Shedding Some Light

Back in March of 2008 I wrote a white paper to help Visual FoxPro developers install Visual FoxPro 9 Release to Manufacturing (RTM), Service Pack 1 (SP1), and Service Pack 2 (SP2) all on the same computer. At the time I hoped the readers found the information presented in the white paper a useful guide in getting the different versions of Visual FoxPro 9 installed and working on their development machine. The main reason I wrote it was to encourage developers who were hesitant to install Visual FoxPro 9 Service Pack 2 to get it installed and begin the testing process with their apps. The reputation of VFP 9 SP2 was not all that positive as there were some bugs that made it challenging when released.

Over the years I have updated the white paper to include the VFP 9 SP2 hotfixes, the Fox Community supported VFP 9 Help file on VFPX, highlight some issues with the Virtual Store when upgrading VFP 9 to the latest Service packs, and corrected some bad Web links along the way. Several people have contributed feedback and suggestions along the way.

In the past few months I have talked with several developers who are still running the original VFP 9 SP2 release, building apps, and deploying them without the VFP 9 SP2 hotfixes. I wanted to refer them to the white paper on the White Light Computing Web site, but I knew recently that the white paper became inaccurate. So I took some time this evening to update it and get it posted.

The reason for the update is that the VFP 9 SP2 hotfix downloads hosted on Microsoft’s Code Gallery Web site disappeared when Microsoft killed the Web site. All the hosted files were removed. The Fox Community jumped into action as soon as this became known and started a new project on VFPX to host this very important VFP 9 SP2 Hotfix download. Additionally, I reviewed the entire white paper, added download information for the VFP 9 Reporting Applications (also a VFPX project) to fix some user interface nits and an important hi-resolution monitor bug fix, fixed a couple bad links, and updated some figures and folder names to make it more current from the original writing in 2008. I also adding some marketing materials for the books I have written over the last 15 years.

This white paper has become more than a guide to set up different folders for the different VFP 9 versions. It also is current documentation on where to find all the core Visual FoxPro 9 download files.

I certainly hope some of you have found this white paper useful over the years (hard to believe it has been 7 years since I originally wrote it). If you have not had a chance to get the latest hotfixes for VFP 9, make sure you follow the links in this blog and go get them installed. I personally have seen the nasty reporting bug fixed in this build. With this bug fixed and all the improvements from VFPX over the years, I find VFP 9 SP2 very reliable and stable.

I see this question pop up on the forums from time-to-time and get personal emails asking: where can I get a license to Visual FoxPro 9??

Most answers point developers to look on Ebay or check CDW, but the fact is Microsoft is not selling them anymore. If you have an MSDN license you also might have a license to Visual FoxPro. Short of that, legal copies are harder to uncover these days.

Good news and bad news. First the good news, the German FoxPro User Group still has a license to sell copies of Visual FoxPro 9 with their Visual Extend framework. The bad news is that license expires on January 12, 2015 (8 days from now!). So, if you still need licenses for Visual FoxPro, it may be a good idea to grab as many as you think you might need in case you need them in the future.

See Rainer’s post for all the details.

Registration for Southwest Fox and Southwest Xbase++ is now available. See the speaker page for a list of speakers and the session page for a list of fantastic sessions. The Super-Saver Registration, which saves you $125, is available only through June 30th, so don’t wait. You also can select a free pre-conference session at the same time.

White Light Computing is proud to be a Platinum Sponsor for the eighth year. Our whole team will be at the conference. Frank Perez and I are speaking at the conference too.

Putting on a conference is a risky endeavor. Conference centers require a guaranteed minimum income to block the dates of a conference; for a conference like Southwest Fox/Xbase++, that minimum is in the tens of thousands of dollars. We have to commit to the conference center by July 2nd and need your support by July 1st to make that commitment. We will not do “We need your help” appeals this year so please do not wait, get registered by June 30th! We know most of you like to wait until the last minute to avoid the credit card bill arriving too soon. We will not charge any attendee credit cards or cash any checks until sometime in the second half of July or early August (once we’ve committed to going forward), so this no longer is a reason to wait.

I look forward to seeing you in October!

Last minute, just 14 hours to go! Now is the time to get your ideas submitted.

Just a reminder that session proposals for Southwest Fox 2014 and Southwest Xbase++ are due by 8 AM EDT this Friday, March 21. If you’re interested in speaking, please see http://www.swfox.net/callforspeakers.aspx for instructions. We look forward to hearing from you.

We are grateful for all the submissions so far, but we are anxiously awaiting to hear from the rest of you what you would like to share with your peers. Thanks for considering.

The VFPX book is finally available for purchase!

Just in case you have been busy, or on vacation, or not on Twitter or Facebook where I posted this earlier, our book “VFPX: Open Source Treasure for the VFP Developer” is available directly from dFPUG in Germany. (this book is not available from Hentzenwerke, so no need to check for it there)

Go to the FoxRockX home page and click the Get VFPX! on the menu. US$49.90 is the introductory price.

From what I have been told, Rainer has been swamped and short-handed so fulfilling the orders is slower than most people expect. Please be patient. I think you will find it has been worth the wait.

From the back of the book is something we hope sounds like a future review on Amazon.com:

This book is terrific! I had no idea VFPX was this extensive. This book documents 35 VFPX projects in 600 pages. It is the encyclopedia of VFPX projects for Visual FoxPro developers written by the leading VFPX authorities in our community. The authors share their real world experience, which saves you time and provides a jumpstart on using the different tools and components. At first glance, VFPX can be a bit daunting. This book is organized so you can select any VFPX project you want to know more about and read about it in a single chapter (except for a few projects that are so big, a single chapter wasn’t sufficient). By the time you finish the chapter, you know how to install the tool or component, what it does, and all the functionality it provides. The authors share the benefits and the shortcomings in great detail. This book saves you time, and helps you improve your Visual FoxPro development experience and the way your applications work for your customers. Get it today!

While I am slightly biased, I think this may be the single most important book on Visual FoxPro since “Hacker’s Guide to Visual FoxPro 7.0″

Special thanks to my fellow authors and partners Doug Hennig, Jim Nelson, Eric Selje, and Tamar E. Granor. It was a pleasure working with everyone on this massive project.

One last quick reminder: you can save $50 by registering with the early-bird registration discount. The deadline is this Saturday, August 31st. Every registered attendee gets admission and white papers to all regular conference sessions.

http://geekgatherings.com/Registration

To see what a couple of our speakers have to say about their session, check out the conference blog.

Only 50 days until we gather in Glibert!

The Ceil Silver Ambassador Fund raises money from the VFP community to bring a developer to the Southwest Fox conference as an ambassador for the developers in his or her country. This gives the recipient the opportunity to meet and share experiences with developers attending Southwest Fox and gives other attendees the opportunity to learn about VFP development in the recipient’s country.

We are looking for nominations from the VFP community for the 2013 recipient. To nominate someone you think deserves to be selected, please email their name and a brief list of their contributions to the VFP community to ambassadorfund@swfox.net. Names must be submitted no later than May 31, 2013.

In addition, we are looking for donations to allow us to pay for the travel costs for the ambassador. We urge you to consider donating any amount you see fit, small or large, to this fund. See http://www.swfox.net/ambassador.aspx for details. 100% of donated money goes to the travel costs for the ambassador. Not a single penny is used to cover administrative costs. All time managing the fund and working through the selection process is donated. No one is paid for their time.

The Ceil Silver Ambassador Fund brings a developer to the Southwest Fox conference as an ambassador for the developers in his or her country. This gives the recipient the opportunity to meet and share experiences with developers attending Southwest Fox and gives other attendees the opportunity to learn about VFP development in the recipient’s country. The trip is paid for by the VFP community’s donations to the Fund.

Nominations

We are looking for nominations from the VFP community for the 2013 recipient. The Ambassador selection committee consists of Southwest Fox organizers Rick Schummer, Tamar Granor, and Doug Hennig, former Ambassadors Emerson Santon Reed, Cesar Chalom, Bernard Bout, Borislav Borissov, and Jun Tangunan, and VFP community members Christof Wollenhaupt and Rick Bean. To nominate someone you think deserves to be selected, please email their name and a brief list of their contributions to the VFP community to ambassadorfund@swfox.net. Names must be submitted no later than May 31, 2013.

Donations

In addition, we are looking for donations to allow us to pay for the travel costs for the ambassador. We urge you to consider donating any amount you see fit, small or large, to this fund. See the Ceil Silver Ambassador Fund page for details. 100% of donated money goes to the travel costs for the ambassador. Not a single penny is used to cover administrative costs. All time managing the fund and working through the selection process is donated. No one is paid for their time.

Thank you for any donation you make.

Note: if you want to send in a donation via PayPal, please mark it as a “gift” so we do not incur transaction fees.