Out group's exciting summer continues next Wednesday, July 16, with a visit from Cathy Pountney to present "Customizing Your Vertical Market Application." As usual, dinner begins at 6:30 with the meeting at 7 PM. Once again this month, we'll provide dinner for the group; please send an email to tamar@tamargranor.com if you're planning to come for dinner, so we get enough.
The meeting location is Valley Forge Pension Management, 715 Twining Road, Suite 202, Dresher, PA 19025. Note that the Oreland offramp from PA 309 Southbound has been permanently closed. The easiest way to reach the meeting location from the PA Turnpike or 309 Southbound is to come through the Fort Washington Industrial Park.
Cathy Pountney is a five-time recipient of the Microsoft VFP MVP award and has been developing software for 26 years, many of which were as an independent consultant specializing in FoxPro. In 2001 she had the privilege of spending six months as a contractor onsite in Redmond with the Microsoft Fox Team. She now works for Memorial Business Systems writing software for the cemetery and funeral home industry. Cathy has spoken at many FoxPro conferences and user groups across the U.S. and Canada, written articles for various magazines, and her book, The Visual FoxPro Report Writer: Pushing it to the Limit and Beyond, is available from Hentzenwerke Publishing. You can contact Cathy at cathy@frontier2000.com, view her website at http://www.frontier2000.com, and view MBS’s website at www.mbs-intl.com.
Customizing Your Vertical Market App:
Writing a vertical market application can be very rewarding. You write one application, sell it numerous times, and sit back while the money rolls in. Well, that’s the theory anyway. The reality is that often times, new clients want to buy your software, as long as you can change this one little thing. Managing custom code for various clients within your application can easily turn into a nightmare as your client base expands. This session shows you how to implement a customization methodology in your vertical market application that keeps your standard code independent from your custom code, yet have the two code bases play nice together.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
New meeting day--second Tuesday
To accommodate our hosts at Valley Forge Pension Management, and to try to accommodate more of our members, beginning with the August meeting, we'll meet on the second Tuesday of the month. So, our next few meeting dates are:
Wednesday, June 18 -- Marcia Akins (dinner provided)
Wednesday, July 16 -- Cathy Pountney (dinner provided)
Tuesday, August 12
Tuesday, September 9
The meeting starts at 7 PM, with bring-your-own dinner starting at 6:30 PM. We charge $5 per meeting.
Wednesday, June 18 -- Marcia Akins (dinner provided)
Wednesday, July 16 -- Cathy Pountney (dinner provided)
Tuesday, August 12
Tuesday, September 9
The meeting starts at 7 PM, with bring-your-own dinner starting at 6:30 PM. We charge $5 per meeting.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
June meeting--Marcia Akins on Using the API
Next week, we begin an exciting summer for our group. On Wednesday, June 18, Marcia Akins will present "Practical uses for the Windows API". Next month, on July 16, Cathy Pountney will present "Customizing Your Vertical Market App."
We'll provide dinner for both meetings. As usual, the meeting starts at 7, but dinner will begin at 6:30 PM. Please email tamar@tamargranor.com if you're planning to come for dinner for the June meeting, so we make sure to get enough food.
Location: Valley Forge Pension Management, 715 Twining Road, Suite 202, Dresher, PA 19025. (Note: The Oreland offramp from PA 309 Southbound has been permanently closed. The easiest way to reach the meeting location from the PA Turnpike or 309 Southbound is to come through the Fort Washington Industrial Park.)
Marcia's session introduces Windows API programming for Visual FoxPro developers. She begins by reviewing what the API is and how to translates the examples that are often in Visual Basic or Visual C++ into good old Visual FoxPro syntax. She will then present several practical examples using Windows API functions to do things that cannot be accomplished using native Visual FoxPro commands. These examples include code to read the Windows Registry and retrieve user settings from the Control Panel, code to ensure that the screen is really locked when we must manipulate the appearance of ActiveX controls in our VFP forms, and much more.
Bio: Marcia Akins is an independent Consultant and software developer who for the past few years has worked primarily with Visual FoxPro and SQL Server. She and her husband, Andy Kramek own and operate Tightline Computers, Inc. from their home in Akron, Ohio. She has been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional since 1999 and also has Microsoft Certified Professional qualifications for both Distributed and Desktop Applications in Visual FoxPro.
Marcia co-authored the Kitbox column in FoxTalk Magazine from November, 2001 through July of 2006. She and her husband, Andy, then wrote a regular column in The Advisor Guide to Microsoft Visual FoxPro database Development until the end of 2007. Their popular Kitbox column is now being published in FoxRockX magazine. Marcia's published work also includes several articles for both FoxPro Advisor and FoxTalk magazines as well as the very successful book "1001 Things You Wanted to Know About VFP" (Hentzenwerke publishing, 2000) and "MegaFox: 1002 Things You Wanted to Know About Extending VFP" (Hentzenwerke publishing, 2002).
Speaking engagements include SouthwestFox(Tempe, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007), OzFox(Sydney, Australia, July 2003), Visual FoxPro Devcon (Prague, Czech Republic, June 2002, 2005, 2007), Essential Fox (Kansas City, 2002, 2003, 2004), Conference to the Max (Holland, May 2000 and May 2002), Great Lakes Great Database Workshop (Milwaukee, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006), Advisor Devcon (San Diego, September 2001 and Fort Lauderdale, September 2002), German Devcon (Frankfurt, November 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007), as well as user group meetings in Europe and the U.S.
Web site: www.tightlinecomputers.com
We'll provide dinner for both meetings. As usual, the meeting starts at 7, but dinner will begin at 6:30 PM. Please email tamar@tamargranor.com if you're planning to come for dinner for the June meeting, so we make sure to get enough food.
Location: Valley Forge Pension Management, 715 Twining Road, Suite 202, Dresher, PA 19025. (Note: The Oreland offramp from PA 309 Southbound has been permanently closed. The easiest way to reach the meeting location from the PA Turnpike or 309 Southbound is to come through the Fort Washington Industrial Park.)
Marcia's session introduces Windows API programming for Visual FoxPro developers. She begins by reviewing what the API is and how to translates the examples that are often in Visual Basic or Visual C++ into good old Visual FoxPro syntax. She will then present several practical examples using Windows API functions to do things that cannot be accomplished using native Visual FoxPro commands. These examples include code to read the Windows Registry and retrieve user settings from the Control Panel, code to ensure that the screen is really locked when we must manipulate the appearance of ActiveX controls in our VFP forms, and much more.
Bio: Marcia Akins is an independent Consultant and software developer who for the past few years has worked primarily with Visual FoxPro and SQL Server. She and her husband, Andy Kramek own and operate Tightline Computers, Inc. from their home in Akron, Ohio. She has been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional since 1999 and also has Microsoft Certified Professional qualifications for both Distributed and Desktop Applications in Visual FoxPro.
Marcia co-authored the Kitbox column in FoxTalk Magazine from November, 2001 through July of 2006. She and her husband, Andy, then wrote a regular column in The Advisor Guide to Microsoft Visual FoxPro database Development until the end of 2007. Their popular Kitbox column is now being published in FoxRockX magazine. Marcia's published work also includes several articles for both FoxPro Advisor and FoxTalk magazines as well as the very successful book "1001 Things You Wanted to Know About VFP" (Hentzenwerke publishing, 2000) and "MegaFox: 1002 Things You Wanted to Know About Extending VFP" (Hentzenwerke publishing, 2002).
Speaking engagements include SouthwestFox(Tempe, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007), OzFox(Sydney, Australia, July 2003), Visual FoxPro Devcon (Prague, Czech Republic, June 2002, 2005, 2007), Essential Fox (Kansas City, 2002, 2003, 2004), Conference to the Max (Holland, May 2000 and May 2002), Great Lakes Great Database Workshop (Milwaukee, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006), Advisor Devcon (San Diego, September 2001 and Fort Lauderdale, September 2002), German Devcon (Frankfurt, November 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007), as well as user group meetings in Europe and the U.S.
Web site: www.tightlinecomputers.com
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Cathy Pountney coming in July
Summer '08 is going to be an exciting one for our Philly VFUG. Following Marcia Akins' visit on June 18, Cathy Pountney will speak at our July 16 meeting. Her topic is "Customizing Your Vertical Market App." Cathy, the author of "The Visual FoxPro Report Writer: Pushing it to the Limit and Beyond" (Hentzenwerke Publishing), spent six months contracting with the VFP team in Redmond in 2001.
We'll provide dinner at both the June and July meetings. So for $5, you get dinner and a chance to hear one of the leading lights in the VFP community.
We'll provide dinner at both the June and July meetings. So for $5, you get dinner and a chance to hear one of the leading lights in the VFP community.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Marcia Akins to visit in June
Mark your calendars now for June 18, when Marcia Akins will speak to our group. Marcia is the co-author of "1001 Things You Wanted to Know about Visual FoxPro" and "MegaFox: 1002 Things You Wanted to Know about Extending Visual FoxPro," as well as the KitBox column. She'll speak on "Practical Uses of the Windows API."
April meeting--Bill Fitzgerald on Scoresheet plus Code Review
Our next meeting will be next Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 7 PM at Valley Forge Pension Management, 715 Twining Road, Suite 202, Dresher, PA 19025. (The Oreland offramp from PA 309 Southbound has been permanently closed. The easiest way to reach the meeting location from the PA Turnpike or 309 Southbound is to come through the Fort Washington Industrial Park.)
As always, you can bring dinner and arrive as early as 6:30 for some time to mingle.
We have a double-header this month. First, member Bill Fitzgerald will do a mini-session on Scoresheet, a VFP 9 report generator.
Scoresheet is a tool which allows endusers to customize Financial Statements using data from Accpac Pro Series. The tool uses some of the advanced features of the VFP 9 report writer by allowing the user to create a variable number of columns and formats in a secure setting.
Bill Fitzgerald is founder and president of Woodbury Systems Group, a Long Island based consultancy specializing in using Visual Foxpro to develop and support Financial, Distribution and Manufacturing System for small to mid-sized businesses.
He founded Woodbury Systems Group in 1984 after a long career in corportate MIS and Financial management. Since he moved to Hamilton NJ in 2006, his daughter and long-time partner Deirdre Volpe has assumed the responsibilities of running the business in New York and Bill has concentrated on programming, golf, painting and his family.
Bill saw combat with the United States Air Force. He has a BS from Adelphi University and is a Visual FoxPro MCP.
After Bill's presentation, Bob Pierce will lead an informal code review. All members are encouraged to bring some Visual Foxpro code that they have issues with or would just like to get feedback on from the group. We will examine the code samples as a group to discuss was to improve the codes reliability, reusability, and maintainability. We will discuss some of the issues involved in refactoring the code.
As always, you can bring dinner and arrive as early as 6:30 for some time to mingle.
We have a double-header this month. First, member Bill Fitzgerald will do a mini-session on Scoresheet, a VFP 9 report generator.
Scoresheet is a tool which allows endusers to customize Financial Statements using data from Accpac Pro Series. The tool uses some of the advanced features of the VFP 9 report writer by allowing the user to create a variable number of columns and formats in a secure setting.
Bill Fitzgerald is founder and president of Woodbury Systems Group, a Long Island based consultancy specializing in using Visual Foxpro to develop and support Financial, Distribution and Manufacturing System for small to mid-sized businesses.
He founded Woodbury Systems Group in 1984 after a long career in corportate MIS and Financial management. Since he moved to Hamilton NJ in 2006, his daughter and long-time partner Deirdre Volpe has assumed the responsibilities of running the business in New York and Bill has concentrated on programming, golf, painting and his family.
Bill saw combat with the United States Air Force. He has a BS from Adelphi University and is a Visual FoxPro MCP.
After Bill's presentation, Bob Pierce will lead an informal code review. All members are encouraged to bring some Visual Foxpro code that they have issues with or would just like to get feedback on from the group. We will examine the code samples as a group to discuss was to improve the codes reliability, reusability, and maintainability. We will discuss some of the issues involved in refactoring the code.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
March 19: Bob Pierce on the Guineu Project
Our next meeting will be Wednesday, March 19 at 7:30 PM. We'll try once again (third time's the charm) to hear Bob Pierce talk about the Guineu Project.
Location: Valley Forge Pension Management, 715 Twining Road, Suite 202, Dresher, PA 19025
Note: The Oreland offramp from PA 309 Southbound has been permanently closed. The easiest way to reach the meeting location from the PA Turnpike or 309 Southbound is to come through the Fort Washington Industrial Park.
Feel free to bring something to eat and arrive as early as 6:30.
Topic: Guineu Project
The Guineu project is one of the most promising solutions to the VFP developer to be able to extend the viability of the language we all love. Being run by Christof Wollenhaupt, one of the brightest minds in the Fox community, the Guineu project is a replacement set of runtime DLL's that run your compiled VFP code in a .NET environment.
So what does that mean for us, for starters your VFP application can now run on most platforms that support .NET. This includes future versions of MicroSoft OS, Linux, PDA's, and web pages.
Currently the project is still very young and is far from being complete, but it already provides usable functionality and is being updated aggressively. I will show how to take a simple existing program, compile it with Guineu, and run it in Windows, Linux, PDA, and a web page.
More information can be found at www.foxpert.com and the beta is available free.
Speaker: Robert Pierce
Robert Pierce is currently the Manager of Information Services and senior developer at Smooth-On Inc., a rubber and plastics manufacturing company located in Easton, PA. With 23 years of custom Fox programming experience; he has been a consultant, a contract programmer, and part of the TIW development team.
Location: Valley Forge Pension Management, 715 Twining Road, Suite 202, Dresher, PA 19025
Note: The Oreland offramp from PA 309 Southbound has been permanently closed. The easiest way to reach the meeting location from the PA Turnpike or 309 Southbound is to come through the Fort Washington Industrial Park.
Feel free to bring something to eat and arrive as early as 6:30.
Topic: Guineu Project
The Guineu project is one of the most promising solutions to the VFP developer to be able to extend the viability of the language we all love. Being run by Christof Wollenhaupt, one of the brightest minds in the Fox community, the Guineu project is a replacement set of runtime DLL's that run your compiled VFP code in a .NET environment.
So what does that mean for us, for starters your VFP application can now run on most platforms that support .NET. This includes future versions of MicroSoft OS, Linux, PDA's, and web pages.
Currently the project is still very young and is far from being complete, but it already provides usable functionality and is being updated aggressively. I will show how to take a simple existing program, compile it with Guineu, and run it in Windows, Linux, PDA, and a web page.
More information can be found at www.foxpert.com and the beta is available free.
Speaker: Robert Pierce
Robert Pierce is currently the Manager of Information Services and senior developer at Smooth-On Inc., a rubber and plastics manufacturing company located in Easton, PA. With 23 years of custom Fox programming experience; he has been a consultant, a contract programmer, and part of the TIW development team.
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