Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!maytag!xenitec!timk
From: timk@xenitec.on.ca (Tim Kuehn)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: FoxPro questions
Message-ID: <1990Jul30.235042.5450@xenitec.on.ca>
Date: 30 Jul 90 23:50:42 GMT
References: <5433@uwm.edu>
Reply-To: timk@xenitec.UUCP (Tim Kuehn)
Organization: XeniTec Consulting Services, Kitchener, ON, Canada
Lines: 64

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. 

I know that feeling :-)

>I'm most interested in making .EXE files. 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. 

To my knowledge Fox never sold a .exe compiler for their code, they 
sold 'unlimited runtimes' that you can scatter to the four winds without 
paying royalties if you want to *PROVIDED* your code tagged along with 
the runtime. 

>I am not interested in
>telling the client that they will need to purchase x versions of a NEW
>package, that'd never fly. But, if I can just make small .EXE's, they'll
>build statues in my honor.

Well - would you settle for a small pedestal instead? :-)

Again, you don't need to purchase x copies, just one of the Developer's
copy and one of the Runtime and your company's legit for life.

>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 don't know how fast db3+ does 150 record moves/imports etc, but in 
Foxbase these things take place in a flash. (Given reasonable hardware
of course). 

>I also have a good deal of reports which look into
>five or six databases. They aren't slow, but I'm wondering how efficient
>FoxPro is with large databases, and jumping back and forth between numerous
>databases.

I've had one system running with > 10 databases and the most heavily used
history databases had > 15K records in them, and the response time was 
always reasonable in my opinion. Ditto reports, indexing, etc. (Although 
redoing 4-5 indexes per file at 15 - 35K records per file can take 
a while no matter what you're running!)

In short, Foxbase/+ 2.1 and Foxpro 1.02 are the next best thing since
sliced bread! (IMNSHO :-) )

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Timothy D. Kuehn	TDK Consulting Services  "Where Quality is Guaranteed"
timk@xenitec.on.ca 	uunet!watmath!maytag!xenitec!timk
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available in Dos/Unix/Xenix - SW & HW. Clipper, Foxbase/Pro, C, Pascal,
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