Skip to main content

Rick: FoxPro Rocks Parsing Data

Oh yeah! I had a similar case recently only I had to create a database from about 5 different versions of the same catalog document. The time was a bit different due to manual checking and inconsistent terminology but I could only imagine how much time it would take for a non-VFP developer to do the same.

I wonder how many companies have documents that should really be databases? I'll bet that number is huge.

I know that once all data is saved as XML, it won't make THAT much of a difference, right? (at least that's what we keep getting told - nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

I think when that finally happens, a whole series of new tools wil be needed. I noticed on SednaX, someone was asking for something similar to the BizTalk Document Manager. That tool is very cool but, in my mind, still overly complicated for what some people want or need to do. Maybe there is a need for a lower-end VFP tool to do something similar - in effect, it becomes an automated XSL generator. I know there are some XML tools out there (XML Spy I believe or XML Studio) that do it - anyone have any success with them?

But until all documents are done in XML (which means everyone has to upgrade to a future version of Office or get off the Upgrade Train), there's really only one tool (that I know of) that totally rocks. Any ideas as to what that might be?

Shedding Some Light: FoxPro Rocks Parsing Data

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Elevating Project Specifications with Three Insightful ChatGPT Prompts

For developers and testers, ChatGPT, the freely accessible tool from OpenAI, is game-changing. If you want to learn a new programming language, ask for samples or have it convert your existing code. This can be done in Visual Studio Code (using GitHub CoPilot) or directly in the ChatGPT app or web site.  If you’re a tester, ChatGPT can write a test spec or actual test code (if you use Jest or Cypress) based on existing code, copied and pasted into the input area. But ChatGPT can be of huge value for analysts (whether system or business) who need to validate their needs. There’s often a disconnect between developers and analysts. Analysts complain that developers don’t build what they asked for or ask too many questions. Developers complain that analysts haven’t thought of obvious things. In these situations, ChatGPT can be a great intermediary. At its worst, it forces you to think about and then discount obvious issues. At best, it clarifies the needs into documented requirements. ...

Blogs and RSS come to Microsoft.com

MS has just introduced their portal and it's pretty comprehensive. Nothing quite like learning that some people use AIM instead of MSN messenger, or that there really may be a need for supporting 4 monitors ( Cyrus Complains ) However, it's really a great sign that MS is serious about supporting the blogging community which seems to have um, exploded in size in the past year. Blogs and RSS come to Microsoft.com

I’m Supposed to Know

https://programmingzen.com/im-supposed-to-know/ Great post for developers who are struggling with unrealistic expectations of what they should know and what they shouldn't. Thirty-forty years ago, it was possible to know a lot about a certain environment - that environment was MS-DOS (for non Mac/UNIX systems). . There was pretty much only a handful of ways to get things going. Enter networking. That added a new wrinkle to how systems worked. Networks back then were finicky. One of my first jobs was working on a 3COM + LAN and it then migrated to LAN Manager. Enter Windows or the graphical user interface. The best depiction of the complexity Windows (OS/2, Windows NT, etc) introduced that I recall was by Charles Petzold (if memory serves) at a local user group meeting. He invited a bunch of people on the stage and then acted as the Windows "Colonel", a nice play on kernel. Each person had a role but to complete their job they always had to pass things back to h...