I took a long look at the situation when storm clouds first started gathering around Fox (the MSFT purchase, the VFP7-era "Fox is dead", the .NET introduction, and the actual VFP9 EOL) and reviewed the landscape several times. My criteria for my platform.next lead to my strategy. Yours may (might/should) vary.
1) interoperability: I didn't want data in a format that only one engine could understand. DBFs were fine as a local storage engine, and nearly nothing beat it for data manipulation, but I wanted to be able to read data from multiple tools, which is what ODBC promised. 2) security: a data server with integrated login security and a documented API that could be firewalled means that there's reasonable security from data getting changed. Files on disk that can't be secured from the user are inherently insecure. 3) interfaces: someone always wants to read the data from a different device (Palm Pilots, Symbian phone, iPad, etc.) so ideally, there's a partitioning of the data storage, data engine, business (rules) application, and front end(s) so that there can be rich desktop apps, lightweight web applications or minimal data APIs, depending on the needs of the app. 4) avoid vendor lockin: there's always going to be some dependence, but as much as possible you want to be able to pick up your data, your app, your front end and move from one platform to another. Client needs vary. New devices vary. The data model can migrate from MySQL to SQLite or Postgresql or SQL Server. The programming language should run on Intel Windows or OS X or PowerPC Linux or Atom or A7 chips on IIS or Helios or Apache or nginx; the front end should be standards-compatible HTML, CSS and JavaScript/ECMAScript that renders on most everything. Some apps need to be written to run natively, if you want low-level access to the GPS or the accelerometer or the touchpad. But many can be written in higher-level, cross-platform solutions, and that's my primary target. So, those were my criteria for the next-gen platform after Fox. On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 6:12 AM, Alan Bourke <[email protected]>wrote: > Not had a look beyond the website, and not for a good while. I'll have a > gander. -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html --- _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/cacw6n4ubxoxopmsmsyjy8m422zpwsudegyb8kce2qqate52...@mail.gmail.com ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
