OT: Filemaker 8

[Tyler Style]

Laura Brody wrote:
>> 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.

Nope.  It's not.  I can't connect to a filePro datastore using a third 
party app via ODBC.  End of discussion.  Consider yourself corrected.

>     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.

I can certainly believe that.  fP has many nonstandard useages, 
certainly linked to it's age.  I'm constantly agog at the fact that I 
can't have recursive functions due to the gosub call limit.  But ODBC 
has been around a long time now too: "Microsoft created ODBC by adapting 
the SQL Access Group CLI. It released ODBC 1.0 in September, 1992"  So, 
almost fourteen years.  Not exactly a new technology, either.  Oracle 
was founded in 1979, and it has managed to tack on ODBC.  PostGres was 
at demo stage in 1986, and they have ODBC too - and it's not even a 
commercial product.  So I don't think it's rather too much to ask, given 
that it's an IT industry standard as well (not just 'expected to have').

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

Until today, I wasn't even aware that Ken was responsible for filePro 
development.  I made a comment based on what I knew, which obviously 
wasn't much, and I said so at the time.  You took it is some kind of 
personal attack.  Which it obviously wasn't, as I couldn't even name a 
core app developer.  All I did was voice my opinion that it was either 
lazy programmers or bad marketing strategy that was behind the lack of 
ODBC server functionality, given that filePro has had plenty of time to 
develop it and that it's a widespread standard used to communicate with 
DB servers (which is hardly an opinion without basis, just a poorly 
informed basis).  You countered that it was more of a problem to do with 
inherent programming issues to the core applications, and I agreed that 
you probably would know better than I would as fP source code and APIs 
are closed source and I've never had any access to fpTech.  Negative is 
not the same as nasty.  Nasty implies that I had malicious intent behind 
my comments.  I don't.  Why would I?

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

I've solved them too.  That doesn't mean it's a good solution, or a 
quick one.  They generally involve writing shell scripts and doing pain 
in the butt exports and imports of text files between applications that 
have to be manually initiated or scheduled using a third party app or OS 
feature.  My problem is that these solutions are poor workarounds at 
best that could be easily solved with a simple ODBC connection to a 
filePro datastore, if such were available.  Almost every application out 
there uses ODBC to communicate with datastores, and it's very fast to 
implement without having to devise a seperate workaround strategy unique 
to every situation where you have to work with a 3rd party app wanting 
to use filePro stored data.

>> 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?

I'll try.  I admit I'm not particularly a people person.  But I don't 
consider what I said either slander or flame-bait, just negative.  And 
what crosses the line is in the eye of the beholder, no?  Can be a 
problem, especially if one has a high sensitivity to talking about some 
of the lacks of filePro.  :)