Andrew MacNeill - AKSEL Solutions

I just posted The FoxShow #47 that features a great interview with Tod McKenna on the rules of data normalization (the Forms of normalization) and how they apply (or don't) to databases (SQL Server , FoxPro, etc) for general application use and then also for reporting. It comes in around 50 minutes - but I figure that makes up for the fact that I wasn't able to get one out in the past few weeks. Enjoy! Blogged with Flock

Doug noted it here and if you haven't used it yet, it's definitely worth the download for Visual FoxPro. I've been using this tool for creating properties so often now that I've forgotten what the original one looks like. Now, they've taken it one step further with the addition of Marcia's Edit Property/Method dialog. Doug's post has a rundown on more of the new features but this new piece totally rocks, making both dialogs dockable and non-modal. How does that help developers? You write code and decide that you want to need a new property or method. Habit kicks in and you close your code dialog and click New Property. Now you can't remember the exact name of the property. No problem - open up the code window (while the New Property dialog is still visible) to create it. A lot less trouble closing and opening windows. Having the Edit dialog being non-modal makes it also really easy to document properties and methods (if you don't fill in the descrip...

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

I was concerned a while back about where VFPSolutionExplorer.com had gone - it's nice to see that Craig Bailey has re-forwarded it to the FoxTabs page on this blog. If you haven't played with FoxTabs before, it totally rocks! And it definitely gets around - I was speaking to one of my colleagues about various tools - and when he shared his screen, there it was! (and no, I hadn't told him about it!) Sadly, on the site, he does note that the SolutionExplorer itself has been put on hold. That's too bad as too many great FoxPro projects get put on hold while developers have to grapple with daily life. Still, we can get some ideas about what it was all about from the original powerpoint . It's still a great idea - maybe this concept will lend itself slightly to what Craig, Bo and Alan are working on ...until then, however, I may have to come up with my own workaround for it...

Tod had asked and I'm sure there will be lots of blogging coming from Southwest Fox. Steve Bodnar has already started SOME of the blogging about going. Update: Steve continues his coverage with GREAT notes on each of the sessions. In addition, the FoxShow has some updates and the interview with Servoy. As well, while I won't be there (sigh), I am planning on having a few calls with Rick and some vendors who are attending while the conference is going on. Instead of waiting for a full show, I plan on posting the updates right away onto the FoxShow site. I definitely will be speaking with Servoy, the Java development platform who is attending the show, hoping to show Fox developers the "java" side of life. I'll keep this post updated with the other blogging that's going on. If you're on del.icio.us, why not tag it with swfox2007.

It's been a while since their original announcement but dbi-Tech has provided 8 of their controls to all VFP developers using VFP SP2. I covered them about a year ago in FoxPro Advisor (hmm...maybe now it's time to put some revised articles online again). If you've never used dbi-tech's controls, they all work pretty much the same way so once you get one under your belt, you're well on your way. Controls that may be of immediate use to FoxPro developers - ctToolbar (Full XP styling Toolbar and menus), ctListBar (similar to Emerson Reed's Themed Controls in VFPX ), ctDays (a scheduling style control similar to Outlook), and ctContact (an enhanced list control) DBI Technologies Inc. | VFP 9.0 SEDNA Components

Over on Rhonda Tipton's Weekly Link Post 10 « Rhonda for October 7th, she pointed to a post by Steven Smith about Nice products for developers. While the post has a lot of details about VS 2005 and the like, it pointed to a little tool called SlickRun from Bayden Systems. I had previously tried JetStart which gives more of a "Windows Vista" look to the Start menu but found it lacking. SlickRun takes a different approach putting up a little window in the lower right corner of your desktop (image shown below) but click it and type in a "magic word" and it will start whatever you want to use. Since you control what you want to call things, you can create basic words like "vfp9" or "vfp8" or project-specific words like "clientx" if you want to start up a project in a particular directory. It also includes a quick little jot note function (accessible by the WinKey+J). If you don't want it to appear on your window, you can also hide ...