July 2005

Our thanks for the great feedback we’ve received on Solution Explorer, especially from Craig Boyd. The funny thing is that at OzFox last year there was zero interest expressed – but it was only a prototype at that stage and it was the last session of the night…

We’ll post details on schedules shortly.

After posting the presentation from Sydney VFP UG last week I was alerted to the fact that the resize workaround doesn’t work for VFP8 (or earlier) since it relies on VFP9 Anchors.

The updated presentation is here

http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/2005Jul/WMP/Help/index.htm

Specifically this topic (which is an improvement on the original workaround anyway)

http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/2005Jul/WMP/Help/index.htm?page=_1KV0RC7FM.htm

Sample code is here

http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/2005Jul/WMP/Code/VFPWMP.zip

There's been a few discussions lately about a Solution Explorer for VFP (see Craig Boyd's mention here for example). I note that Craig Bernston is working on one and there are probably others out there.

Here's a link to a presentation Scott Scovell gave at OzFox last year and then re-presented at the Sydney VFP UG this month.

Scott is planning to open it up to the community later this year, and will be asking for suggestions shortly. Beta 1 should be out before the end of the year. Part of the aim is to make this an example of Good Practice development (I'll be blogging more about this in the coming weeks, and comparing it to Best Practice) that guides developers on how to write 'proper' applications - there seems to be too much 'quick and dirty' code out there in our opinion.

Another aim is to make it as extensible as possible so that anyone can write Add-ins for it. There will be a big focus on this architecture initially. Interfacing to Visual Studio Team System is high priority on our list also.

It is hard to gauge how much interest there 'really' is for the whole Solution Manager concept - feel free to leave a comment, link to this or email me (cb@talman.com.au) if you have any thoughts. We'll be pushing on regardless, but will be taking on board community comment very seriously.

We had a great meeting last night, and next month is looking awesome too

Links and details of presentations are on the site http://www.svfpug.com.au

And the OzFoxRox! podcast idea got a very enthusiastic response

http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/2005Jul/News/index.htm?page=_1KR0NZA4Y.htm

A few interesting links doing the rounds

Joel on Software: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/index.html especially http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HighNotes.html

37signals: http://37signals.com/svn/ especially http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/sidebusiness_software_the_neglected_software_market.php

Andrew MacNeill comments on it here http://akselsoft.blogspot.com/2005/07/long-tail-fortune-500-vs-fortune.html

Every so often a new person turns up at the Sydney VFP User Group and asks where they can find information on a VFP related item. Usually I send them an email afterwards with a list of VFP resources. But to save time I've compiled a list here. There are many others ofcourse, but these are some main ones to get started with.

[Update: Added The FoxPro Show in the podcast section]

Microsoft VFP page
http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/

West Wind
http://www.west-wind.com/

Using Win32 API functions in VFP
http://www.news2news.com/vfp/index.php

FoxWiki
http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~FoxProWiki

Universal Thread
http://www.universalthread.com/

VFP on MSDN
http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnanchor/html/vfpanchor.asp

Tek-Tips
http://www.tek-tips.com/

Virtual FoxPro User Group
http://www.vfug.org/

Foxite
http://www.foxite.com/

Podcasts
The FoxPro Show
http://www.thefoxproshow.com/

Blogs
I've put an OPML file of some Fox bloggers here
http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/BlogsVFP.opml
Or zipped here (if you have trouble downloading the OPML directly):
http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/BlogsVFP.zip

This includes anyone that I know of related to VFP, but that doesn't mean their entries are all VFP related. Most bloggers put personal stuf in their posts aswell. Lately there has been a trend to having a personal and a professional blog, in order to separate the content (I'm considering this also)
The blog list has been largely compiled from the following sources
http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~BlogWatch
http://www.universalthread.com/wconnect/wc.dll?LevelExtreme~2,3,1,5
http://weblogs.foxite.com/
There is a great range and you needn't read all of them - I'll let you decide which ones you like or not.
[Also, if you find that your blog is not in this list (but it is in one of the sources above) it means that I couldn't connect to it at the time of compiling the OPML. Send me a note and I'll add you in. I'll try to refresh the OPML every few weeks.]

The next UG meeting (27 July 2005) is looking good - see UG site here and UG blog here

I've had a few queries from people about the next OzFox.
The answer is that we are planning to have the next OzFox in September 2006.
This is a deliberate move away from an annual event to a bi-annual one (bi-annual? I never know whether that means twice every year, or every two years, but you get the point). This was based on feedback from OzFox 2004 attendees who said having the conference every year would probably be too much.
Later this year (probably October) I will be putting together thoughts on the conference, confirming dates and speakers etc.
You can also watch the OzFox blog for updates (http://ozfox.blogspot.com)

Rick writes about his feelings of distress with American business (and this could be equally applied to Australia). I think it is an important read, now more than ever, regardless of whether you agree with him or not. So where do you start?

Well, start with the small things. You may think the following is trivialising the issue (not at all my intention), but it is very funny and makes a good simple message:
http://www.storewars.org/flash/
(it has been around for a bit so you may have already seen it)

By the way Rick, my wife and you share many ideas here. One of the things I love about Michele is how she makes a stand on even the small issues where it is clear that the business she is dealing with is totally out of line. One thing she does really well is stays rational, clearly presenting her case and thoroughly following up with a company she is dis-satisfied with. I learn heaps from her all the time. Ofcourse the temptation is to think 'why bother? I'm only a drop in the ocean', but as you say, if we don't even make a stand, then we are effectively condoning the actions of big business. The good thing is that it doesn't take too much effort to make a small difference, whether it is the buying decisions we make or more importantly the integrity with which we run our own businesses.

Sadly with our buying decisions on clothing it is almost impossible to buy an item that hasn't been through a sweat shop at some point. But in other areas, especially food, we still have choices (well in Australia at least). However in our own businesses we have our maximum potential to fight the corrupt practices of (some) big companies. One thing my boss often reminds us of, is that 'we are born with our integrity, whether we die with it is up to us'. Let's not be a generation that decided it was easier to follow the path of corporate greed.

I've been looking forward to this book The Historian for a while.

Dymocks and other stores advised me I wouldn't be able to get my hands on it until July 4. But my wife suggested I place a hold on it at the library. The library web site advises me yesterday it is ready for collection. So I picked it up today (July 2) even though it is not available in the stores until Monday. Love it.

Reminds me of my post over a year ago now.

Craig Bailey on Microsoft

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