Who is Claudio Lassala?
My parents said that "I" am Claudio Lassala. <s>
Now serious: I’m a Brazilian Developer, with the main focus on VFP for the last four years. I’ve came from Clipper (as most Brazilian VFPers), and played a little with Visual Basic, until I found VFP, and very fast saw that’s perfect for the applications I build, and also, for its astonishing speed and productivity. For the last two years, most applications I built were web-based, using VFP COM and ASP to do the job.
Also, for the last year, I was commited to make RapoZine the first and unique VFP Magazine written in Portuguese.
And, very important, I like a lot to play guitar: from Classical Music to Heavy Metal. <s>
Congratulation for being the first Visual FoxPro MVP in Brazil. Do you have something to say about that?
Thanks. Sure, I like to say something: I think several Universal Thread Members might be wondering: "I almost didn’t see this Brazilian guy on UT neither MSDN forum; why is he now a MVP???". <g>
When I started to play with VFP, I’ve found the "Grupo FoxBrasil", a brazilian user group. That’s the best one here. It has members that help a lot (indeed, equals to any VFPers worldwide).
Then, I began to participate a lot in that user group by answering questions (even when I was a newcomer) and translating some articles (thanks to Rick Strahl, Michel Antonovitch and Jim Booth), because we didn’t have good material in Portuguese.
I can say that I have a really intense work to help people here and make more people believe in VFP. But actually, something must be said. Here in Brazil, we have some MVP's, who unfortunately don't have the MS title, but have all the feeling... For example, Eduardo Vidigal, co-founder of FoxBrasil, four years ago, he spent 5.000,00$ US to keep FoxBrasil up and running. And he only started to use VFP some months ago. Also, some other members as Giba, Paulino, Rodolfo Duarte, Claudio Cuoco, Leandro Walfrans and some others gave a lot of help to the Brazilian Community. I really need to divide my MVP nomination with all of them. Thank you guys!!
And to conclude, I saw that Universal Thread is really "well-served" of VFP gurus, so I choose to help Brazilian community as much as possible and UT members on the remaining time.
What is your involvement with MSDN Brazil?
Microsoft Brazil has been criticized for so many years because of the disbelief in VFP: some people even called Microsoft, and painfully heard that VFP wasn’t a Microsoft Product.
Sometime around July 2001, some RapoZine’s readers (mainly Paulo Cesar Carneiro; thanks Paulo!) asked Microsoft whether they will make a special event on the launch of VFP 7. Leonardo Tolomelli, Developer Program Manager at MSDN Brasil, explained that Microsoft Brasil doesn’t have a VFP speaker and asked for referrals. My name was highly indicated, and then, he invited me to do the presentation.
It was a full two days event about VFP 7. People traveled for hours from several cities of Brazil (and this country is really huge...), reaching an average of 100 developers each day. The event was so successful that Leonardo said the door was opened and I could make lectures there whenever I want to. And also, he offered me a monthly column in MSDN Brazil.
Now, I’m talking with Leonardo on a daily-basis, trying to figure out some ways to make VFPers life easier around here. He’s trying to be totally committed with us even by putting VFP on the MSDN Brazil home-page on every single update.
Here goes my tip for every non-USA/Canada country developers: make contact with your Microsoft subsidiary and try to follow Brazil’s example. Don’t be hostile and try to propose solutions instead of claiming. Ken Levy is doing a HUGE work for the world community but he can’t solve every single country problem alone. So, let’s help him. <s>
Your signature contain references to FoxTotal Network, Grupo FoxBrazil and RapoZine. What are these and how are you involved in each?
Well, FoxTotal started two years ago with the purpose of keeping a database on the Internet with all sorts of applications built with VFP. It started as a partnership among Nilton Paulino, Giba and myself. But we just can’t found an ISP to host our DBF’s ("too weight", they said... use "Access instead"... oh, God...). Nilton Paulino, working in a company that has an almost idle link and Web server, told me: let’s host our application in my company’s Web-server. And then, FoxTotal became an ISP specialized in VFP technologies. Some months later, Eduardo Vidigal joined us, bringing his expertise and resources to increase our structure.
The next goal is to make FoxTotal provides all sort of services to Brazilians VFP community, as ISP, training, books, consulting, etc.
Grupo FoxBrasil, as I mentioned above, is a VFP user group that has a Web site and a forum (the main goal). I’m involved with it as one of its sysops.
Finally, RapoZine is a Brazilian VFP Eletronic Magazine. It’s main goal is to provide Portuguese readers with valuable material in Portuguese about VFP and any other information useful to "Developers" and not just to "VFP programmers". So, XML, ADO, COM, ASP, .NET, etc, all are welcome.
How did RapoZine get started?
Back in October 2000, I was talking with a friend (Leandro Walfrans; Hi, dude!) about the lack of Portuguese material about VFP. That’s not a big deal for me, because I already read English books. But, I was worried about the other developers who didn’t have intimacy with the English idiom.
Then, me and my friend Leandro agreed to start a magazine. But how, if we don’t have any money, any sponsors, nothing... well, let’s make a magazine in a format of the old fanzines, that’s quite cheap. So, RapoZine was born (fox in Portuguese is Raposa, so RapoZine is the merge of Raposa and fanzine).
In the first month, we’ve had one hundred subscribers: they didn’t have any info about the format the magazine or who (person or entity) would be behind the curtains. Anyway, they trusted us and loved it. They didn’t care about the appearance. They need content and that's what we have.
But even as a fanzine, the cost of the copier and the post-office services together were quite expensive. So, we bought Bersoft’s HTML HyperMaker, a software for the creation of e-books. This way, we’ve cut off copies and post-office services costs and didn’t worry about "How many pages must have our mag?" ever. And when Nilton Paulino started to help me with RapoZine's layout, and Eduardo Vidigal with article's revision, everything started to flow.
Also, I always received a LOT of help from EPS’s and CoDe Magazine’s Ellen Whitney, who sent me a lot of CoDe’s articles to be translated and published at RapoZine. Ellen also made possible for me to conduct a great interview with Markus Egger and even put me in contact with Alex Feldstein for some help (thank you too, Alex!). I’m thankful for Ellen kindness and all the support. Someone who also gave some additional strength was Les Pinter: he sent me an email in the first months of RapoZine, wishing us good luck. He said that he also started with a simple mag before having his well-known journal and several books. Thank you Les.
An important merge just took place in the Visual FoxPro community about the join effort of the Universal Thread Magazine and RapoZine into UTMag/RapoZine. Would you like to provide us your feedback about it? What does this mean in regards to upcoming issues of UTMag/RapoZine?
Sure, of course. I’m quite happy about this merge. When we started RapoZine a little more than a year ago, I never wondered that all this could happen. Never. When Michel came after me with this possibility, I was astonished. It was just like as a teacher who comes to you asking if he could take care of the future of your son.
For the upcoming issues, UTMag/RapoZine’s readers can expect even more quality than the mags has been had. On February issue we already have the merge, but we know that, just a small time before that, the mags will increase even more in content and quality. Be aware, developers! <g>
How do you see the benefits for the Visual FoxPro Portuguese community in regards to that?
I see it as a big help. First, because this will keep RapoZine up and running. Second, because the variety of content will increase a lot. Third, because with the joint, the exposure of both mags will increase and so the number of writers interested in submitting articles for us. This way, I’ll spend less time writing articles, which will give me more time to develop help in other areas to the community.
Also, with a professional content and look, this will help to solidify the image of VFP in Brazil. A lot of developers just abandoned VFP because of the lack of material in Portuguese. With a mag like UTMag/RapoZine, they’ll think twice before doing that. <g>
This merge also brought you in as a part time consultant on the Universal Thread. Would you like to tell us your role and your involvement in the new Visual FoxPro Portuguese forum?
My role will be the monitoring of the Visual FoxPro Portuguese Edition forum, a tightly involvement in UTMag/RapoZine, the maintaining of the Portuguese interface and a participation in various other Universal Thread tasks.
I’m urging Brazilian VFPers to come to Universal Thread. That’s not quite an easy task because they are too much used to email based forums. But I’ll keep calling and monitoring them at the UT while helping them with the UT interface (and with VFP, of course <g>).
What is the current situation of VFP in Brazil?
I see VFP in ascension here. I’m receiving a lot of emails from people who thank me for the help I’m giving to the community. They say that job offers is increasing, slow but increasing.
A lot of other emails are from people looking for VFP training, which proves that they like VFP and want to keep with the fox.
And also, I’m receiving a big amount of emails from newcomers.
My MVP nomination and monthly column at MSDN Brazil also proves that Microsoft is committed with Brazilian community. A lot of people abandoned or don’t believe in VFP because Microsoft hasn’t been given much help to it. Now, everything’s changing. I’m talking almost everyday by email and MSN messenger with Leonardo doing everything we can to make VFPers life easier here and also to erase that phantasmagoric rumor that "VFP is going to die".
In my opinion, this year VFP will grow most than ever in Brazil.
The VFP Brazilian community is one of the biggest VFP community. What would you qualify as one of the key reasons for that?
I think that’s because of its similarity with Clipper. Brazilians always used A LOT Clipper (and some still use it today). I don’t see any sense in Clipper’s programmers migrating to Visual Basic or Delphi. They need to learn everything again. With VFP, they can use almost everything they know, and then, they can learn VFP features just when they have time to do so.
Until June 2001, the Brazilian community never had any help from MS... Never VFP had marketing, neither articles in Portuguese in its Brazilian Web site. If that wouldn't have been the case, this community would be at least three times bigger.
Today, Brazil occupies the 14th place in number of members on Universal Thread, just 200 members behind the 6th country. That’s not good for me. I promise to help Brazil climb to a higher position.
A recent survey conducted on the Universal Thread has shown that the number of new users to Visual FoxPro has increased for the first time since the release of version 6. That is a major breakthrough in the Visual FoxPro community. You're involved a lot in the VFP Brazilian community. Do you think those numbers reflects within about the same ratio for it?
I really don’t have numbers to tell you about the ratio. But I know that the community is raising much more now than a few years ago. Unfortunately, Leonardo cannot give me exact numbers about VFP sales in Brazil. I’ve learned from him that’s difficult to get those numbers, because VFP 6 has integrated Visual Studio and this way we don’t know if one bought VS because of VFP, VB, InterDev or VC++. Let’s wait a year to know more about the VFP 7 sales. <g>
Are you doing something special to promote VFP in your country?
Well, I write for UTMag/RapoZine, I have a monthly column at MSDN Brazil, I conduct interviews with VFP gurus worldwide, I spoke at VFP 7 launch in Brazil, I’ll do lectures at Microsoft Brasil monthly this year, I’m an active member of four VFP forums in Portuguese, I’ve written an article to Developers Magazine (the most known developers’ mag in Brazil), I struggle, I fight, I scream... I do all of this to promote VFP in my country. Do you think that’s enough? <s>
Is there a Portuguese version of VFP7 or previous versions of VFP?
VFP 3 and VFP 5 had Portuguese versions. Unfortunately, VFP 6 and 7 don’t (and as far as I know, won’t have). Leonardo told me that’s difficult to ask that to Microsoft because neither VS.NET will have a Portuguese version. Well, perhaps, if Ken send some budget to Leonardo... <g>
Are there Portuguese VFP books and other resources available?
As far as articles in Portuguese, I think there are just some from RapoZine and from my MSDN’s column... and just a few on my own Web site and related ones (but just for beginners).
As far as book, this is a problem... VFP is still seen as a non-profitable tool to have books made. And we don’t have a "Brazilian Hentzenwerke" (Whil, could you help us?!? <s>).
For VFP 6, we just had two books. That came from independent authors who paid themselves to make it happens. But those books are just for beginners. We don’t have books for intermediate/advanced developers about OOP, Internet, Office Automation, etc. We don't even have MS Press releases nor any VFP book in Portuguese. I still didn’t hear nothing about someone writing a book about VFP7.
As you can see, Brazilian VFPers don’t have an easy life. English readers claim a lot because of Microsoft lack of marketing on VFP. However, when you open the American MSDN, you can see thousands of words through articles on it. You also have wonderful mags such as CoDe Magazine, FoxPro Advisor and FoxTalk. And, I didn't even speak about the Universal Thread, FoxWikis, VFUG, etc. Even the FoxTeam is among you... Microsoft Brazil doesn’t have even one specialist in VFP.
See?? We are heroes!!! <s>
You maintain several Web sites, write a lot of monthly articles for various sources such as RapoZine and MSDN Brazil and spend a lot of time online helping the community on the Universal Thread. In addition to that, you work full time as a consultant. How do you manage to make all that fit in your daily agenda? <s>
Well, I’ll tell you something: my wife just want to kill me. <g> My day starts sometime around noon. I wake up and go to the computer. My wife shouts to me that I didn’t go downstairs to see her and our little daughter. <g> Sometime around 2 PM, I go to the company I work for. At night, I come back to home (around 10 PM)... and again, computer... all night long. When the sun rises, I go to sleep (usually around 7 AM). Saturdays, Sundays, holidays... I do not stop. This way, I’m going to die very soon. <s> I really need to stop with that and spend more time with my family. So, I do not recommend anyone to follow my agenda. <s>
Can you talk a little bit more about your family?
Well, despite of my age (25 years old), I’ve been married for 5 years now. I have a daughter who’s one year and 7 months old (by the way, she’s the most beautiful human being ever created <s>). I hope to be able to spend more time with my family as soon as possible. Because our wages in Brazil are really low, I need to work too much and this fact really disturb my home. Anyway, we’re always surrounded by friends. Indeed, my family and my friends is the most precious gift I have in my life, and because of that, we’re always gathering in someone’s house, to drink a beer, eat a pizza, lasagna or barbecue, and talk about, guess what?? Nothing. <s>
Can we expect to see you at an upcoming event such as DevCon or GLGDW as an attendee and/or as a speaker?
I just dream one day to be at some place where I can see and listen to Rick Strahl, Markus Egger, Doug Hennig, Tamar Granor and all the others who are always present at those events. I never went to any conference. The trip to USA and the costs associated to those events are quite expensive for us. Here in Brazil, our wages really sucks. I’m right now trying to figure out someway to earn enough money to pay for my trip to the upcoming DevCon or GLGDW. Once I’d be there, I’ll make everybody knows that I am "that guy from Brazil". <s> Now, as a speaker, who knows? But I’ll tell you: it would be very difficult for me to speak at the same place as those gurus. <s>
What are your projects for 2002?
Well, I really would like to move to USA or Canada with my family because of the possibility to attend all those VFP conferences to learn as much as I could. I still don’t know if that is possible. I also would like to have more time to dedicate to the VFP Brazilians community because I know I can do even more for it. But, you know, I need to pay my daughter’s milk... Anyway, one of my projects this year is to put Brazil at the TOP 5 on Universal Thread standing of members. And that’s not difficult: we just need to double our current members. With the opening of Visual FoxPro Portuguese Edition forum, I know this goal is totally possible now. Also, I want to take a closer look at VS.NET. But my main goal is: I need to go to USA this year at least to attend a conference. <g>
You find a bottle in the desert, open it and a jinni grant you only one wish. What is this wish?
Only one wish? Damn jinni. <s> Well my wish would be: "Hey jinni, I want you to develop an application in Visual Basic." One month later, I’ll give the jinni a copy of Visual FoxPro 7. A week later, he would be so thankful that he would give me three more wishes. <s> Ok, and now I’ll make my wishes: No poverty, no disease and no fight. This world already suffered a lot because of these three problems. Without them, we can really live in a cool place.
Thank you very, very much for having participated in this interview.
You’re welcome. Thank you for the very good questions. <s>
