Hi Kevin.

Just got a reply from Jordan saying that developing in Dot Net reduces speed by a factor of about 5+. I.e. If it takes 2 seconds to query/save a file in VFP, it would take 10 seconds in Dot Net.

This would be definitely unacceptable.

If this is the case (I realise some folks experiences will be different), then I would need to very seriously consider any immediate move to dot net from VFP until Microsoft sort this out !!

Gerard


>Hi, Gerald,
>
>First, some observations:
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>- If you've determined that you can create a VFP app in 3 days, your first stab at a .NET version will take longer than 3 days. (Think back to when you built your first VFP app - you become more productive as you learned more).
>
>- Your initial efforts into .NET are much more about building your knowledge base. If you're successful, subsequent efforts should take less time.
>
>- Past experiences in C++/VB, ADO, ASP, etc. will factor into your learning curve.
>
>OK, in no order of importance...I'm going to give you more than you may feel you need right now, so you can pick and choose which are most important to look at for a first pass:
>
>1) Get Kevin McNeish's book, .NET for VFP Developers. It is an outstanding general-purpose book. It doesn't focus on any one area heavily, but covers the VS.NET development environment, Winforms, Webforms, ADO.NET, Web Services, error handling, COM Interop, and both the VB.NET and C# languages. You can find it on Hentzenwerke's website. (There are a few other excellent books on .NET that I can refer you to, but that's a great one to start with). I've read it twice and recommend it highly.
>
>2) Kevin McNeish also has a good framework (Mere Mortals.NET... www.oakleafsd.com ). I believe it goes for about $699. Even if you don't use it for production, it's still a great reference for reading C# code, and to see how apps and business objects should be structured. So if your employer will pay for it, it's worth buying. You'll be more productive at an ealier time than if you don't get it, so it pays for itself in a very short period of time. (The general practices he discusses in his book are found in the framework).
>
>I believe some of the sample apps that come with MM.NET probably go a good way towards the basic add/edit/delete, data maintanence-type app that you described.
>
>3) Dating back to late last year, FoxPro advisor magazine has carried a series of .NET Development articles by Markus Egger and Claudio Lassala. They cover different aspects of .NET from a VFP perspective, and are definitely worth a look.
>
>4) There are some great websites with how-to reference material. Here are the ones I use on a regular basis:
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>http://www.syncfusion.com/faq/winforms/ (they have hundreds of code samples for Winforms)
>http://www.codeproject.com
>http://www.gotdotnet.com
>http://www.gotdotnet.com
>http://www.c-sharpcorner.com
>
>Also, the .NET forum here on the thread has about 3 years worth of questions/answers. Many of them are "I could do this in VFP...how can I do it in .NET?". Anytime I'm not sure how to do something, first thing I do is perform a text search through the .NET forum archives. And just like it is on the Fox forum, if you have any .NET questions, don't hesitate to hop onto the .NET forum and ask - there are several people there who are more than happy to help.
>
>5) You'll need to decide which language to focus on. I use C#, but that's because I was more comfortable with C. Some people use VB.NET for UI work and C# for non-visual work. If you're doing Office Automation, don't even think of using C#.
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>But the really nice thing is that you can built separate projects in different languages and integrate them into a solution. As you've likely heard before, the key to .NET is learning the framework classes, which are essentially language independent. (And the .NET book I mentioned above does a good job of covering the more common framework classes). There's a joke about the 3 most important things to learn about .NET...the framework classes, the framework classes, and the framework classes.
>
>6) You mentioned a few reports. .NET, as you may know, comes with Crystal .NET. CR.NET is 'about' 80-90% of Crystal 8.5 (they took a few things out). There are several people on the .NET forum who have used CR.NET, so again, don't hesitate to ask any questions.
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>7) If you're doing UI work, you'll want to create your own set of subclasses for all the Winform controls. Subclassing is done differently in .NET. There are several existing messages on the .NET forum that explain how to do it (and the help file has some walk-throughs as well, though the messages on the .NET forum are tailored a little better.)
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>8) If you don't already know, .NET is generally more code-centric than VFP. You can do things in .NET that you can in VFP, but it often takes more code. Sometimes a few more lines, sometimes more than a few lines. This is especially true of ADO.NET. So building a 'toolkit' of functions will take some time. But what's great is that you can extend things better. Again, you'll find good examples in the websites I mentioned above.
>
>I didn't build my first official .NET app until months after I started working in .NET. I spent months building my own knowledge base, taking pieces of VFP apps and reconstructing them in .NET. (in other words, constructive tinkering). Don't worry about not getting everything right or trying to build a textbook .NET app the first time around - it's an iterative process.
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>So again, don't look at it as 'building your first app'...it's more about building your knowledge base for now and for the future. There's no question, it's a big learning curve. You can build desktop database apps with .NET, you can build web-based apps, you can build windows services, middle-tier components, etc. However, the curve is a bit easier now than a few years ago, because of the wealth of material that exists.
>
>Finally, (and perhaps most important of all), whether you're building in .NET, VFP, Delphi, or whatever - the up-front requirements/design phase are so important for 'getting it right'. (And I know you know this, but it's important to stress, especially when learning a new language). Designing the database, defining the UI, business rules, data access, etc. - all of those are generally independent of the technology.
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>This might be more than what you were banking on, but these were the general things I went through when I learned .NET. Again, the learning curve is steeper than Fox, it may take you longer to become proficient - it's an investment for the future.
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>Hope this helps...let me know if you have any more questions.
>
>Kevin