Craig Bailey

I made some simple changes to a VFP COM project prg file the other day, but when I recompiled I kept getting errors that it couldn’t find certain variables (eg COMATTRIB_READONLY which is defined in an include file). This occurred in VFP8 and VFP9. To cut a long story short – manually deleted all the fxp files. Opened each prg file and compiled. Then recompiled the entire project to...

I’ve been having a few page refresh problems with VFP9. I’m updating one of my programs to run in VFP9. In VFP8 page displays have been fine, but under 9 they don’t always refresh. If I manually add a .Refresh() to objects after doing something (eg adding records to a grid) it is fine, but this is something I never had to do in 8. A bit strange. At first I was looking for a...

I’m going to try to cut down on my swearing. My close friends will know I have a bit of problem with how much swearing and carrying on I do. Others will be surprised I guess, because I manage to put on an exterior of self control in this regard. But the ‘real’ me struggles with it. I’m not sure why I swear so much, but I guess it has to do with a few things: 1. Wanting to call attention...

I’m reading a book Andrew Coates lent me called C# Design Patterns (James W Cooper). This idea of design patterns is fascinating. It has been around for a while, but I’m sure is one of those topics that gets put in the ‘nice, but I don’t have time for it’ basket. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never used UML before and this book introduces the topic well – how easy and useful is UML...

Back home from visiting my dad after his operation. He’s had a recent cancer scare (see my earlier post) and is now living with a new appreciation of things. He’s looking really good. He’s lost a bit of weight and is looking pretty trim. He’s well rested, although a bit sore still, and is very positive. He told me he’d been pretty down recently and before the op was moping around...

Using PUBLIC variables in VFP. I know I should be writing stuff about VFP9 and in the coming days I will (for a great intro see Castro Shehata’s summary from the Sydney VFP User Group meeting earlier tonight) but this time I wanted to share a thought on PUBLIC variables. We all know public variables are bad and should be avoided right? Well that was what I was taught at uni. But recently...

Why hasn’t this been invented yet? My wife came up with this idea about 6 years ago, but I am amazed that it is still not mandatory on every car. It’s the sorry horn. You use it when you make a mistake driving (eg you accidently cut someone off, or scare a pedestrian you didn’t see who has right of way). You just give them a toot with your sorry horn. It has a nice reassuring...

He’s a smart guy. Bill is in Sydney this week for a few meetings with important people. This morning he had a developer breakfast and spoke on his vision for the future. I was there (due in part to my role as President of the Sydney VFP User Group, but more probably because a good friend in Microsoft is looking after me) with approx 160 other people from around Australia and New Zealand. As...

Keep this a secret. I don’t know why more people don’t use libraries. They are the biggest rort around. You get really cool, useful stuff for free. My wife put me onto this library thing about a year ago. Basically you go to the shops and check out what is new in the book stores. It could be the latest Robert Ludlum, Brian Tracy, Robert Kiyosaki, whatever. Anything that catches your...

Thankfullness after a stressful week. I write this on a Sunday, following a stressful week of sorts. About two weeks ago my dad found out he had a cancerous lump (I won’t go into details) that required immediate attention. They booked him in for surgery the following Monday (which was last Monday 21 June). At the same time my grandma went into hospital with chest pains. So, on the day of...