Andrew Ross MacNeill - Articles & White Papers

Using the VFPX Code Analyst

2007-10-01T07:31:00.000-04:00

The Code Analyst is a tool in VFPX designed to make FoxPro application development and code maintenance easier. It combines the extensibility with a Code references-like interface, analyzing pieces of code or entire projects and identifying key areas for refactoring - similar to the Code Analysis tool in Visual Studio.

You can identify your own project rules to highlight key areas of your application that may not match your own coding standards.

A PDF version is available here

Alerting Users in your FoxPro Application

2007-07-07T07:16:00.000-04:00

Every application needs a way of notifying users about something. The first "something" that may come to mind is an error, which unfortunately, needs a very special kind of alert or handler. But there are lots of other events that users need to be aware of, whether you as the developer plan for them or not. In January 2007 issue of FoxPro Advisor, Mike Lewis wrote about a forced system shutdown "event" that would let administrators get all users out of the system. If you are running a process that may take a while, you might need to let users know when it has been completed. If you have a large application, there could be many events that require user notification. Perhaps worse, there may be many events that your users could have reacted to, "if only they had known" before something was happening. Some applications rely on reports to display this information – but why waste paper when you can simply alert users to an event?

Refactoring in Visual FoxPro

2007-07-01T07:42:00.001-04:00

(this article was written prior to the Code Analyst but identifies the origins of where this tool came from)
With the sheer number of functions, commands and tools available within Visual FoxPro, it's easy to find more than one way to do the job.

So multiply the number of ways by the number of developers on your team, and it's pretty easy to see why code maintenance is pretty important.

Refactoring is about making code more useable (not changing the functionality but making it easy to understand and maintain).

This article presents 3 core concepts:
1 - Never Use Keywords for variable or field names
2 - Use the most recent functions where appropriate
3 - Encapsulate, encapsulate, encapsulate

VFPX: New Tools based on Existing Code

2007-06-01T07:27:00.000-04:00

Tools like Code Analyst and Class BrowserX all use code from existing Visual FoxPro tools. This is possible because in 2007, Microsoft released the code for all of their xBase components with a special license. This license allows developers to create and update components and applications based on these components. It explicitly gives two rights:

Copyright – "a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce the software, prepare derivative works of the software and distribute the software or any derivative works that you create"

Patent – "a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free patent license under licensed patents to make, have made, use, practice, sell, and offer for sale, and/or otherwise dispose of the software or derivative works of the software"

There are some limitations; primarily that you can't use the Microsoft name, must include any existing copyright notices, and that the software is provided "as-is" but the real benefit is with how it can apply to your existing applications. Want to build something similar to the Task Pane in your application? You don't need to reverse-engineer it – you can simply look in the existing code and re-use it. Thanks to the Fox Team!

Getting inside FoxPro Files

2007-03-01T07:50:00.000-05:00

Here's one of the world's worst kept secrets: almost everything in FoxPro is really just a FoxPro table.

Here's an article highlighting a useful tool from WhiteLight computing about how you can get inside FoxPro's designers, projects and reports.

Testing Toolbox

2005-09-07T08:22:00.000-04:00

You always test every aspect of your application--- right ?

Every application needs to get tested – either it gets done before the product is released, which is ideal or your users will do it for you, which usually turns out to be a big mistake. Even if you don't formally recognize testing in your project development cycle, you are still, in fact, testing from day one. Here are some tools and techniques that can help ease the pain of testing your Visual FoxPro application and adding it into your development process. Along the way, I'll try to answer some immediate objections to formalized testing.

Testing Visual FoxPro Applications

Show It and Support It : Screen Casting tools for everyone

2005-08-23T16:19:00.000-04:00

Here's an article that was originally promised to FoxPro Advisor but they turned it down as it wasn't FoxPro-enough. Enjoy...

As many third party vendors will tell you, building the product is only half the battle. The next part, getting people to use it, can be just as tricky. This isn't just a "vendor" issue either. Almost every application being put into production in any organization faces an uphill battle towards adoption. This is where all the great features you've spent months building help to get users excited about using it. But what good are features if your users don't know about them?

It used to be that building a self-running video or demonstration of software required a great deal of expertise and money, hiring a production company who did the work in their own studio. Today, developers and trainers are building these "screencasts" themselves and in this article I'll go through several options that are available to you.

Show It and Support It : Screen Casting tools

Automating Communication with Instant Messenger

2005-04-09T07:14:00.000-04:00

From Dec 2001 - but the usefulness is still there if you use an IM client. Code samples are for Visual FoxPro.
Automating Communication with Instant Messenger

Using Drag and Drop In Visual FoxPro

2005-04-09T07:06:00.000-04:00

I recently had to revisit this article (originally written in 2001) for a more recent project.

I was implementing drag/drop but it also had to co-exist with a right-mouse click and a Double-click event that were pulling up Visual FoxPro forms.

The objects being used weren't ActiveX controls but regular FoxPro controls, but if you use the standard DragMode and Drag events in the VFP base classes, they conflict with the Double-click and right-click events.

The solution? Use the OLE Drag and Drop.

Now one thing that's not mentioned in this article is a property called CreateDragImage. That's a property Windows uses often with ListView controls to create that shaded image that appears under the cursor when it's being dragged. Sadly, that function doesn't work properly with Visual FoxPro so you have to build your own cursor or icon to make it look right.

This is one of those things where the FoxTeam at Microsoft might want to look for ideas for Visual FoxPro 10. Why? Because these are the little things that work in other environments but don't work in VFP that bug the FoxPro developers. There may be a hundred (valid!) reasons for it and it would take an army to figure them all out but they always cause those little moments where people go "damn! - why doesn't this work."

Using Drag and Drop In Visual FoxPro

Using SAPI with Visual FoxPro

2005-04-09T06:56:00.000-04:00

An introduction to use SAPI and the use of speech recognition in Desktop Applications, written in Visual FoxPro

Using SAPI in FoxPro

Claiming Feeds

2005-04-08T16:54:00.000-04:00

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster

Using Genmenux

2004-09-19T13:46:00.000-04:00

A session and white paper I gave back in 1994 at the German Devcon. From the white paper:

If you have ever felt cheated by the FoxPro Menu Builder and the limits it places on you, GENMENUX offers a perfect solution.

Just as GENSCRNX extends the FoxPro Screen Builder in ways that the original developers never imagined, GENMENUX attempts to extend the Menu Builder. The idea behind the "X" series of generators is that there are times when FoxPro does not provide everything required in the Power Tools. The "X" series provides the additional functionality that can add incredible power to these tools.

A copy of this paper is also available here

Genmenux

Using FoxUnit

2004-09-11T11:33:00.000-04:00

Here's a quick overview on how to use FoxUnit, an open-source unit testing tool from Vision Data Solutions

Get it from FoxUnit.org

Outlook Automation with VFP

2004-09-02T14:57:00.000-04:00

An overview of how to automate Outlook with Visual FoxPro.

ActiveX Controls: TreeView, ListView and more...

2004-09-02T13:48:00.000-04:00

An early white paper on ActiveX controls, including how to use TreeViews,ListViews, DBI Technologies ctList (paid) , bbListview (shareware), and Eclipse's Cabinet control (a free control)

Diagramming FoxPro: Automating Visio

2004-09-02T08:14:00.000-04:00

From FoxTeach a few years ago, this paper explains how you can automate aspects of Microsoft Visio.

Using Installshield with VFP 8

2004-07-17T10:57:00.000-04:00

White paper on using InstallShield with VFP 8 that also discusses InstallShield's Update Service.

User Interface Design in Web and Windows

2004-07-17T10:44:00.000-04:00

This is the white paper on user interface design that was given at a number of conferences including DevTeach 2003 and others.

From the overview:
" Interfaces are a lot like people – no two are ever really alike. That can present a problem for developers and end-users. On one hand, you want to provide a clear , consistent and easy to use experience for the user. On the other, you want to showcase your graphical design skills. This session goes through some of the issues confronting interface designers today and how we can best deal with them. "

This session discusses the benefits of the Inductive User Interface, a concept that Microsoft initially showed in MS Money 2001 but has found its way into certain aspects of Windows XP, Office and other tools.

Is the Inductive Approach really the best way? Well, it certainly works for new users, who can't discern between icons. As I look at my tool bar in IE right now, I can easily see that the magnifying glass means "Search" and that the left arrow means "Back". One icon that is pretty self-evident is the "Home" icon. Ever think about that one? I really back before 1989, a certain six-colored company introduced a product called Hypercard that featured, you guessed it, an icon for "Home". They really haven't changed from that time. But others certainly need some clarification and that's what the Inductive interface is about - it is TASK-oriented for those things that need to be explained. It's all over the web and slowly making its way into desktop apps.

I work with an application for tracking issues that uses F5 to Discard and F6 to Save. Do you know how many times I've lost work because I mistakenly hit F5 instead?

Anyways...enjoy and please post comments if you like this format. Maybe you would prefer it if the articles or white papers were put up as posts. If so, please let me know that as well.

Welcome to White Papers, Conference Notes and Articles

2004-07-14T17:29:00.000-04:00

I'll be posting stuff here very shortly.