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VFP 10? Maybe not - but definitely more than just 9 and available for 64-bit Windows



I was in a meeting the other day and someone mentioned Visual FoxPro 10. Well, we all know this doesn't exist but I received a follow-up email with a note from the developer of the LienWriter.

Definitely curious, I took a look online. There were some posts online about it but nothing really earth-shaking. The best place to see it is the actual site.

When I took a closer look, there was some things to be aware of:

1. It's NOT VFP 10 - It's VFP Advanced.

2. It's continually in development. There are updates that resolve other bugs on a fairly regular basis. The final release of 2018 was updated with a 2019 release in February, fixing several bugs.

3. The 64-bit IS 64-bit. What does this mean? It doesn't use MSVCR7 - but rather MSVCR10. This is a C++ DLL that VFP uses. In the 64-bit version VFP Advanced uses MSVCR10. You can build an executable with the 64-bit version, distribute it on a machine with nothing more than MSVCR10 and the VFPA.DLL, and it will run completely on its own.

4. The 64-bit version is NOT the 64-bit version you are looking for (yet). When someone mentions 64-bit, a few things come to mind - mainly, the 2GB limitations that VFP currently has, 256 field limits, size of memo fields, total record sizes and more. Sadly, VFP Advanced (VFPA) does not do this (yet). So why update? Well, it DOES run as a 64-bit application.

5. 64-bit needs more controls. All of the ActiveX controls you've likely used in the past don't have 64-bit equivalents. So you need replacements for tree-views,listviews and others. The MS Web Control DOES have an equivalent which means if you are pushing more to web-looking interfaces, you're in luck but otherwise, you need to find alternatives.


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