>>>There are a lot of things
collected last time related to VFP grids, and
it seems a good idea to organize materials well and write a book with all information collected.
>>
>>Absolutely not....
>>....You further limit your audience to people who would actually read the book. My guess is that 85% of the grid-related questions here on UT are already covered in either the samples and docs that come with VFP or KiloFox. And the real can of worms isn't the grid itself, it's all the other controls you might want to embed in the grid.
>
>I think that alot of your answer did not address what was postulated. The info is out there, but there is not always the time to search it down. Several of us feel that it would be good to have a volume that addresses a tool that has great potential for problem solving in the kinds of apps we find ourselves having to develop and maintain. So the RFC was posted.
>
My answer was exactly what was solicited. I fully expect that by the time the text goes to press, either VFP will better accomodate a wider range of non-native-VFP dataset bindable collection controls or attractive alternatives to VFP will have presented themselves
for me. I'm rather cynical about the majority of Grid control inquirers here on UT - between the wealth of answers on UT, the examples in the FAQs and Files section, the content of the chapters in KiloFox and the VFP samples - they're too lazy to look over the questions asked last week or search the FAQ, 85% of the questions are totally repetitive, and these people are too lazy to use the free resources on hand now. What makes you believe that these Code Swill Merchants will shell out money for a book if the book doesn't hasnd them their answers on a silver platter without exerting one iota of brain power. Cripes, they're too lazy to look at the questions posted and replied to in the preceding 24 hours here covering nearly precisely the same topic. What makes you think they'll spend actual money on a book that requires them to read and comprehend what goes on behind the curtain at the base of the throne of the Great Wizard of Oz?
I think that the people who woule benefit from a book will (or already have) used the resources available now, and have learned the lessons of composite custom classes. The money to be made is on the lazy planaria infesting the VFP community who want a drag and drop tool that prompts them for the answers about desired standard behaviors, turns the crap, and plops out a custom cowpie that does 95% of what they want, and that they can instance program without having a clue about how the several layers of contained controls behave or interact. They resent that they might have to set a few properties by hand. They're unhappy that they have to answer questions to describe behavior, think that the app generator churns out impressive, robust, easily maintained code, and blithely ignore the man operating the switches and levers behind the curtain.
Yes, I think that the commercial opportunity with grids is a cusom grid generatgor that constructs an appropriate container encapsulating the custom grid that can be dragged and dropped (D&D) onto a Form in the Form Designer or an equivalent, and then allows you to instance program the custom Grid within the encapsulating container. The builder actually constructs the necessary custom non-visual classes and creates the composite visual container class. For the people who want fuller control and greater understanding/extensibility, the source for the template classes is provided, as well as the builder itself, and perhaps a query manager on the level of professionalism of SFQuery. Priced under $200, with the ability to distribute the -compiled- classes royalty-free, it should be able to recover the cost of development and make a little change if there is a compelling enough reason to keep the developer with loose moral swasion willing to pay for his own legit copy of the app. Given the ability to tie into the major commercial frameworks, with a clean interface that the roll-yer-own crowd can work with, it stands a chance of paying you adequately for the work you put into it, and offering the developer using it the chance to recover his investment quickly. Further, a solid piece of code can teach goof OOP anf OOD.
>It will be quiet a while before .net and others replace some of what we are coping with in the work place. Still a lot of Win3.1 on P200's out there in corporate america, so the latest and greatest is not always a going concern. As for who uses the platform and why write to just a limited group...read hentzenwerke's statement on writing books for them.
We live in different worlds - this is not a tool for the VFP3 crowd - basically build on th capacities of VFP 6 and 7, with some reduced capability to permit use with VFP5. If they aren't smart enough to get to at least VFP5, thye're extinct already - dead, but the bodies are still twitching.
That's my POV at least - I anticipate that my own use of VFP for UI-layer stuff is going down the tubes with great speed. Too many problems with compatible behavior, too many quirks in the UI, and still a great data engine that with a little tweaking is still the hottest file server model data engine running around the WinWorld.
