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Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)

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Re: Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)

#61

Post by spaetzleesser »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #60

Software definitely lost something when we gained the ability to ship it as separate components over the internet. If you "just" configure components A, B, C, and D, you too can have the equivalent of what FoxPro had in 1993! It may not be The Unix Way(TM), but having an all-in-one solution is very appealing even today.

I really miss tools like FoxPro or MS Access where you could whip up some pretty powerful solutions quickly. Back then I knew several small to medium sized businesses where the owner over time had created pretty intricate systems they ran their businesses on. I bet they would have had to pay six or seven figure amounts of money if they had let "professionals" do this for them.

I don't think there is anything comparable out there that allows you to do the same with "modern" tech.

Re: Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)

#62

Post by buescher »

swiley wrote: post #53
signal11 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The whole xBase/Clipper-verse almost seems like a unique dead end, in an industry that keeps pretty much every other technology afloat. Interestingly Claris's FileMaker is still in business: https://www.claris.com/filemaker/pro/ And of course many editions of MS Office include Microsoft Access, which undoubtedly had a role to play in killing dBase, Borland’s Paradox, and Lotus’s Approach. Access’s not quite as perv…

Are these things really better than just opening a sqlite3 database with python?

Yes. Access is a fantastic database modeling and prototyping tool. It just doesn't pay, and there just isn't the tooling for moving Access databases to the web that you'd expect.

Re: Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)

#63

Post by spaetzleesser »

swiley wrote: post #53
signal11 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The whole xBase/Clipper-verse almost seems like a unique dead end, in an industry that keeps pretty much every other technology afloat. Interestingly Claris's FileMaker is still in business: https://www.claris.com/filemaker/pro/ And of course many editions of MS Office include Microsoft Access, which undoubtedly had a role to play in killing dBase, Borland’s Paradox, and Lotus’s Approach. Access’s not quite as perv…

Are these things really better than just opening a sqlite3 database with python?

It's about the UI capabilities you are getting.

Re: Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)

#64

Post by CivBase »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #60

Software definitely lost something when we gained the ability to ship it as separate components over the internet. If you "just" configure components A, B, C, and D, you too can have the equivalent of what FoxPro had in 1993! It may not be The Unix Way(TM), but having an all-in-one solution is very appealing even today.

Is there anything in the The Unix Way(TM) that prevents a the success of project which bundles up components and makes them accessible under a single interface?

EDIT: Adding this bit.

Seems to me that compartmentalizing functionality isn't the problem. The problem is just that good interface design is hard. Arguments about interfaces have fragmented many communities in the Linux world, resulting in a lot of relatively under-baked projects.

Re: Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)

#65

Post by spaetzleesser »

tmilard wrote: post #12

Foxpro is top notch. And I have never used it. Here is why: - My former best friend has created a software in 1995 that manages 30% of all vendor machine ( coffee, candy bars, sandwich) in Europe. The software uses Foxpro. 1) He tried twice to migrate to other dev tools. Never succeed. 2) His software is so good his company was in average 40% more profitable then competitors. 3) His CEO has bought 10 competitors of t…

In the 90s I knew several similar cases where significant companies were run on FoxPro or Access. I don't think there are any web based tools on the market now where you could achieve the same thing with the same level of effort.

Re: Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)

#66

Post by teknopaul »

swiley wrote: post #53
signal11 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The whole xBase/Clipper-verse almost seems like a unique dead end, in an industry that keeps pretty much every other technology afloat. Interestingly Claris's FileMaker is still in business: https://www.claris.com/filemaker/pro/ And of course many editions of MS Office include Microsoft Access, which undoubtedly had a role to play in killing dBase, Borland’s Paradox, and Lotus’s Approach. Access’s not quite as perv…

Are these things really better than just opening a sqlite3 database with python?

absolutely, I'm a die hard Linux/Unix fan, but the one tool I miss from Microsoft land is Access. The code is horrible, scale is a dead end, its expensive, clunky ugly and inflexible. But you can go from db schema and data, to forms and reports with unparalleled speed.

That use case is so common.

I haven't built an app on Access for years soley because M$ decided it should not be a part of the office bundle. But I have never found a replacement.

For my own data I use flat files and better bash. but I can't hand that over to Mum and Pop as a solution.

Re: Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)

#67

Post by lakkal »

Still using VFP9 to this day. Our application originated in ~1986 in dBase II, then we switched to FoxBase, then the various version of FoxPro. Currently in VFP 9. But, we still have to invoke Foxpro for DOS 2.5 (in DosBox) to edit some report layouts, because they were created in the DOS version in the 90s, and the automatic tool to 'transport' them to new versions crashes hard for reasons we were never able to figure out.

Re: Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)

#68

Post by BilalBudhani »

I worked on Visual FoxPro 6 and then on Visual FoxPro 9 at my first part-time job while I was in college (2006-07). It was a pleasure to work with. My boss at time had a strong expertise in FoxPro for windows and FoxPro for DOS.

Honestly, Visual FoxPro with embedded database was quite powerful and productive. It was super easy to compile exe files and ship them directly to customers without breaking a sweat. I miss those times.

I wrote an auto-updater using VFP and PHP on the server side. It used compared local .exe version with the remote .exe version stored in a txt file and if there was an upgrade available it downloaded & replaced the local exe. I ended up getting a promotion for this :)

Re: Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)

#69

Post by teknopaul »

buescher wrote: post #62
swiley wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are these things really better than just opening a sqlite3 database with python?

Yes. Access is a fantastic database modeling and prototyping tool. It just doesn't pay, and there just isn't the tooling for moving Access databases to the web that you'd expect.

Agreed I always thort it wierd that M$ don't have a tool to webify Access and scale it on sqlserver with no dev effort. You could charge what you like for that: if the data got big, the company got big. Great for lock-in. I'm glad, but always surprised, they didn't do it. If they had, appifying Access data would have been an earner a few years later too IMHO. Too late now: cool kids are app natives.

Re: Microsoft's FoxPro 2.5 Is Fast and Easy to Use (1993)

#70

Post by deckiedan »

teknopaul wrote: post #66
swiley wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are these things really better than just opening a sqlite3 database with python?

absolutely, I'm a die hard Linux/Unix fan, but the one tool I miss from Microsoft land is Access. The code is horrible, scale is a dead end, its expensive, clunky ugly and inflexible. But you can go from db schema and data, to forms and reports with unparalleled speed. That use case is so common. I haven't built an app on Access for years soley because M$ decided it should not be a part of the office bundle. But I ha…

I've kind of gone to django with the built-in admin for this use-case.

It's not as quick as access to get up and running - but you get the benefit of it being a very well known and supported platform - any bells and whistles you want can be pulled in, you can deploy it online or on a raspberry pi easily enough...

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