QRE: Your involvement

[John Esak]

> Be assured that most of the features of 5.6 were not proposed for Bud, as
> indicated in the prior emails, but were requests of the filePro
> community.
> As far as a Developer owned company, that is always a
> possibility.  Anyone
> wishing to pursue this, please feel free to contact me. Remember, fP Tech
> was about to go under when I entered the picture and we have made
> tremendous
> strides to reduce the debt, control expenditures, offer new products, and
> continue to support the filePro community.  I believe in and depend on
> filePro just like all of you and not used it for my gain but what is/was
> best for the filePro community.  If you find yourself in a
> situation where
> you need a feature or will have to leave filePro, please email me
> directly
> at mgmt at fptech.com and we will do everything possible to make it
> a priority.
>
> In closing, I ask that each of you to consider upgrading your current
> customer base from the 3.0, 4.1, 4.5, 4.8 and 5.0 product line
> which would
> allow us to hire a new programmer or two and address the concerns
> you have.
> We hope to release 5.6 soon, so check it out on the web
> www.fptech.com  or
> as always we will send out an announcement.
>
> Thanks for your time.
>
> Bud L  Henschen and Staff
> fP Technologies, Inc.

Bud,
Thanks so much for this reply. And, I'm very glad you cross-posted it to
this fp mailing list. It answers my questions and concerns, and I am hoping
with you that everyone upgrades to the 5.6 version. I am not letting any
cats out of any bags when I say there are a few new bug fixes that I
reported in just the past couple months in this upcoming release. Along with
these, the many fixes that have been ongoing since 5.0.14. The 5.6 release
will be the stepping stone from which filePro can move into the future as it
always has.

Not for nothing... I remember *many* such watershed times for filePro. I
remember clearly when there was great wailing and gnashing of teeth, with
lots of threats of "I'll be dumping filePro for something better..." when
the functionality absolutely *required* was being able to build indexes on
non-contiguous fields! Agreed, absolutely dead-critical. We got it. Then
there was the time fielPro was *surely* going out of business because there
was no way to have DECLARED'd variables. We got them. After a while, it was
ODBC, just had to have it or everyone was going to opt out and buy Oracle.
We got the ODBC as much as can be provided as things stand now. There was
the outcry that unless filePro had memo-fields it would die a horrible
death. Again, we got them. Yes, I do not think they have the complete
functionality that is needed, but every filePro function grows in features
as time go by... and I've been assured (personally, on phone calls) that the
only drawback (mostly) to getting these things to print is that they want to
do it right. Or by the word "right" read "as feature-rich-as-possible."
What if you wanted to print a report or form with 20 different memos on
it... all spilling over to their same locations on subsequent pages. Maybe
relaxing some of the qualifications and requirements might get out more and
more capable printing little by little over the next few releases. That is
okay with me. Every other function gets added to over time... look at
LISTBOX).

Anyway, thanks Bud, great response. Well done. I *still* at some point,
maybe when you are all done with the crush of getting out 5.6, you will have
some time to send out a prioritized wish list. It is still critically
important I think.. but get the release finished first. And good luck.

--
John Esak
(570) 384-2444

Author of:
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