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If you think porting 64-bit is not an issue, how many 16-bit programs do you have that aren't considered outdated?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

 

[craigsboyd]

The Fox Wikis has a pretty good list going for this...

http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~VFPVersion10WishList

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com

 

[Mike Lewis]

Gerardo,

But I take utopical not exactly as ideal but as somthing extremely difficult or impossible to reach

It's a nice-sounding word. It doesn't exist in English, but maybe it should. I think the word you were looking for was "utopian". A utopia is an imaginery state or place in which everything exists in perfect harmony. As you rightly said, it's derived from the Sir Thomas More novel.

Mike



__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[wgcs]

Brainstorming like this is great, but tek-tips threads don't stay very visible for long, and as it gets longer-and-longer, this gets more unwieldy to discuss so many different suggestions.

If you've made a suggestion above (or many suggestions) I'd recommend make sure your suggestion is listed on the UT's Wish List here:

http://www.universalthread.com/wconnect/wc.dll?LevelExtreme~4,1,1

You don't need to be a UT member to view the list, but you do have to join (free membership is enough) to post wishes.
You can easily search (using the $ operator! or =,etc), and each wish is dated, can be updated, and can be rated by each UT member as-to importance. Best of all, Microsoft reads this wish list![/u]

Or as Craig mentioned above, at least make sure your wish is on the Fox wiki list:

http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~VFPVersion10WishList

That list, too, is becoming more difficult to manage as it gets longer.

( btw: I could swear I've read Utopic somewhere else... it didn't seem odd to me at first... and I'm sure Utopian is what is intended)

- Bill

Get the best answers to your questions -- See FAQ481-4875.

 

[craigber]

Mike: I agree..toolbars need to stay put.

64 bit won't happen. Period. Drop the request and move on to something else that has a chance.

Files bigger than 2 Gig. That won't happen either. See above.

Office XP/2003 is absoutely non-standard against Windows UI guidelines. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be in there. If it is, it must be optional.

You can hook into the build process now with a project hook.

Default parameters: E

http://wwww..

Ick. Please, no.

Enums: Yes!!! Absolutely needed.

Structs: Yes!!! Absoluetely needed. At the same time, the ability to handle pointers to strings.

Updated icons: Yes!!! In fact, they should make them available now via a download.

New product name? That will do nothing except make people say, "Oh yeah, that used to be FoxPro." It will do absolutely nothing to help the product. Rememeber Borland?..no wait, it's Imprise...no, it's Borland again.

Queries on server side: That was the long ago promised Fox server. It just won't happen. Use the C/S product of your choice.

Intellisense inside WITH/ENDWITH: It may not be convenient in it's current incarnation, but I have a feeling it won't change.

Clipper: CA never supported or enhanced it because that's the way CA's business model was setup back then. Buy a product, get as much out of it that we can without enhancing/supporting, then kill it.



Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

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

 

[Stella740pl]

MikeLewis,

Even though 'Utopian' is more, so to say, standard and wide-spread, it seems, 'Utopical' is also a recognized word; and even 'Utopic', too, in some sources.

See here:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Utopical

http://onlinedictionary.datasegment.com/word/utopical

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Utopical

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Utopic

(Though, probably, they all are American sources.)

 

[awaresoft]

Craig,

Curious about your reservations concerning default parameter vaues, re: "default parameters: E

http://wwww..

Ick. Please, no."

Malcolm

 

[Mike Lewis]

Stella,

Thanks for those definitions. They are certainly all new to me.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[craigber]

Default Parameters were designed to supposedly make it easier to pass parameters (read: for lazy programmers). I've found it much more difficult to use them that to just pass the parameters the way they should be.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

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

 

[awaresoft]

Craig,

LOL! Thanks for your perspective, re: lazy programmers. I understand where you're coming from, but respectfully disagree as long as this feature isn't abused.

Perhaps one of us (probably me) has default parms confused with the way Office VBA uses named parms? By default parms I mean the ability for a parameter to default to a specific value if a value isn't supplied by the calling function.

Regards,
Malcolm

 

[Mike Lewis]

Malcom,

By default parms I mean the ability for a parameter to default to a specific value if a value isn't supplied by the calling function.

That's what I understood you to mean. Like in SQL Server stored procedures. Sounds like a good idea.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[craigsboyd]

craigber,

You bring up some really good points and insight on different ideas brought up in this thread. - Thank you.

By default parms I mean the ability for a parameter to default to a specific value if a value isn't supplied by the calling function.

Sure would save us from typing a lot of code that looks like this:

IF PCOUNT() = 0
tnParam = 3
ENDIF

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com

 

[robsuttonjr]

If I could ask for anything it would be to know Microsoft's plans for FoxPro over the next 20 years. How many more releases planned? What are their projections and statistics telling upper management? (...2, 5, 7 more years of new releases?) Rather than wake up one morning and read a thread indicating that Mircrosoft has decided to stop releasing new versions because FoxPro questionaire statistics indicate that FoxPro developers are now using .Net and FoxPro. I am tired of asking the question or hearing it about FoxPro's demise. I know this will not happen but its what I 'wish' for. As far as changes I still feel I can accomplish what I need with FoxPro 6. Perhaps I am just too simplified to be amongst those who eat up every new feature or enhancement. Give me a cursor, a grid, some controls, and sql passthrough to SQL server or give me death!

Forums rule, pass it on!!!

Rob

 

[awaresoft]

Craig,

> You can hook into the build process now with a project hook.

I'm looking for a more intimate type of hook, a hook that occurs when VFP compiles any block of code. This type of hook is required so my code can pre-process code placed in form, class, menu, and report designer snippets. By default, VFP auto-compiles snippet code. There is no way to disable this behavior for snippets - only for standard PRG editor window based code.

I started another thread in this forum asking for ideas on how one can disable (or hook) the autocompliation of designer code snippets. I've gotten some good workarounds (thanks Mike Lewis!), but no way to seamlessly hook the compilation process so I can pre-process source before it hits the VFP pre-processor/compiler.

Any suggestions?

Malcolm

 

[craigber]

Rob:

A nice wish, but that won't happen either. Microsoft can't predict what will happen next year, let alone for the next 20.

Malcom:

I don't have any solutions for you.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

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

 

[keepingbusy]

Just one "wish" from me, being able to copy and paste from a word or pdf document onto an FRX. Sound strange? Not really because when your dealing with complex forms that are aleady designed in word or PDF it would be great just to be able to "Select all" from the document, copy and paste the format onto an FRX, then add the fields over the top on the FRX after.

Lee

Visual FoxPro Versions: 6 & 9
Operating System: Windows XP

http://www.customsoftware.co.uk

 

[Mike Lewis]

Rob,

If I could ask for anything it would be to know Microsoft's plans for FoxPro over the next 20 years.

I sympathise with this, but it is not realistic. No business can commit itself to any particular product or service over such a long time scale.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[Neil Toulouse]

I think if it made the tea and strategically ordered pizza that would be great

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...

 

[kosta]

Also at VFP10 should have picture support on on pageframe pages

Soykan OEZCELIK

 

[Mike Lewis]

Kosta,

Also at VFP10 should have picture support on on pageframe pages

If you mean on the tabs, I'd agree with that. It already lets you do a picture for the page.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[dbMark]

Microsoft Visual FoxPro FAQ about that pesky 2 GB limit:

Besides being able to use SQL Server 2000 with Visual FoxPro 9.0, an additional option is upcoming with SQL Server 2005 Express which extends the 2 GB limit of MSDE to 4 GB total.

Yes, I agree it sure sounds like Microsoft has decided not to port VFP to 64-bit. Can someone explain to me why that won't make it quite a bit more difficult for us to get projects approved for VFP a few years down the road?

Hmm, one of their best known applications written in FoxPro or Visual FoxPro is JFAST the US miliary has for Joint Flow and Analysis System for Transportation. Sure wish they wouldn't want to disappoint big customers like that!