Speaking of fp html commands

[Bruce Easton]

OK, so using the ones that made it thru, hopefully here 
is the complete response:

Richard Hane wrote Friday, May 30, 2008 11:55 AM:

> Just a general question about those who generate processing 
> using filePro and the html commands.
>
> Do you use the html commands or do you just find it earlier 
> to use html zz (regular code)?
>
> Also, is there anywhere that you have posted sample code 
> or snipets as in a general library.  I sometimes find the 
> fp help / examples to be lacking.

> Thank you in advance,
> Rick Hane

Rick - our filePro Developer's Reference has about 40 pages 
on the filePro HTML commands with example code - plus there 
is a an HTML report example at the end of the chapter. The 
chapter was written by Bill Doyle who teaches our Browser- 
Based filePro class.

Regarding your first question - I only use : c r (open h t m l 
output file for appending), : t x (like writeline - output 
to the file what follows) and : c l (close the output file).
I think you'll find some people will do the same thing 
with the open, writeline, and close file commands.
When I started creating H T M L files from filePro, I already 
knew a little H T M L, so knowing that I could create the 
files with those three commands above, I saw no reason 
to learn another language (the rest of the filePro H T M L 
commands), especially since, at the time, I was learning 
J avascript and many other things that I would soon need 
to put to work.  I guess my instincts at the time were 
telling me that I just wanted to know body (tag) for the body 
tag where ever I saw it in the world, not body (tag) *and* 
: b o .

I guess the :zz is kind of a compromise in that you just 
need to learn the main filePro version of a tag and then 
you can use :zz to add the HTML options virtually in HTML 
format afterwards.

IMO, if you're starting from scratch and have to learn 
something anyway (filePro H T M L commands), why not just 
learn the H T M L?  Doesn't even cost anything - syntax is 
usually just a quick Google search away.  Sometimes, if 
I'm writing something like i n n e r H T M L  
e m b e d d e d inside 
J avascript that I'm outputting from the html : t x command - 
the punctuation gets a little tricky, but other than those 
odd times, using the : t x with straight html is a breeze.

Bruce


Bruce Easton
STN, Inc.