What should fp 6.0 look like?

[Walter Vaughan]

Kenneth Brody wrote:

> I have a POP3 client written in filePro 6.0, if that helps.  ;-)

Smiley duly noted. However it does bring to mind what kind of features 
are needed for a filePro 6.0. Realistically, what else's needed?

One of the huge issues/problems with memos were the inability to print 
them on reports. Well that's been fixed in 5.0.14.

So. What's needed in a 5.1 or 6.0? I mean, what features that could be 
added to 5.0.14 that are currently not being met that would cause 
developers to purchase and encourage their customers to upgrade in 
significant percentages?

It's not like filePro is unstable. 99% of sites today could last fine 
until 2028 and the hardware gives out or the last of the developers give 
out and start pushing up daisies.

filePro's original power was it's ability to create applications 
rapidly. To remain "current" we've had to do a lot of low level stuff 
that should be done with a single filePro verb.

One of the things that keeps poping up on this list is import/export 
issues. A full suite of import and export tools. Working with Xbase 
files, Excel files, MDB tables, XML files. Not via OBDC, but as an 
external file. Keep It Simple, make it easy to use.

I know it sounds like heresy to think that anyone would want to export 
data from filePro to be used in an other application. Heck, not only 
have the animals gotten out of the fence, but they've paved over the 
corral, everyone's moved to the suburbs, and five guys in sunglasses are 
running around doing a complete makeover on a worn out brownstone where 
the gate once was.

I'd like a professional IDE. Not character based. We gotta kill the 
Tandy DT-100 mentality. Color coded with building block icons. Heck it 
could/should be web based written in JAVA. End users don't specify 
filePro. Developers build in filePro because we used to be able to 
deliver state of the art applications quickly. That racetrack now is a 
apartment complex with a 24 hour mall and a riverboat casino.
I should be able to drag an export icon to the processing table and it 
should ask me what I want, and tell me if I made a mistake, and show me 
an example of what my choices would look like. If I wasn't so lazy in 
the first place I'd of written apps in 1987 in assembly like I used to 
do on my Commodore 64.

Kill processing table line length limits.
Kill report width limits.
LOCKEDBY(file) array to return @id of lock-er

Well that's enough ranting.

--
Walter