[comp.sys.mac] FoxBase+/Mac

alexis@dasys1.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) (08/28/88)

Steve Lemke writes:
> [general praise for FoxBase]      However, because of the difficulty
>involved with starting from scratch without a screenpainter, I was forced to
>go to 4th Dimension.  I know, it's really slow, but around Christmas (check
>is in the mail, right?) version 2.0 should be out, and from what I heard from
>people who saw it at the MacWorld, it will be really something.
> 
>I still program in FoxBase on the PC, and basically had my heart set on
>doing my current project in FoxBase Mac (if things don't start looking
>better in 4D maybe it still will be done in FoxBase Mac)     [etc.]

Version 2.0 of 4D will be a major impovement. However, FoxBase V1.1 will be
out in one month, and it is better than 4D V2.0 will be. In particular, the
FoxBase screen painter is far superior to 4D's. See my article on databases.

Dennis Cohen writes:
|Yes, some of us have tried out FoxBase+/Mac.  My personal opinion is that it
|is superb.  Everything from dBASE III+ that I can think of except CALL and
|LOAD is supported.  It also has a very nice front end on it that makes it
|appear that this is a Mac program that will run dBASE rather than a port --
|additionally, it supports fonts, graphics, and all the other things that a
|Mac user would expect.  To top this off, it is F*A*S*T.

The new version will support Call and Load (although, obviously, it won't run
80x86-based code modules). It will also support Run (sublaunching another
program).

Jan Harrington writes:
`I've been playing with it a wee bit. I've been able to run PC Foxbase code;
`the only required changes appear to be in lines where there are PC-type
`path names (need to replace "\" with ":").

This is not exactly true. Since it is not possible to map all PC-DOS file
specifications onto unique HFS file specs (HFS doesn't support the concept of
a current directory on all volumes), there will always be the possibility
of ambiguity when converting between the two. Most of the time, you do _not_
need to convert from "\" to ":". Playing it safe may be the fastest way to
do the conversion, though.

For more information on FoxBase see my article on Mac Databases in this
newsgroup.

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