Andrew MacNeill - AKSEL Solutions

In the latest episode of the FoxShow , we feature an interview with Jim Nelson, who is the main project lead on the PEM Editor project at VFPX , on his history with development and how he comes up with some of the ideas he's been putting into PEM Editor. FoxPro VFP

If you haven't downloaded the latest PEM Editor from VFPX , you're definitely missing out. Instead of the traditional tiny dialog to add properties and methods, the new PEM Editor gives you literally everything at your fingertips. See here: It's not just a good replacement for adding, it's also a fairly good replacement for the Property sheet as well. It's also starting to add features that VS developers have had in their IDE but VFP never got them. Some immediate highlights (not just from this release but overall): a) ability to mark properties as favorites globally (so any instance of those properties regardless of form becomes a favorite) b) Dockable and resizeable c) highlight inherited and custom code and properties with colors d) Go To Definition e) Extract to Method - kind of like instant refactoring Not only that but PEMEditor features the funky VFPX-Powered logo, which I think needs to become standard for all VFPX IDE controls. Great job! FoxPro VFP

If you haven't tried out the VFPX PEM Editor, you may want to check out Jordan's video series here . The PEM Editor replaces the Properties Window, Edit Property/Method, New Property, and New Method, and Document View tools in Visual FoxPro. Sound like a lot? There are 8 videos in all, totaling less than an hour of your viewing time. It's this type of tool, along with the Control Renamer , FoxTabs, Tabbing Navigation, among others, that shows the need for an installer for VFP that includes these great tools that improve the VFP IDE experience. It's something that has been brought up numerous times before, in VFPX discussions as well as at last year's Southwest Fox . Consider a single installer that runs automatically after a VFP installation (or on its own) that installs and sets up: - PEM Editor - Control Renamer - FoxTabs - Tabbing Navigation - Automated Build - the updated Sedna and FFC controls - Alternate SCCText (if desired) - Code Analyst (the above a...

When speaking about VFPx at last year's Southwest Fox conference, it became evident that there aren't a lot of avenues for finding out how to use various pieces of VFPx. So as part of the FoxShow , I'm creating videos designed to showcase VFPx components, starting with the Control Renamer. If you have ever wanted to rename a control in a class or form but were hesitant because of missing other code references, the Control Renamer is definitely a tool you want to try. Now, there are lots of areas where new options can be added into this tool - but they are primarily "extras" like setting color settings or some logging. Check it out below! FoxPro VFP

Congrats to Markus and Ken on starting CodeCast podcast. Not sure how well it's going to be considered a "late night show" - I've only ever listened to it during the day but it is good to hear short tidbits from all. Ken spoke about CodeCast back at SWFox . A treat from their Dec 10th episode - Pex - a tool to automatically create unit tests. From the MS research site: Pex (Program EXploration) is a white-box test generation tool. Given a hand-written parameterized unit test, Pex analyzes the code to determine relevant test inputs fully automatically. The result is a traditional unit test suite with high code coverage. In addition, Pex suggests to the programmer how to fix bugs. Hmmm...this might be a useful VFPX project in conjunction with FoxUnit . I especially love how they start and mix each episode with a little "I'm listening to CodeCast" - reminded me of the old FoxShow intros (before my HD died).

I keep on doing Google Searches for VFP and Sedna or VFP and VFPX to gauge traffic. It's not scientific and by in large, I use my own news aggregators for real check-ups but I like to use Google every now and then to get a reality check outside of the VFP blogosphere community. If you do that, it would seem there isn't that much activity in the VFP world since Sedna (many searches would suggest discussions started to dissipate after mid-2007. But this is hardly the case. Over the weekend, I noticed that Craig Boyd has continued to take it upon himself to refresh the VFPX site over at CodePlex, ensuring that ALL of the public-licensed code is now available for updates, including all of the XSource pieces and more. Although I'm not quite sure I like the idea of prefacing all of the base VFP Components with XSource, (especially since now WE are responsible for the growth of VFP), this is great news for everyone. Why? Let me take one tool that doesn't get a lot of respect: ...

Wow - there's been so much information going on in the FoxPro community over the past week and I've been extremely quiet (we lost a beloved pet on November 4th and it's been a bit harder than one might expect). Craig and Rick have done an excellent job covering the German Developer Conference where Rainer received a Lifetime Achievement Award (congrats Rainer). As Rick noted in an earlier post, there needs to be a more active awareness campaign on VFPX, likely with Codeplex across the board. I know that Alan Stevens has uploaded his VfPX MSBuild Project and there are so many other little projects that COULD be in there. I see that Craig Boyd has also started a countdown and that Cathy is now blogging (thanks to Doug and Rick's post on this). Now....back to blogging more regularly... Blogged with Flock