🚀 go-pugleaf

ine eater still exist?]

Recently, merchant@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Peter Merchant) wrote:
>In article <4890@dasys1.UUCP>, Alexis Rosen writes:
>>Refer to my other articles about FoxBase+/Mac. relevant features:
>>1) FULL USAGE OF MAC USER INTERFACE. This is all-important. If it looks like
>>   a PC, it might as well run on one.
> 
>Well, yes.  And no.
> 
>FoxBase applications have various built-in commands to support dialog boxes,
>buttons, and that sort of thing.  However, FoxBase's user interface is the
>same old dot prompt that Dbase is famous for.


You are *dead wrong*. This could not be farther from the truth.
Does everyone remember the debates that spring up every once in a while about
whether a CLI (command line interface) should be available with the finder?
Well, I wouldn't mind one, but I'd almost never use it. FoxBase epitomizes
the 'right answer' to this question. Everything that you can do in dBase
from the dot prompt can be done through their 'non-procedural interface'.
Some of it is great, some of it is fantastic, and some of it is acceptable.
But you never have to type in commands.

If you think your fingers are faster than my mouse (:-) you're welcome to type
commands into the 'Command Window'.

Perhaps you were thinking of their programming environment? The language is
the same as dBase's, with lots of enhancements, so program code (which is
simply collections of dot-prompt commands w/control structures) looks some-
what like what you'd see at the dot prompt- if you ignore little things like
unlimited code windows, unlimited code and variable breakpoints, a trace
window, an expression-evaluating window, and other little goodies like that.

Also, their implementation of the interface is vastly more complete than
'commands to support dialog boxes, buttons, and that sort of thing.'
It supports almost all of the interface. Things like multiple windows (of
various types), menus, dialogs, multiple fonts, sizes, and styles, buttons,
PICTs, etc., etc...  (They are heading to support of arbitrary resources for
all of these things, which means that you could use ResEdit, prototyper, or
whatever you like best to do most of your design work.)

>We have some Dbase folks around here who have seen Foxbase, though, and
>salivated quite effectively.  Unfortunately, they are tied to the MS-DOS
>machines, but it almost had them switching.  If you knew these people, you'd
>be impressed.  I do.  I was.  It must be pretty good...

It's better than that...
You can tell them that from me (lots of experience in PCs...)
Do they know that FoxBase+/Mac on an UNaccelarated Mac SE will generally beat
the pants off of dBase III+ on a 25 MHz '386? No kidding. Try it with a really
big sort or index...

I have NO affiliation with Fox Software. But their stuff is awesome anyway :-)

/Alexis

-- 
Alexis Rosen                       {allegra,philabs,cmcl2}!phri\
Writing from                       {bellcore,harpo,cmcl2}!cucard!dasys1!alexis
The Big Electric Cat            {portal,well,ihnp4,sun}!hoptoad/
Public UNIX                         if mail fails: ...cmcl2!cucard!cunixc!abr1