OT: Filemaker 8

[GCC Consulting]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com 
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com] On Behalf 
> Of Tyler Style
> Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 12:56 AM
> To: Laura Brody; filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> Subject: Re: OT: Filemaker 8
> 
> 
> 
> 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.
> 
Tyler,

Although filePro has no server side ODBC, with very little work one CAN
connect to the fp database although indirectly.  All it takes is a little
bit if thought.

Use fp's client side ODBC tools to build, or use outside tools to build an
ODBC mirror of your filePro database.   Once your files are linked, any
entries on either side will appear in both databases.

You can the use all of the SQL tools you would like on the ODBC database but
still have the advantage for fp's rapid development tools and ease of use.

Also, with regard to the "non-Standard" key functions, setting an
environmental variable PFKETAB=DOS the F1 and F10 keys are remapped to work
similar to windows.

There are many things one can either not do easily or not at all with
filePro.  But I'll bet one can accomplish most of what is needed for good
programming of applications with filePro and the additional tools that are
available either from fpTech or from others.  There are a number of products
for web enabling filePro.  As for using generic windows printer drives, one
can use Printwizard or Reform.  These products allow one to print to even
the dumb windows only printers.  Or one could use the RTF print tables
supplied with fp.  

Richard Kreiss
GCC Consulting