Some exciting news this weekend for the VFP community: Sedna has been released. Craig Berntson, Kevin Cully, and others have already blogged about it. Sedna contains some very exciting and interesting components:
- VistaDialogs4COM - a collection of COM-visible classes that wrap the functionality provided by the Microsoft VistaBridgeLibrary which will provide access to the Windows Vista TaskDialog and Common Dialogs
- Upsizing Wizard - excellent enhancements include bulk insert support, performance improvements, UI improvements, and support for table names with spaces
- Data Explorer - lots of improvements including better drag and drop support and for showplans
- NET4COM - a collection of COM classes that wrap a subset of the .NET Framework 2.0
- MY for VFP - similar to NET4COM, MY is a native implementation which makes available many new functions for VFP developers
- DDEX for VFP - The Data Designer EXtensions allow Visual Studio to work better with Visual FoxPro data sources
Now that the release is out, I plan to start using and experimenting with the various components (something I had decided to do ‘later’ rather than ’sooner’). It will be fun to see how others are making use of these as well!
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#1 by Bernard Bout at January 28th, 2008
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Hi Todd
Unfortunately I do not share your excitement. Here’s what I posted on the UT:
Despite many complaints, nothing has been fixed in SP2 except the splash screen. NAd now Sedna?
In fact Yag emailed me to ask for a list of missing items from the SP2 help file. I had to reply that a simple file compare between the indexes would yield him the results. I do not work for Microsoft anyway.
I have had a look at the so called Sedna source, specifically NET4COM, DDEX and VistaDialogs.
NET4COM. Such a waste of code. Written in VB.Ne,t all it does is expose a few built in functions in the .NET system files. A few classes have properties to examine. But the thing that irks me so much is that not even one Callback EVENT has been implemented.
Hands up those of you who want to send email but also want to do this asynchronously and also know whether the message was sent, or to know when a sound you have started, has ended!
Take for instance this:
Public Interface IPowerStatus
ReadOnly Property BatteryLifePercent() As Single
ReadOnly Property BatteryFullLifetime() As Integer
ReadOnly Property BatteryLifeRemaining() As Integer
ReadOnly Property BatteryChargeStatus() As Integer
ReadOnly Property PowerLineStatus() As Integer
End Interface
So I can read all these properties. But no events are exposed, say when PowerLineStatus changes or BatteryLifePercent reaches a predefined %. So to use this information in VFP, I have to add a timer, and poll at intervals.
I want to instantiate this and get CalledBack() when an event occurs not use resources polling.
And this crap:
Function Ping(ByVal address As String) As Boolean
***
Protected Function Ping(ByVal address As String) As Boolean Implements INetwork.Ping
Return My.Computer.Network.Ping(address)
End Function
So I PING and it returns .T. or .F. ? What about some more info like latency, speed, etc.
This code is so very basic that it does not deserve mention. Why would I want to load the .NET runtime to play a sound or PING when I can do that in VFP? What I would have wanted would be to give me feedback by implementing some basic events, give me a proper return to a PING. This code merits nothing more. This was written by a novice or someone who just doesn’t care. I think the latter is more probable.
Vista Dialogs DLL. And as for the Vista Dialogs DLL, cmon where do you people get off with this? A progress bar that you have to poll to get its status?
Public Shadows Property State() As Integer Implements ITaskDialogProgressBar.State
Get
Return MyBase.State
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As Integer)
MyBase.State = CType(Value, VistaBridge.Library.TaskDialogProgressBarState)
End Set
End Property
How difficult would it have been to implement a callback event so that I don’t need to poll for the statusbar’s status? How about actually kicking off a separate thread and running the progress bar in that thread, pumping back status info into VFP and informing when it has finished? Is’nt .NET true multi taskable?
DDEX for VFP. The prize of course must go to “DDEX for VFP” a misnamed lump of code. This should have been called “DDEX for Visual Studio” since it does nothing for VFP users. It just adds easier access for .NET Visual Studio users for VFP data.
Unfortunately I do not have sufficient proficiency in .NET to add events or kick off processes, but it should be pretty easy from what I have seen.
If I am to be convinced to use the .NET mis”Managed” code, then I want it to do a whole lot more than returning a .T. or .F.
I am excited - NOT.
#2 by CaptainCyril at January 29th, 2008
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I have been using FoxPro since version 2.0. I showed 3 of my applications written in VFP 9.0 and 1 in VFP 6.0 to 3 certified .Net experts. They said my applications could not be developed in .Net easily eventhough Microsoft consultants were trying to convince me to move to .Net.
There is nothing as flexible and does everything (access DB, OOP, MultiInheritence, Prints, Exports, Impors) like VFP.
.Net is designed for people who think they can develop. Can they do it without VB’s Intellisense?
VFP is for real developers!
I back you up brother!