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Kevin Marois12-Jul-19 10:53

Kevin Marois

12-Jul-19 10:53

I spent 15+ years doing FoxPro and Visual FoxPro. At one time it was a powerful language. The advent of .Net spelled the beginning of the end of VFP.

If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.

raddevus12-Jul-19 10:55

12-Jul-19 10:55

Kevin Marois wrote:
I spent 15+ years doing FoxPro and Visual FoxPro.

Would it be interesting to you now? Or is it so old that it'd be terrible?
Just curious.
Also, maybe there is some $$$ for you to make? Smile | :)

Kevin Marois12-Jul-19 11:13

Kevin Marois

12-Jul-19 11:13

I'm not really interested. There are conversion jobs out there, but I'm plenty busy doing .Net

If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.

Slacker00712-Jul-19 11:44

Slacker007

12-Jul-19 11:44

I started with VFP and VB6 back in the day. Wow!! I feel so old.

User 842012-Jul-19 12:59

User 8420

12-Jul-19 12:59

Slacker007 wrote:
I feel so old.

Tell me about it. I started with FoxPro before it was "Visual".

v2.0 I think... Blush | :O

The Beer Prayer - Our lager, which art in barrels, hallowed be thy drink. Thy will be drunk, I will be drunk, at home as it is in the tavern. Give us this day our foamy head, and forgive us our spillage as we forgive those who spill against us. And lead us not to incarceration, but deliver us from hangovers. For thine is the beer, the bitter and the lager, for ever and ever. Barmen.

Ron Anders12-Jul-19 14:17

Ron Anders

12-Jul-19 14:17

I wrote a Foxpro for DOS service application - not an app kiddies, for the computer service company I worked for in 1990 ish When Windows 3.0 was hot.

I don't just feel old but am.

Richard Andrew x6412-Jul-19 15:19

Richard Andrew x64

12-Jul-19 15:19

Mike Mullikin wrote:
v2.0 I think

Me too!

I started with FoxPro 2.0 and my first computer job was maintaining the Lawn Doctor Business System written in that language in 1994. It was the system that Lawn Doctor franchisees used to run their businesses.

The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.

RickZeeland12-Jul-19 20:27

RickZeeland

12-Jul-19 20:27

Me too, started with the DOS version of FoxPro and the fun began when the first Windows version came out, my god what a load of crap !
$Shucks | :-\$

pkfox13-Jul-19 0:44

13-Jul-19 0:44

The largest liquidation in the world so far used Foxpro for its claim and payments systems. I wrote some of them and maintained existing ones. Used properly it was a great little language. Visual Foxpro was even better but short lived due to DOTNET. Rick Strahl once commented , if someone says it can't be done in Foxpro, there's a good chance he doesn't know what he's talking about.

We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP

OriginalGriff12-Jul-19 21:28

OriginalGriff

12-Jul-19 21:28

There is still a demand for Cobol Developers[^] - and I had hoped that died in the early eighties ...

Well, if I'm honest, I'd hoped it had died before they taught it to us right at the beginning of my CS degree course in 1977.

Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

pkfox13-Jul-19 0:46

13-Jul-19 0:46

I must be weird , I enjoyed my COBOL days. Big Grin | :-D

We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP

OriginalGriff13-Jul-19 1:03

OriginalGriff

13-Jul-19 1:03

So did I - until I met a different language (FORTRAN, but anything would have done I suspect) and realised how bad it actually was ... Laugh | :laugh:

Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

pkfox13-Jul-19 1:20

13-Jul-19 1:20

Bad as in ?

We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP

OriginalGriff13-Jul-19 1:37

OriginalGriff

13-Jul-19 1:37

It's wordy, very wordy. IIRC "Hello World" was about 40 punched cards... Laugh | :laugh:

It lacks everything a "modern" language needs: user defined functions for a start!

Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

pkfox13-Jul-19 1:43

13-Jul-19 1:43

Ah the joyous

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. HELLO-WORLD.
* simple hello world program
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
    DISPLAY 'Hello world!'.
    STOP RUN.

You could remove the PROGRAM-ID. HELLO-WORLD. line and shrink it to 39 cards Big Grin | :-D

We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP

raddevus13-Jul-19 8:06

13-Jul-19 8:06

From the little I remember...wasn’t it column based too? Like commands had to start in specific columns or the compiler didn’t even see them?
It was so non-REPL too. You had to write an entire program, ship it off to the mainframe, wait and then check the green-lined paper to determine what even went on.

pkfox13-Jul-19 21:14

13-Jul-19 21:14

Ah yes the error report ( regardless of whether there were any errors )

We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP

Sander Rossel13-Jul-19 4:20

Sander Rossel

13-Jul-19 4:20

A friend of mine recently landed a new gig, so I asked about it.
First question, what technologies do they use?
His answer was rather unexpected... "Mainly COBOL.NET[^]" WTF | :WTF:

Apparently, you can compile COBOL to MSIL and even run it in Azure, but why anyone would ever want that is beyond me Laugh | :laugh:

In their case they sort of "upgraded" (if you can call it that) some old COBOL applications.
Their new services were all Java (no, not Java.NET or COBOL.jar Poke tongue | ;-P

)

Best,
Sander

sanderrossel.com
Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment
arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

RickZeeland13-Jul-19 8:28

RickZeeland

13-Jul-19 8:28

Here is a picture of some typical Cobol programmers: cobol-programming[^] $Shucks | :-\$

Sander Rossel13-Jul-19 9:05

Sander Rossel

13-Jul-19 9:05

I'm afraid COBOL programmers will roam the earth longer than dinosaurs have, or at least COBOL will Sigh | :sigh:

Best,
Sander

sanderrossel.com
Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment
arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

raddevus13-Jul-19 8:03

13-Jul-19 8:03

When I was working on my CS degree (never completed) in 1991 I had to take COBOL I, II (finished) and III (still haven’t completed). The language was basically dead then (except for knowing it so you could do maintenance and conversion.). Of course that is still going on.
I still need to finish Management 205, COBOL III and Accounting II to obtain my degree. Laugh | :laugh:

RickZeeland13-Jul-19 8:33

RickZeeland

13-Jul-19 8:33

Well, maybe if you decide to study software archeology $Shucks | :-\$

raddevus13-Jul-19 10:48