Web based application

Wed Jan 9 21:45:16 PST 2013

Hi Jose,

I was echoing Walter's comments that what I looked at in the demo is a very
easy write (without the polishing), and we both know that we can spend
weeks, months and even years in the polishing department.  What I looked at
was not polished at all, but the functionality was there on what I looked
at.

As you start exploring ASP.NET, C# and SQL Server, I'm totally convinced
that you too will be blown away in a positive way.  Plus you get all the
stuff that filePro lacks.

For an example, using LINQ2SQL, C#, and SQL, I can create a non-polished 3
table layout (customers, orders and inventory) complete with relations and
have it all wired up, scrolling a grid showing each customer's order with
the inventory on each order in no more than 30 minutes. starting from
scratch and that includes creating the connections, database, tables,
indexes, relations and the form with buttons to find a specific record and a
button to save the changes.   And the database can be half way around the
world.  Also note, that I'm not using a wizard here, so I get to see exactly
what's going on ( I have complete control), which I too need to know.

Also Jose, it's not all drag and drop, actually its about 30% for me, and
most of the wiring up of the command buttons and form controls pretty much
has to be hand wired, but the thousands of built-in .net functions
tremendously reduces the code that you need to write.  Of-course anything
out of the ordinary will need to be hand wired also.  In the 30 minute
session I mentioned earlier, a single short line of code can search the
table and display it.  Make changes to any of the tables and another short
single line of code will push all the changes back out to the database. 

And Jose, have you seen the literally hundreds of .net libraries available
from 3rd party vendors that is limited only by your imagination?

>> It does not relate to filePro, hence my original post was properly
labeled as OT:   

Sorry, I didn't see that as I was just echoing with what Walter had said.

I'd encourage you to stop by Microsoft's Channel 9 on the MSDN site and
search for "Bob Tabor" as the instructor.  He presents one of the best (not
boring) training sessions and everything on Channel 9 is free for the
taking.  Bob was hired by Microsoft to do these videos on Channel 9.  He
markets these and other .net training videos on his site:
learnvisualstudio.net.  I am only a customer of Bobs', with no other
connection.

Stanley

From: Jose Lerebours [mailto:fpgroups at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2013 2:55 PM
To: Stanley - stanlyn-com
Subject: Re: Web based application

I find it hard to believe that this could be written in minutes but I will
look into it.  There are 78 tables, 100s of UDFs, thousand of JS code and
CSS not to mention AJAX.  Then again, you did mention ASP.NET
<http://ASP.NET>  drag and drop technology which means that the code is
written for you but I like to see it happen in minutes ...

It does not relate to filePro, hence my original post was properly labeled
as OT:    Further, like you, many in the list use development tools outside
filePro.

Regards,

Jose

On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 1:57 PM, Stanley - stanlyn-com <stanley at stanlyn.com
<mailto:stanley at stanlyn.com> > wrote:

Jose,

I agree with Walter's comments as listed below... 

1.       There are several web based open source ERP and accounting systems
that have years of testing and tens of thousands of sites operating today.

2.        Inventing a new accounting package to use what I am guessing
filePro as the DBMS makes no sense.

3.       However all along the way you've been fighting lack of everything
you need in a database (foreign keys, transactions, concurrency, etc..).  

4.       Become the expert in either using the latest version of filePro
that can talk directly to MySQL or using the fpODBC tools in an effective
manner. (assuming that filePro odbc is now 2-way, as it used to be only
1-way)

5.       What you have shown literally can be written in minutes just using
ASP.net MVC drop and drag technology.

6.       On the other hand becoming the expert consulting firm to turn
legacy filePro applications into modern filePro applications does have
value.

Item 3 above is so very true and is what eventually drove us away from
filePro development.  When I started exploring different databases and
frontend  tools and what they had to offer, I was blown away with the
options in a good way.  I couldn't believe what I was able to create with
half the effort. 

I see too that you are using MySql and expect that you see that there is no
comparison to filePro in terms of anything. 

I've been developing filePro apps since 1981 and started the move away in
the late 90's when filePro refused to give us the tools needed to compete
with modern apps.  

Making the case that filepro was more efficient in text based apps doesn't
work anymore when filePro's screen size is so small showing such limited
data.  Many of us are using huge multi-screen displays today, where I
routinely start 4 filePro sessions and house them all on one of my 24" or
27" monitors.  I need to control my design surface area all the way to my
monitor's max resolution.

What I needed back then was the ability to add more fields to a screen,
instead of having to switch screens, which is hugely inefficient.  Another
biggie was super lame memo fields that couldn't auto format itself.
eughhhhhhhh!  Then there was the lack of speed, lack of table relations,
lack of transactions, lack of security, limited amount of indexes, lack of
connectivity to other data sources, and dropdown scrolling edit boxes, plus
other things that filePro either failed to act fast enough or just plain
didn't address as it wasn't important to them, like the 80x25 screens and
memo fields.   I would have purchased new licenses if these items were
effectively addressed.  And then there is the huge cost for old outdated
technology. 

So, enough was enough, and  we had to move on or be left behind.  Ant the
last thing I wanted to do was to learn another new language, or 2-3 more new
languages.  But looking back, it took me several John and Karen's GURU
camps, many Guru subscriptions, fourgen and unix journal subscriptions to
become productive in filePro over a 3-6 year span.  Spending that much time
again using today's tools yields so many more opportunities and solutions
for today's work force (younger generation).  

I noted that you answered someone in a different message and stated your
demo was written in PHP and MySql, which begs the question "How does this
relate to filePro"?

Thanks, Stanley

From: Jose Lerebours [mailto:fpgroups at gmail.com <mailto:fpgroups at gmail.com>
] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2013 10:47 AM
To: Stanley - stanlyn-com

Subject: Re: Web based application

Stanley,

You agree with Mark that "you like it" or with Mark "that it is a security
threat" ???

;-)

On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 12:38 AM, Stanley - stanlyn-com <stanley at stanlyn.com
<mailto:stanley at stanlyn.com> > wrote:

Agreed !!!

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