>>>Hi guys:
>>>
>>>I'm interested in your opinion. I was reading your comments from September about Visual Extend. I recently started using VE and wish I had known about Universal Thread while I was evaluating Frameworks. It's been a couple of months since your messages were first posted ... and I have a question.
>>>
>>>If you had to do it over again, would you still choose Visual Extend? I myself have had mixed reaction to VE but since I was still learning VFP, I figured their class library was better than trying to start my own. A developer colleague recommended it in the first place and he's been able to make it fly for his clients so I know it will do the job. (Like the difference between MS Word and WordPerfect ... both do the job.)
>>>
>>>I too wish their was better support and documentation.
>>>
>>>FYI, the last build I downloaded was 2016, Dated December 9 (or something).
>>
>>Hello:
>>
>> FWIW, We've been using Visual Extend since version 3.5 (have version 5.0 and build 1207). I'm like you, still learning VFP. My experience has been good with frameworks. We developed several large apps in FPW 2.6 and used FoxExpress v2.6. We really saved a lot of time and delivered a consistant, feature rich product. We joined the "Pioneer" (beta) test program with Visual FoxExpress, but they were a year to late.
>>
>>We choose VE because it has Codebook support and Stonefield was the original marketing company. Stonefield Database Toolkit support is included in VE.
>>
>>In the mean time we picked up VE and began building our first client/server program. It has been a huge learning curve. Version 5.0 of VE is good and getting better. Support from Devigus needs improving, but we've always received answers via E-Mail. For someone like me, with little 'OOP' experience, VE has been a big help. Still a lot to learn with VE and VFP.
>
>Randy:
>
>Thanks for the opinion. It's good to know you wouldn't say something like, "Heck no, use 'XYZ' instead." Like you, I'm encouraged with what I see and I suppose over time, anything can be made to do the job. Again, thanks. And I hope we can trade VFP+VFX tricks in the future.

Ernie:

I continue to use Visual Extend, and I continue to have mixed reactions. There is so much good stuff in the framework, and I am delighted that I do not have to invent all of this from scratch. I like the fact that once you run the setup builder, you are left with what is basically a "straight" VFP project.

The down side is that if you want to extend the framework or to use ideas from other people (e.g., the client-server classes in the December FoxPro Advisor), you have to figure out what the framework is doing. (Same issue for debugging.) And, has been pointed out here before, the Devigus approach to understanding the framework is to dive into the code and figure out what is going on.

I have been using VE 3.50 for a large project on which I have been working for a year. There are several screens with M-A-N-Y object on them, and they load extraordinarily slowly. VE 5 was advertised as having faster loading, so over Thanksgiving weekend I tried to upgrade. An awful weekend, and I am now convinced that if you have the resizing feature turned off, there is minimal speed increase in the new version. I finally decided to leave this APP in 3.5, but new work will be done in VE 5.0.

A typical example from my long weekend from Hell: They give fairly detailed instructions for using delayed instantiation -- a nice technique for multi-tab forms. Following the instructions closely was not enough because they left out a step: you have to patch the SET CLASSLIB TO... command in VFXMAIN.PRG to include the library with the classes for the objects on each tab. (In their example, they tell you to create a class library called DELAYED.VCX.) My VFXMAIN.PRG has many changes to it; when I upgrade -- following Devigus' suggestion -- I have to move all my "patches" to the new version of VFXMAIN.PRG.

US Support: I was told by Devigus that there is a fellow named Andrew Kelley in the US who monitors the Compuserve forum. I asked if I could send him e-mail with questions, and I was told I could do that. He did send back a helpful reply once or twice. More recently, I got a note from Ian Johnson (here on UT) indicating that e-mail sent to Andrew Kelley was returned. I haven't had to try to reach Andrew since then.

I belong to a small group that shares VFP experiences and problems. One of our members is giving a demonstration of Fox Express. I am not sure that I want to switch, but I certainly get the impression that they support their product better. On the down side, it seems to take them much longer than Devigus to upgrade their product to support newer versions of Visual FoxPro.

For now, I am sticking with Visual Extend, but I am open to trying another framework in the future.

If there are discussions about VE on the UT, I hope you will include me.

Best regards,

Steve