>>>>To compare VFP9 from 10+ years ago to WinDev today is like comparing a VW Golf to a Ferrari.
>>>
>>>So VFP is a work horse and WinDev a potency pill?
>>>
>>>Strange.
>>
>>lol !
>>
>>More like VFP is a reliable old car but you need to use several kludges (i.e. 3rd party tools and work-arounds) to get it doing everything you want but ... even then it wont do many things that modern interfaces do. WinDev does every single thing you want out of the box and the suite of controls are totally modern and up to date. I dont want to list all the features, I cant, but here are some biggies:
>>
>>32 bit or 64 bit exe
>>Multi-threading
>>PDF handling
>>Office Document handling including XLSX
>>Image handling
>>Communications FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, etc.
>>Encryption tools
>>Compression and Zip management tools
>>Charting and graphing
>>Royalty free and royalty free database
>>Database full-text searching
>>Database with true encryption options
>>Extensive range of functions
>>Windows API access
>>Create exe, DLL, service
>>Create Linux apps
>>Connect to any database (basically any)
>>Built in setup packager and framework management
>>Mix and match with other languages
>>Hugely productive development environment
>>Same programming language for desktop app, web apps/websites, or mobile apps
>>
>>Lots of other stuff but we dont use everything obviously.
>>
>>.
>Took a wild guess on something that I am uncertain how to handle in the future (automating a current browser, as automating MSHtml & ShDocVw will run into walls sooner or later, see thread Daniel started few weeks ago), and it seems Windev has similar basic capabilities worked in, as they describe a HTML control plus some methods. As Android and iOS are mentioned, could be they have integrated Chromium/Chrome via CEF or something similar. If that is the case, no wonder more disc space is needed, as Electron abilities probably are there ;-)
>
>A bit unclear if everything is available in WinDev or if sometimes WebDev is needed (specific HTML control types like alink, input...) on few first stabs, but basic navigation and JS execution seems to be supported by Windev.
>
>Have you run across some info about that topic by chance and are able to give executive summary ?
>If not, something to mark as research for a rainy day ;-)
>AT least an option to keep in mind if using Selenium or a CEF-based lib is impossible or too hard to integrate.
>
>And 1 other question: Is license cost for just ***using*** the package for a year or cost for newest updates ad some dev support ?
>
>Say I pay license cost for 2 years for a project, but after release only minimal maintainance is expected: can I fix their issues in 2021 with the license of 2019, but without anything added after license ran out and no dev support ?
>
>curious & regds
>
>thomas

Thomas,

WinDev produces desktop apps, desktop services, Linux executables, etc. it does not produce web-apps or websites. The HTTP controls are for accessing web content, downloading pages, posting stuff to web pages, etc.

WinDev Mobile produces Android or Apple iOS apps.

WebDev produces web-apps / websites and has (the best way I can describe it) a "dual mode" coding interface where every form, control, etc. has 2 codes sections; (1) for code that executes on the server, and (2) code that executes in the browser. WebDev can handle all state issues, memory variables, database connections, table positions, etc. which means you can build a web-app / website much like building a desktop app but where the front-end is browser based and the back-end is server based. Same programming language used in WebDev and WinDev so single coding learning curve AND a lot of code can be re-used between desktop and web-based application development - not always 100% because some functions are platform specific and may not have an equivalent usage on the other platform.

WebDev can also integrate 3rd party code like PHP or JavaScript alongside WinDev language. So in the same way that a WinDev app can call and use .Net assemblies or Java code, WebDev can also use PHP or JavaScript. I believe, but not 100% sure, that WebDev code actually is converted to JavaScript code ... but I might be wrong about that as I did not investigate ... it is something I might have read?

WebDev also has Ajax options for controls etc.

License fee is upfront, once-off payment for WinDev. Same again for WebDev. Same again for WinDev Mobile. You can pick any or all 3 or any combination. We use only WinDev and WebDev as we currently have no mobile app projects.

Annual upgrade fee is a few hundred dollars per development platform. It is recommended to upgrade because PCSoft will not provide support for older versions and if you skip a year (or more) it will just catch up when you decide to finally upgrade in the future (if you ever do).

A future version supports all previous version code and projects and website etc. Although PC Soft will not support older versions there is a community and many experts who help either for free or as a servcie they provide. There are several in US, UK, EU, Australia, etc.including some very knowledgeable people in France and Germany.