What is the most active clipper-like community?

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+1 Q:

What is the most active clipper-like community?

I work for a company that is using Microsoft Visual Foxpro 9. Since Microsoft has abandoned us, we no longer get fresh driver updates (the last was for ODBC was built for VFP version 6.)

Clipper and Foxpro aren't too different, from what I understand. So if they are producing drivers, then that might be a good place to migrate to.

However, according to wikipedia on Clipper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_(programming_language)) there are several vendors to choose from.

Which is the most active (supportive) with a future that goes out past 2015 (MS's complete cutoff date for VFP?)

Thanks.

+2 A:

Just a few thoughts to remember.... VFP is still solid, and one of the best things out there that doesn't require a "SERVER" type of installation. Also, even though MS's official cutoff is 2015, as of last year, I was still supporting a couple sites with Foxpro DOS -- yes DOS, and about 3 yrs ago, even FPW (yes, Windows, not Visual Foxpro).

Using VFP9, you can get an upgrade VFP OleDB thats available, and I've used within C#.net with no problems.

if you want to contact me more directly my email is [email protected]

DRapp 2009-08-05 15:14:57

I mainly want to see if the other xbase related communities are not only actively developing their apps and compilers, but perhaps new database drivers. That seems more a possibility with an open source group versus a proprietary product. Also, I found out this morning that OleDB is not an option for us :( since our other apps (Excel 10, AQT, ... maybe others) can't use it. Of course, it might be an option in the future if we update to a newer version of Excel or if AQT's developer allows OleDB one day. Thanks for the ideas. I'll keep them in mind going forward.

jetimms 2009-08-05 15:37:20

Its been a while, but Excel used to be able to connect to VFP no problem -- even going back to Excel 2003. You should be able to connect and query data directly using ODBC.

DRapp 2009-09-18 13:20:12

+3 A:

If you are looking for an ODBC driver for VFP databases and tables you might consider looking at Advantage Database from iAnywhere. The have a local engine and a server engine. The local engine has the engine to access DBF data, but for your case, it also has an ODBC drive that works with VFP data up to and including the current Visual FoxPro 9. The local engine and the included ODBC driver are free.

http://www.sybase.com/ianywhere

Just as an FYI, just because extended support from Microsoft ends in 2015 does not mean the product stops working. As noted by DRapp, even FoxPro for DOS is in use today, and that product lost support from Microsoft more than a dozen years ago. The Fox Community will support this product well into the future too, and are busy extending it via VFPX on Codeplex.com (open source add-ons, tools, and components).

Rick Schummer, VFP MVP

Rick Schummer 2009-08-06 20:04:40

My main concern is the Foxpro ODBC driver support from Microsoft is no more. I started a thread wondering if an open source ODBC Foxpro driver is available and then decided to ask about Foxpro-alternatives like Clipper. There are companies/communities that are actively developing their Clipper compiler and/or toolsets, similar to VFPX, a very cool project, by the way.)http://www.codeplex.com/VFPXBut as for Foxpro, is it actually 1) legal and 2) possible to write a complete Visual Foxpro version 9 ODBC driver, perhaps as an open source project? Thanks for your insight, Rick.

jetimms 2009-08-07 10:55:23

The "O" in ODBC is "open". It is a standard most people associate with Windows, but in reality it is an open standard so any database can be included and anyone can write to the standard on any platform. That said, not many people are going to write one for VFP as it is not simple. iAnyhere already has so no need to worry about it.

Rick Schummer 2009-08-18 02:32:36

ansaurus

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What is the most active clipper-like community?

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