OT: Filemaker 8

[Laura Brody]

On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 19:31:09 -0700, Tyler <tyler.style at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 2/6/06, Laura Brody <laura at hvcomputer.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 12:20:36 -0700, Tyler <tyler.style at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>> When people talk about ODBC and a database, it's usually as the
>> > database acting as a server.  And filePro is *primarily* a database,
>> with a
>> > customizable app development available.  I'm not aware of any cases
>> except
>> > fP and text files where an ODBC connector is available and you can't
>> > read/write to the source.  If it can communicate one way, why not two?
>>
>>         Because, from a programming standpoint, it is compairing apples
>> and oranges. fP Tech would love to announce that they have ODBC server
>> written, tested and ready for shipping tomorrow -- but it ain't gonna
>> happen.... It is a big, hairy project, and I don't know when it
>> will be added to the programmer's "to do" list. I know that I would
>> rather be working on allowing larger screens in filePro than server
>> side ODBC (and I know for a fact that there are a bunch of C source
>> files which assume an 80 x 24 screen -- my code has some variables
>> like MAX_WIDTH 80, etc. but there is a hell of a lot of code which
>> doesn't). At least the screen size project is something that is
>> just alot of work vs "how do we glue these very different databases
>> together?".
>
>
> I can't really say what the project scope would be like, I must admit.
> However, write access is already there in fpCGI, which makes me wonder about why it isn't in fpODBC.

	It is in there. End of discussion. Consider yourself corrected.

>> What it looks like from a developer's view is total lock-in to fP-only
>> > applications for writing to records.  Personally I think it is either a
>> > nasty marketing tactic or lazy programming, but admittedly I know very
>> > little about filePro under the hood or corporately.
>>
>>         No marketing tactic. And I have to (virtually) take you
>> out behind the woodshed for a sound thrashing for the "lazy
>> programming" remark. Ken wrote the ODBC code. I've seen his
>> code (and torture-tested it for 8 years). He may be a lazy
>> husband at times, but never a lazy programmer. Once he begins
>> a project, it will be designed and coded with excellence.
>> Adding some enhancements to filePro is like trying to baptise
>> a cat. It can be done, but the programmers are going to have
>> to work for it. Nothing was easy with the client-side ODBC
>> addition. It was a fight every single step of the way.
>
>
> Thrash away.  I did preface my comment with the fact that I don't know much
> about the mechanisms underlying fP, and as far as I know it's closed source,
> so I never will.  But with almost every other DB under the sun (most of them
> younger than filePro and many of them having started as hobbyist projects)
> having full ODBC access, it does appear very odd from a developer
> perspective that fP doesn't.  Hence my conclusion.

	Here is the problem. filePro predates just about everything
else. It was around long before most "standards" existed. People
bitch that filePro on Windows uses Esc to save a record and F10
for Help, while "real Windows" programs use F10 to save a record
and F1 for Help. The filePro programmers chose those keys long
before Windows ever existed! I don't know when ODBC came along,
but filePro was around long before it was a feature that a
commercial database was expected to have. To add a feature
retroactively is many times harder than to build it in from the
begining. Hence the "challenges" filePro is facing 25 years later.

>         BTW, until you *do* know a bit more about filePro the
>> progam (and the company), you should make more of an effort
>> to keep your comments to yourself.
>
>
> How am I to learn, excatly, other than by posts like the one I made to this
> list?  I'm hardly going to be able to wander down to fpTech and plunk myself
> into corporate meetings and development sessions.  And I'm entitled to my
> opinions,

	I don't have a problem with questions or opinions - even
uninformed opionions. I *do* have a problem with nasty comments
without any basis.

> and to air what I see as a serious issue with the platform the
> company I work for uses:  that I'm locked into using fpTech tools for
> developing front ends for apps, aside from interactive web pages, and that filePro app development is only geared to work with otherfilePro apps.  I often have to go thru ludicrous contortions to integrate fP withother tools such as credit card approval and shipping cost quotes
> that could be solved in seconds with ODBC.

	Other develpers have solved these problems. What kind of
gyrations did you have to do?

> Just because an opinion is negative doesn't mean it shouldn't be aired
> (despite what the Bush administration would like America to believe!).

	There is something we can agree on....

> If it's wrong, people will argue with or correct me, and we allbenefit.  If it's true, then I have confirmation of its validityfrom others and we still all benefit.

	Just keep the slander and flame-bait to a minimum, ok?

-- 
Laura Brody
+------------- Hudson Valley Computer Associates, Inc ----------+
| PO Box 859 120 Sixth Street    http://www.hvcomputer.com      |
| Verplanck, NY 10596-0859       Voice mail: (914) 739-5004     |
+------ PC repair locally, filePro programming globally --------+