OT: Scripting tools (Re: Sorting an array)

[Jose Lerebours]

Installing PHP as a scripting tool to be used or invoked from filePro is 
what I figure to be of benefit to the overall application.  Agree, in 
the original post, the suggestion was focused on the question at hand 
but, it goes well beyond that.

I did, or so tried, to point to the possibility of future needs or other 
needs that could just as easily be addressed by using one of the 
scripting languages I mentioned (was not only PHP although my preference).

For as long as I can remember, we have been installing 3rd party 
applications to make up for the things filePro lacked. ReForm being one 
of them.

We have had to resort to all kinds of gadgets to resolve issues. You 
could not create PDF documents natively out of your filePro application 
without some sort of 3rd party solution.  Simple things like color and 
images were huge projects and almost always, you had to resort to a 
different tool to get the job done.  If you were not paying attention, 
you had a "tool box" of fixes/solutions and used a variety of 
programs/scripts which got the job done but you had no consistency thus 
possibly loosing scalability or portability.

If you were to use Perl, Python or PHP as your "tool box", these run in 
every OS that filePro runs and they have a huge user base which 
simplifies your research to find solutions for whatever you need (like 
sorting an array, creating PDF documents, sending email in HTML with or 
w/out attachments, embedding images in your documents or even, embedding 
documents located in remote URLs within your documents).

They are even good tools for integrating your filePro application with 
MysQL, SQL or any ODBC compliant database out there.  I know, filePro 
now has means to do this ...

In summary, I rather have one of these and develop my "go get this done" 
tool box in one scripting language and maintain consistency, portability 
and compatibility in any environment my core application has the 
potential to run on.  Finally, have the added value of ease of 
maintenance - not many future developers will be able to sync their 
teeth in shell scripting or awk syntax.






On 05/19/2016 11:41 AM, Kenneth Brody wrote:
> On 5/18/2016 9:30 PM, Jose Lerebours via Filepro-list wrote:
>> Point taken ... Understood!
>>
>> Yes, I totally missed it on your first post.  ;-)
>>
>> But really, use of "user" or "system" to call an external process in 
>> filePro
>> is hardly a "Gorilla".  Using "chain", "call" or anything else in any
>> reasonably sized filePro application is a daily thing.
> [...]
>
> I think his "Gorilla" reference might have been to your suggestion of 
> installing WAMP, simply to sort arrays in filePro.
>