Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!venera.isi.edu!jas From: jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: FoxPro questions Message-ID: <14456@venera.isi.edu> Date: 30 Jul 90 21:55:49 GMT References: <5433@uwm.edu> Sender: news@venera.isi.edu Organization: USC-ISI Lines: 63 In-reply-to: gibsonlp@csd4.csd.uwm.edu's message of 30 Jul 90 17:47:18 GMT In article <5433@uwm.edu> gibsonlp@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Dean A Herman) writes: Questions, questions, questions. In my eternal wisdom, I turn to the net. After two years of bashing my head against a brick wall "programming" in dBase III+, I'm ready for a change. Actually, I have no choice, a project I'm working on has grown to the point where dBase III+ can't handle any more. So, I've looked around for a better DBMS, mainly looking for speed and a better interface. The demo version of FoxPro 1.02 I've been playing with is, I think, the answer to all my problems. I need more than 15 index/ database/program files, the windows look great, and the mouse support has me walking pinching myself, since the users of this particular application all all upper-level management with little love for or knowledge of computers. I'm most interested in making .EXE files. You're SOL, my boy. It can't be done. The thought of having 2+ megs of hard-disk storage used up by dBase III+ or IV on every machine makes me shiver, it'd never do. Although I've read through all the nice glossy ads Fox sent me, and I've browsed the computer publications, I STILL can't tell if I can make .EXE's with FoxPro 1.02 alone, or if I have to go deeper and buy the "FoxPro Unlimited Runtime" at the same time. The good news is you don't have to buy FoxPro Runtime to get .EXEs. The bad news is that there's NOTHING you can do to get .EXEs. FoxPro is like dBaseIII+, IV, FoxBase+, and most other DB systems, in that it compiles and runs programs in its environment. If you buy FoxPro runtime, you get about 700K of programs (FOXPRORT.EXE, .RSC, and .OVL) that allow you to run FoxPro without a full development environment, but you've still got your 700K+application program size+databases to deal with. There is no standalone .EXE generator for FoxPro. Period. (Please, sombody flame me to tell me I'm wrong!). If you need that, you might want to look into Force 2.1 by SophCo, which is essentially a compiler that handles dBaseIII+ language with some extensions. It's lacking some major functionality (& macro expansion for one) that akes it unacceptable to us, so we use FoxPro runtime on our delivery machines, but we're not grinning. Also, anyone working with FoxPro...are there any significant drawbacks? It simply CAN'T be a step backwards from dBase III+. I'm working with about 30 databases, 7 of which are heavily used. Importing/exporting is a time consuming headache now, since the databases being moved have up to 150 records in them. I also have a good deal of reports which look into ^^^ Is this a typo? We've got 600-1800 records in our DBs, and I'm of the opinion that they're not very big. Too big, but still not very big. As you may guess, any information would be GREATLY appreciated. - Dean Herman gibsonlp@csd4.csd.uwm.edu -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey A. Sullivan | Senior Systems Programmer jas@venera.isi.edu | Information Sciences Institute jas@isi.edu DELPHI: JSULLIVAN | University of Southern California