Product Description
Starting with simple examples, you¿ll see how the multi-user, local area network applications that Visual FoxPro developers are used to building are constructed in Visual Basic .NET. You¿ll learn how to use Crystal Reports to build reports like the ones you build in FoxPro. You¿ll discover how to use DataAdapters and datasets instead of DBFs. You¿ll see examples of the paradigm shift that client-server programming imposes, and why .NET solves that problem (even when you wouldn¿t need to solve it in FoxPro.) And you¿ll learn how to give your FoxPro and Visual Basic applications smart client remote data access.
You¿ll understand how to begin the construction of a database project in Visual Basic with a container form and a MainMenu instead of using _Screen and MSYSMENU. You¿ll learn how variables are declared and used; how menus are controlled; how to use events, and why you have to use events in VB when they¿re unnecessary in FoxPro. You¿ll learn how to build inheritable forms, Visual Basic¿s answer to FoxPro¿s form class templates, to reduce programming to a minimum. You¿ll learn why properties are like variables in FoxPro, but more like functions in VB. And you¿ll learn where Visual Basic adds features that you didn¿t have in FoxPro and didn¿t know that you needed. You¿ll learn where to look for all of those FoxPro commands and functions that you need. And in case you haven¿t yet used SQL Server with FoxPro, the examples will demonstrate how it¿s done first in FoxPro, then in VB .NET.
- Shows how to build a typical application in Visual FoxPro, including DBF, SQL Server and Internet access; then demonstrates how to build the same type of application in VB .NET
- Highlights the main differences in specific issues, including printing, events, data access, creation and use of properties
- Contains an appendix listing the principal FoxPro commands and functions and their Visual Basic equivalents
- Includes a table showing where to find the settings in the FoxPro¿s Tools, Options menu pages in VB .NET
- Shows how to access data remotely from your FoxPro and VB .NET applications
- Explains how project DLLs are created and used in other projects within a solution
- Shows how to use middle tier business objects to simplify ongoing development
- Source code downloadable from www.samspublishing.com
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A must for VFP programmers migrating to .NET technologies.
Easy to understand, comprehensive.
Amazon User Rating: 4 / 5
Les Pinter did a great job of writing this book, but with the advent of VS2005 and SQL2005, all of the examples and screen shots have changed. Some are minor, but many are not.
If you have VS2003 or older and SQL2003 or older, the book can be really hard to follow.
Nothing against Mr. Pinter. His book is just a victim of the rapidly changing pace of technology.
Amazon User Rating: 3 / 5
If you are a FoxPro programmer and are required to start programming in Visual Studio .NET, or just need to learn some of the basics of .NET, because you see this in your future, than this book is for you.
Pinter is one of those programming geniuses who understands the workings of a language and can present it in an understandable way. He makes clear those things you just stare at and can’t make out.
I like walkthroughs, it’s the best way for me to understand what is going on in the creation of an application, and this book is one of those that took me through both a FoxPro and a VB .NET application that can access both a FoxPro database and a SQL Server database, from the same application.
The book came out in May of 2004, but was written before that, and uses VFP 7, VFP 8, VB .NET 2002, and SQL Server 2000, but you can still go through the code in VFP 9, VB .NET 2003, and SQL Server 2005. It still works, but there are newer ways to do things that should make it easier in both VFP 9 and the newly released VB .NET 2005, but don’t let this stop you, it’s still a great book.
The book covers .ASP and Database access over the Internet which is the future, no matter what anybody says, and we have to learn about this in great detail, and Pinter explains it all in a manner which even my old brain can understand. However, building .ASP .NET applications in Visual Studio 2005 will make all previous .ASP .NET books obsolete in my opinion. You still need the basics, though.
I’m the type that reads manuals, and I read every sentence of the book, so I found most of the glaring errors. Some were due to differences between the downloadable code and the code in the book, others were oversites, like making a phone number field 10 characters, but I was able to get around the differences, and a bunch of other problem errors that I promptly made a list of and sent off to the publisher, hoping that a new version of the book will be forthcoming in the future using the current development environments.
The ability to access two different databases (FoxPro and SQL Server) with just a few lines of code in the same FoxPro or VB .NET program, the ability to finally figure out how to make a standard form that can be used in all my applications, and Pinter’s straight shooting make this one of the better books in getting up to speed with .NET.
Amazon User Rating: 4 / 5
Mr. Pinter is definitively a great person, but most important, he is a great Programmer. He doesn’t like to be called as a “consultant” or “another complicated word”, sometimes used in this industry. Written for a programmer, targeted to programmers, this book is certainly a huge success in terms of conceptual clarity.
In his very personal style, the book guides to every former FoxPro developer to cross the technical bridge, aiding them to arrive the .NET coast, from the data point of view – after all, Visual FoxPro is a strong datacentric development tool, and .NET is a general purpose one – he could put both worlds together in his chapters.
Mr. Pinter is a living legend, not only in the FoxPro arena, but in the IT one as well. A wise witness of the computing evolution, many years as a successful programmer gave him the insight to get the essence of every problem, to get the shortest answer to a problem, to achieve a practical result in record time. He is certainly a pragmatic programmer, and in spite he still love FoxPro, this book covers the entire array of themes and issues a programmer will face when moving from VFP to .NET. An advocate of VB.NET, he consider VB as the .NET dialect of choice when migrating from Fox, because of their similarities. You can find almost no reference to C# in this book. This makes sense for a VFP developer, he or she will feel more comfortable dealing with VB code than with C sharp.
One of the most deceiving aspects of .NET -for the novice- is ADO.NET data access, due to its disconnected nature, and tiered architecture, in general this technology prevents the normal VFP programmer to master .NET data access in an acceptable time. Mr. Pinter covers this technological gap with the exact concept in the exact moment, and this can only be achieved for a person who exhibits excellent knowledge in both technologies.
In a word, “highly recommended”.
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
Two Microsoft products that are very well suited for database application development, Visual FoxPro and VB.NET are shown side by side. This book offers many insights into database development for anyone interested in a fast start up in either camp. The book is also of value just to get a better understanding of working with databases in either language. Time went into clarify the process of creating classes / objects in both languages. I found the examples very particle and useful. Les Pinter has been known for his down to earth practicle viewpoints and contributions for many years; both in the Visual Foxpro and Visual Basic world
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5