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VFP Books

Hentzenwerke Publishing

 

Other Publishers

It has been an interesting ride for publishers these past 5 years as Microsoft and other software manufacturers have spit out product faster than one can say "Release it when?".  This turnover has caused some publishers to back off writing books for every product for every release.  In the case of Visual FoxPro, their have also been rumors to the demise of the product which made publishers even more gun shy.  Fortunately, a few publishers have dedicated resources and attracted authors to write for Visual FoxPro.  This page contains information on books that I have bought personally and read, as well as some information on some books that I will likely buy in the future.

Hentzenwerke Publishing

Essential Book Series (Order online now at Hentzenwerke!)

 

 

 

  • More to come...
   

There are always good books to be found for various development platforms.  VFP was neglected a bit by the mainstream publishers when version 5.0 shipped.  Fortunately,  Whil Hentzen found some of the cream in the FoxPro community to collaborate on a series of books for VFP 6.0.  I put my purchase in at DevCon 98 when the books were announced, sight unseen, just based on the quality of the authors and topics being covered.  I have not been disappointed!

The best part of the purchase of any of these books is the fact that you also get access to a special web site where you can download the text in HTML Help format!  The value of the Hacker's Guide in this format is worth the price of all the books combined!

MegaFox: 1002 Things You Wanted to Know About Extending Visual FoxPro (MegaFox)



ISBN:
1-930919-27-1
Having participated in the writing of this book I have a hard time reviewing it.  You thought KiloFox has a long title, well this time we have our down ourselves.

The writing is complete, editing is in process and we expect the paper and e-book versions to be available real soon.

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

1001 Things You Wanted to Know About Visual FoxPro (KiloFox)



ISBN:
0-9655093-3-8
Having participated in the writing of this book I have a hard time reviewing it.  I can say I have read the chapters I wrote many times <g>, and have read Andy and Marcia's work.  When I was asked in November 1999 if I was interested in writing a few chapters for an upcoming book, I was hoping it was this book. Andy and Marcia have a knack of digging in to the different parts of Visual FoxPro and have found many nuggets of gold. 

I have not counted to see of there are 1001 things, but I'm guessing that you will find several new tips and gotchas within the pages. I know I have learned plenty writing my chapters. This was a fun and time consuming task, I hope you enjoy our effort. Released May 2000.

Amazon.com purchase and reviews
Barnes and Nobel purchase and reviews
Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

The Software Developer's Guide, Third Edition



ISBN:
1-930919-00-X
This book was written by Whil Hentzen and edited by Patty Nowak. Shipped August 2002.

More to come!

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

WebRAD: Building Database Applications on the Web with Visual FoxPro and Web Connection



ISBN:
1-930919-07-7
This book was written by Harold Chattaway, Randy Pearson, Whil Hentzen, and edited by Barbara Peisch. Shipped June 2002.

More to come!

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

The Visual FoxPro Report Writer: Pushing it to the Limits and Beyond



ISBN:
1-930919-25-5
This book was written by Cathy Pountney and edited by Dave Aring. Shipped April 2002.

More to come!

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

Debugging Visual FoxPro Applications



ISBN:
1-930919-20-4
This book was written by Nancy Folsom and edited by Kelly Conway. Shipped February 2002

More to come!

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro 7.0 (HackFox)



ISBN:
0-96550-936-2
The "Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro 7.0" is a follow up to the best selling "Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro 6.0". This edition was assembled by the fine cast of   Tamar Granor, Ted Roche, Doug Hennig, della Martin, and Steven Black! Shipped March 2002.

The HTML for this book should be a shortcut on your desktop.   This book attacks each command and dives deep inside to explain it better than even Microsoft has (I know this is not difficult <g>).  History, tips galore, and bug reports so you can avoid the traps that Tamar, Ted, Doug, and della have found and kindly shared with the FoxPro Community.

If you have not upgraded to VFP 7 for some strange reason, the 6.0 version of this book is still available from the publisher.

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

What's New In Visual FoxPro 7.0



ISBN:
1-930919-06-9
This book was written by Tamar E. Granor, Doug Hennig, Kevin McNeish and edited by Alex Wieder. Shipped July 2001.

I read this book after using the shipping version of VFP 7 for more than six months, and was surprised how many times I was scrambling to see how a new feature worked that I did not know about. Amazing! A must read for anyone using VFP 7, and an incentive for those still fighting the development wars with earlier versions.

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

Visual FoxPro Certification Exams Study Guide



ISBN:
1-930919-04-2
This book was written by Cindy Winegarten and Evan Delay, and edited by Tamar Granor. This book was hot off the presses in May 2001. It is the only book on VFP certification and if you only get one tip from it to help you pass the certification it will pay for itself. It provides a nice outline of the material need to be studied to pass the two VFP exams. It will not provide you with all the material you need to pass the exam, but points you to the some of the resources that can be used to prepare. Experience with these topics will certainly prepare you for the tests.

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

Essential SourceSafe



ISBN:
1-930919-05-0
This book was written by Ted Roche, and edited by Larry Whipple. This book was hot off the presses in May 2001. I was privileged to read an early pre-release version and after reading the final printed version can say this is a killer book to anyone who is thinking about, or is already using Visual SourceSafe daily to provide version control to their source code.

Ted not only describes how useful VSS is for VFP developers, but describes how it can be used and integrated into other developer tools. He steps you through the configuration, use and strategies to maintain a Visual Source Safe installation. Top gun book.

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

Building Visual FoxPro Applications with Visual FoxExpress



ISBN:
0-9
30919-03-4
This book was written by Bob Archer, Dan Jurden, and edited by Mike Feltman. This book hit my doorstep in late December 2000. I have started to read this because I want to better understand the Visual FoxExpress framework from F1 Technologies. It is one of the premier frameworks available for VFP developers interested in developing true n-tier apps. I not only found this book to be informative on VFE, but the authors provide some nice insight on developing with the framework and have written some extensions to VFE. Good book and a must have if you use VFE.

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

Office Automation with Visual FoxPro (AutoFox)



ISBN:
0-9655093-0-
3
Tamar Granor and Della Martin finished this book up in April of 2000.  This book is covering Automation to tools like Word, Excel, Outlook and others. Released April 2000.

The books have arrived and I have started to read it.  I'm guessing that this will be *the* book for VFP developers to better understand Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) for Office.  

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

Client-Server Applications with Visual FoxPro 6.0 and SQL Server 7.0



ISBN:
0-9
30919-01-8
Chuck Urwiler, Gary Dewitt, Mike Levy, Leslie Koorhan collaborated on *the* book for client-server development with Visual FoxPro. This was edited by Chaim Caron.  Released late September 2000.

The book has arrived and I have started to scan it.  No review at this time.

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

Effective Techniques for Application Development with Visual FoxPro 6.0

befftechcover.gif (58279 bytes)

ISBN:
0-96550-937-0
I have read the "Effective Techniques for Application Development with Visual FoxPro 6.0" and found plenty of great nuggets.  This is a good book by longtime gurus Jim Booth and Steve Sawyer, edited by Steven Dingle. The experience and insight that these two share with the reader is well worth the cost of the book in time saved avoiding mistakes that these authors tackle. 

There is a fantastic Referential Integrity routine written by Steve which was presented by Doug Hennig at DevCon 1999 as part of his Developer Tool (Builders) session.  You can also see a neat Hack SCX/VCX tool in this book, written by yours

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

The 1999 Developer's Guide

bdg99cover.gif (13860 bytes)

ISBN:
0-96550-932-X
I think I read two-thirds of Whil Hentzen's "The 1999 Developer's Guide" the night I got it in the mail.  This is an update to the valuable "The 1997 Developer's Guide".  So what has changed in the last two years?  Well, editor Jeff Donnici and unofficial editor Patty Nowak assisted Whil in adding the corporate developer perspective to the independent developer perspective of crafting custom software.  Whil has also added two more years of personal experience to this must have book for any type of software developer, this is not just for FoxPro.   He covers all phases of running a development shop from hiring people, to specing jobs, through development, testing, and on to production.

OUT OF PRINT!!!  See the new Software Developer's Guide 3rd Edition

Advanced Object Oriented Programming with Visual FoxPro 6.0

baoopcover.gif (44160 bytes)

ISBN:
0-96550-938-9
Markus Egger's "Advanced Object Oriented Programming with Visual FoxPro 6.0", edited by Mac Rubel, has 100 pages dedicated to documenting the FoxPro Foundation Classes (one of the best learning tools shipped initially with VFP 6.0).  I have seen no other place (including the product itself) that has this detail of information about the FFC.  He starts out with the basics of OOP (a must if new to VFP and/or OOP development).  Then there is the coverage of tools, habits, three-tier development, patterns, and Object Modeling.  A complete package on OO development with VFP.

 Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

Internet Applications with Visual FoxPro 6.0

bintappcover.gif (43143 bytes)

ISBN:
0-96550-938-7
When Whil signed Rick Strahl to pen the "Internet Applications with Visual FoxPro 6.0" he connected with the best person to write about the Internet.  I'm sure Gary DeWitt had fun editing this book as well.  Rick covers internet development by introducing the basics, stepping through server-side and client-side development, and discussing email, HTML, DHTML, COM, RDS, ASP, MTS, ADO, IIS, XML, and the rest of the acronym soup from Microsoft.  A must have book if you are considering developing Internet Applications or you want to understand more of the under the hood issues.

Best quote of the book: "And don't let a Dilbert-head tell you that it can't be done with the Fox!!!"  Until a late 1998 this was my life.   Thanks Rick!   

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

The Fundamentals: Building Visual Studio Application with Visual FoxPro 6.0 Foundation

bfundcover.gif (37546 bytes)

ISBN:
0-96550-935-
4
This book was released in December 1999 and is written by Whil Hentzen.  It has quickly become the number 1 recommendation for any developer who is new to development with Visual FoxPro.  I have not read the entire book, but the chapters I have read are excellent.  Whil starts from the beginning, with the basics of VFP development and eventually covers almost every nook and cranny of this fine development tool.

Whil covers the VFP language, the database engine, using the VFP designers, VFP controls, the creation of programs, object-oriented programming, issues building multi-user apps, and building your first application. He also covers some of the developer tools like the Debugger, Builders, Component Gallery, Coverage Profiler, ActiveX, integrating HTML Help, and the Setup Wizard.

Online ordering is available at Hentenwerke.com

Hentzenwerke Publishing has announced that new books are underway.

More details about this series can be found at www.Hentzenwerke.com.
 

Other Publishers

Prima Publishing

I first read the VFP 5 version of this book and found so many helpful tips that I immediately bought the VFP 6 version.  This is not a beginners book, it covers many advanced topics in-depth.  The thing I like about Rod, Ron and John's writing is that they discuss some hard won battles with Visual FoxPro and give the details of the way they are implementing solutions.

Top gun writers, top gun book.  I highly recommend this for all VFP developers.  I hope they are working on the VFP 7 version.  Another piece of information, if you think the VFP 6 version is a rehash of the VFP 5 book, think again.  While they are not entirely new, there are so many new topics that it is a completely different book.

More information can be found at Prima Publishing 

Addison-Wesley Publishing

So one might be wondering why I'm including and recommending a book from 1996 and published based on VFP 3, over 2 generations back.  Truth is, it is one of the books I cut my Object Oriented Development teeth on.  Except for some of the dated VFP screen shots, most of this book still applies.  If you are new to VFP and OOP, get this book.

More information can be found at Addison-Wesley Publishing 

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Copyrighted 1998-2006 Richard A. Schummer
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This page was last updated on 09-Sep-2006