Visual FoxPro

From Free net encyclopedia

Visual FoxPro is a data-centric object-oriented and procedural programming language produced by Microsoft. It is derived from FoxPro (originally known as FoxBASE) which was developed by Fox Technologies beginning in 1984; Fox Technologies merged with Microsoft in 1992 and the software acquired further features and the prefix "Visual". The last version of FoxPro (2.6) worked under Mac OS, DOS, Windows, and Unix: Visual FoxPro 3.0, the first "Visual" version, dropped the platform support to only Mac and Windows, and later versions were Windows-only. The current version of Visual FoxPro is COM-based and Microsoft has stated that they do not intend to create a Microsoft .NET version.

FoxPro is a member of the class of languages commonly referred to as "xBase" languages, which have syntax based on the dBase programming language. Other members of the xBase language family include Clipper and Recital. (A history of the early years of xBase can be found in the dBASE entry).

Visual FoxPro, commonly abbreviated to VFP, is typically viewed by the general public as being merely a Database Management System (DBMS). This ignores the fact that it includes not only a DBMS engine, but also a full-featured Programming Language, as well. It can be used to write not just traditional fat client applications, but also middleware and web applications.

In late 2002, some community members demonstrated that Visual FoxPro can run on Linux under the Windows emulator Wine. In 2003, this led to complaints by Microsoft: it was claimed that the deployment of runtime FoxPro code on non-Windows machines violates the End User License Agreement.

Rumors suggesting that Microsoft intends to end support for FoxPro have been common since Microsoft's acquisition of the product, despite the product having one of the longest support timeframes for a Microsoft product (extended support until 2014). VFP 9 was released to manufacturing on December 17, 2004, and the Fox team is currently working on a project codenamed Sedna which will be built on top of the VFP9 codebase and consist mainly of Xbase components that support a number of interoperability scenarios with various Microsoft technologies including SQL Server 2005, .NET, WinFX, Windows Vista, and Office 12. The development of version 9 is ongoing with a service pack that was released December 8, 2005. On March 1st, 2006 Microsoft released a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Sedna. According to the Fox team, the current plan "for releasing Service Pack 2 for VFP 9.0 will be sometime in 2007, at the same time or near the same time of the release of Sedna".

In December 2005, VFP broke into the top 20 on TIOBE's Programming Community Index for the first time.

1 Code samples
- 1.1 Object
- 1.2 Data handling
2 Version information
- 2.1 Operating system compatibility
  - 2.1.1 Notes:
- 2.2 Information on Executable Files
3 Beta code names
4 External links

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Code samples

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Object

loForm = CREATEOBJECT("HiForm")
loForm.Show(1)

DEFINE CLASS HiForm AS Form
	AutoCenter = .T.
	Caption = "Hello, World"
	
	ADD OBJECT lblHi as Label WITH;
		Caption = "Hello, World!"
ENDDEFINE

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Data handling

* Create a table
CREATE TABLE randData (iData I)

* Populate with random data using xBase and SQL DML commands
FOR i = 1 TO 50
	INSERT INTO randData (iData) VALUES (RAND() * 1000000000)
ENDFOR

* Place an index on the data 
INDEX ON iData TAG iData
CLOSE ALL

* Display sorted data using xBase commands
USE randData
SET ORDER TO iData
GO TOP
LIST NEXT 10	&& First 10 (end-of-line comment)
SKIP 81
LIST NEXT 10	&& Last 10
CLOSE ALL

* Browse sorted data using SQL DML commands
SELECT * from randData ORDER BY iData DESCENDING

For another sample, see the Visual FoxPro implementation of the Levenshtein Distance algorithm at WikiSource.

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Version information

[edit]

Operating system compatibility

**Supported Windows Versions**
Version	VFP 6.0	VFP 7.0	VFP 8.0	VFP 9.0
Windows NT 4.0	Yes	Yes	No Template:Ref	No Template:Ref
Windows 95	Yes	Runtime only	No Template:Ref	No
Windows 98	Yes	Yes	Runtime only	Runtime only
Windows ME	Yes	Yes	Runtime only	Runtime only
Windows 2000	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows XP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows 2003	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Vista	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

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Notes:

Template:Note - VFP8 applications are not supported but can be run under WIndows NT 4.0
Template:Note - The free patch for VFP 9.0 has been created by the German FoxPro User Group (dFPUG) and is available at the dFPUG document portal in the directory http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Dokumente/Freeware/. It allows you to run VFP 9.0 applications on NT 4.0. Microsoft has indicated that this will be addressed in VFP 9.0 SP1.
Template:Note - The second-level menus don't work under Windows 95.

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Information on Executable Files

Version	VERSION() returns	EXE Size	EXE Date	DLL Size	DLL Name
VFP 9	Visual FoxPro 09.00.0000.2412 for Windows	5,620 kb	13-DEC-2004	4,600 kb	VFP9R.DLL
VFP 8	Visual FoxPro 08.00.0000.3117 for Windows	5,236 kb	25-SEP-2003	4,200 kb	VFP8R.DLL
VFP 7	Visual FoxPro 07.00.0000.9465 for Windows	4,260 kb	04-JAN-2002	3,344 kb	VFP7R.DLL
VFP 6	Visual FoxPro 06.00.8961.00 for Windows	4,091 kb	18-AUG-2000	3,295 kb	VFP6R.DLL
VFP 5	Visual FoxPro 5.0.0.344	4,072 kb	20-AUG-1996	3,146 kb	VFP500.DLL
VFP 3	Visual FoxPro 03.00.00.0711 for Windows	4,374 kb	16-DEC-1995	3,657 kb	VFP300.ESL
FPW 2.6a	FoxPro 2.6a for Windows	2,444 kb	28-SEP-1994	n/a	n/a