June 2006

Yep, well as per usual the Visual FoxPro community is delivering in spades, and I don't have time to keep up.

Dave Crozier joins us with an impressive debut, and I'm still trying to get my head around the incredible GDIPlusX library update that Bo Durban and Craig Boyd have posted on SednaX (soon to be VFPX).

Heck, I only just found time to listen to The Fox Show episode 38 yesterday (great show btw - Milind is a true gentleman), and I've still got some of Craig Boyd's posts from months ago to go through. Yikes, then there's Calvin's recent posts on multithreading.

How to find the time?

One of the things I love about Craig Berntson is how he speaks his mind. Like this post about Ray Ozzie taking over from Bill in time. Classic.

And I'm with Craig on the WinFX renaming - what's the problem?

Just when I was starting to get a little worried (as per my comment on being underwhelmed with Sedna so far) Craig Boyd comes along and gets me all excited again.

World domination? Just possibly...

The link is here

An exciting program in my opinion (here's my thoughts about it from last year).

From the press release:

“Being a Microsoft Certified Architect allows me to go in and evangelize the proper use of technology to the people who need to be touched with that.”

Will it make it to Australia I wonder? I hope so...

Great post. This stuff is too easy.

http://weblogs.foxite.com/cesarchalom/archive/2006/06/13/1825.aspx

Note: the post page has a download attachment (easy to miss).

maxfactoring

noun, verb

1. the process of gradually improving the 'look and feel' of a software application in small chunks

2. partaking in the UX initiative of 'results driven application surface design'

The result is aesthetic only, there is no change in functionality, performance, stability, scalability or reliability. Side effects include improved sales and perceived higher quality.

Usage (n): 'The software team spent 3 weeks on the maxfactoring...'

Usage (v): 'I spent some time maxfactoring my application today...'

Also:

maxfactored

an application can be described as having been 'maxfactored' once its visual appearance has been improved (ie the 'user story' has been enhanced)

Maxfactoring is a low cost, high benefit activity for software companies to apply, along with code refactoring, to software that is approaching functional completeness

(With apologies to a well known cosmetic company)

[See also Perception is everything]

The SednaX moving and renaming is an interesting exercise. I felt that the SednaX 'brand' was finally starting to catch on, but now they'll have to start over. However, I can understand the reasons for the change.

As I'm sure you know, you can vote for the new name here. I voted for VFP.Next for two reasons:

1. It has a continuous quality to it, ie we won't be wanting to change it again once VFP10 (the X in say VFPX) has been released

2. It has a dot in it (ie VFP dot Next) - I think this fits in nicely with Microsoft branding in general, so it is similar to say VFP.Net but has its own distinction

I wouldn't mind betting that we see other community projects take a .Next moniker at some point (eg Atlas.Next) whilst they are being worked on

There is an small problem with using .Next though - that being that even though a project might be finished, just by virtue of having it on the VFP.Next CodePlex people might assume it is not yet ready. However, longer term I think this is better than people (by then using VFP 12 or whatever) looking at a VFPX project and wondering if it is outdated. Minor point, I guess.

Just loving the ctl32 status bar and progress bar from Carlos Alloatti on SednaX.
Go to SednaX and then downloads (you need to be a member to download).
Carlos has a great set of documentation available here.

Here's a few screenshots (click to enlarge) of one of our applications with the status bar implemented.
The first shows a simple update of the status bar with search results, along with an icon.

The second shows the progress bar in the status bar. Displaying the progress bar is a single line of code, and then another line of code for the percentage to display.

Great job Carlos.

As Carlos commented, this is just one more way that we are making VFP cool.

Apologies for having an incorrect link on one of our downloads pages.

Most links were fine, but one had a link to an old version.

To be clear: You can download FoxTabs 0.3.6 (dated 24 May 2006) from here:

http://www.vfpsolutionexplorer.com/Default.aspx?tabid=61

Thanks

The whole Office 2007 ribbon UX was getting a lot of discussion a year ago (Office 12 as it was then). Given that most people are pretty cool with the concept (see here if you aren't familiar with the ribbon idea), then chances are that when it is finally released, we'll see applications all jumping to get the Office 2007 look and feel. And great I say - I really like the new approach and can't wait to use it.

So, wouldn't it be good if we had this look available in our VFP applications sooner rather than later? I wonder if Alex Grigorjev over at ARG-Software Design Lab could put out a VFP version of the Offic 2007 menus. I love how he gave us the ability to put Whidbey style menus in our applications even before Visual Studio 2005 was released.

Ofcourse the main driver behind the ribbon approach is to 'results driven' in what is shown on the 'menus', and no dount many will just use the ribbon look and feel even if it doesn't change the look of what they are currently working on. But again, I don't mind - it all goes to perception...

Also, speaking of UX I caught this link over on UT (from Craig Berntson I think) which details the Vista UX guidelines. Early days (many of the topics are still to be written), but helpful none the less. My bet is we'll see a lot of applications sporting a Vista look (especially icons and fonts) even when running on XP and 2003.

I'm looking forward to seeing what icons turn up on Foxpro.catalyst thanks to WildFire. As an aside (to this aside) I downloaded most of the awesome wallpapers from his site, and currently have Splendid Illusion as my desktop. Incredible.

Craig Bailey on Microsoft

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VFP: Too much stuff coming from the community

LINK: Craig Berntson makes me smile

VFP: Craig Boyd restores my faith

LINK: Microsoft Certified Architect goes live

LINK: Cesar Chalom VFP Gradient background forms

SOFTWARE: Refactoring vs Maxfactoring

VFP: SendaX renaming - my money is on VFP.Next

VFP: Ctl32 status bar on SednaX

VFP: FoxTabs downlink was incorrect - fixed now

VFP: Office 2007 UX in VFP