro after version 9.0?

A: The Visual FoxPro team welcomes feedback on how we can improve our developer tools in the future. Details of how we enhance Visual FoxPro after version 9.0, how it will be distributed, what it will be called, and when updates will be released will not be disclosed until Q2 2005.

Who can say what they'll announce? If only Visual Studio were being written for 64-bit, then I'd agree that running in 32-bit campatibility mode was not an issue. But I can't imagine that Office, FrontPage and other significant Microsoft programs stay as 32-bit versions.

One common theme I've noticed is that whenever the limitations of VFP are mentioned, few that they are, Visual Basic and C# in Visual Studio are always listed as alternatives. While browsing around I downloaded their VFPToolkit DLL Class library of over 225 Visual FoxPro functions, available for C# or Visual Basic .NET versions. While the download files are from April 2002, 3 years ago, it can help a developer transition to or add proficiency in these other languages as needed.

 

[GriffMG]

Personnaly, I don't want VFP to fall into .net yet, I have a customer who won't allow .net on his network - I'd loose a corporate agreement overnight.

Mike,

I agree about the toolbars, mine are always changing - have to turn them on for report writer every time! grr..

Small price to pay for such a brill product though.



Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

 

[Mike Lewis]

Mike (Gagnon),

Most likely a couple of letters missing. Utopical (or Utopia). Ideal, pefect .

That would fit the context. Sounds like he meant utopian.

Geoff, Craig, Craig,

Have you even looked at VFP 9.0? Intellisense works inside WITH/ENDWITH

That's true, but it's not particularly convenient.


Malcom,

Hook into pre-processor/compiler so we can write our own language/pre-processor extensions

Like in Clipper, circa 1990?

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[awaresoft]

Mike,

> hook into pre-processor/compiler so we can write our own language/pre-processor extensions like in Clipper, circa 1990?

I never coded in Clipper and learned only enough to port Clipper apps to FoxPro and VFP. I did take a hard look at Computer Associates "Visual Objects" (next generation of Clipper?) but rightly feared CA's commitment to this product (which turned out to be dead right).

By hook into pre-processor/compiler, I mean the ability for VFP to optionally pass each line of source being compiled through an optional function which would examine the source and convert it to one or more lines of standard VFP source or pass it through verbatim to the VFP pre-processor/compiler.

Right now one could do this as part of a project hook that would pre-process all source. The drawback is that there's no way to trap the auto-compilation that takes place when one writes code in the form, class, menu, or report writer "snippet" editors.

Malcolm

 

[Mike Lewis]

Malcom,

By hook into pre-processor/compiler, I mean the ability for VFP to optionally pass each line of source being compiled through an optional function which would examine the source and convert it to one or more lines of standard VFP source or pass it through verbatim to the VFP pre-processor/compiler.

Sounds interesting. That's not quite the same as the Clipper approach, which was basically to let the programmer translate any command into any other command or function prior to compilation.

rightly feared CA's commitment to this product

Agreed. Although I think the reason CA never supported or enhanced it was because it was such an awful product, and was overwhelmingly rejected by the Clipper community.

(But the pre-processor I was referring to came in Clipper 5.0, which was a while before VO.)

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[fluteplr]

mm000

#3 on your list.


Its called SQL Server.

In fact pretty much everything on your list.

I love VFP as a front end, but for the last 5 years virtually all my non-trivial apps. have used SQL server as the backend data store.

Its a great combination.

 

[terosoft]

Utopic? New word for me. What does it mean?

Utopical, yes. My mistake, english isn't my native language and errors often appear. But I take utopical not exactly as ideal but as something extremely difficult or impossible to reach (as in the novel Utopia, by Sir Thomas More but without social and political topics )

Gerardo Czajkowski