Hi Virgil, I was a navigator in the Royal Air Force. I had been taught programming as part of an advanced navigation course in 1976 and became sufficiently interested to do a combined applied maths and computer science degree through the Open University, a correspondence college. I got involved in the design and development of a flight simulator and later went on to testing weapon aiming software. In 1992 I was posted to a unit which, amongst many other things, had the requirement to write a program to score and record attacks at the bombing ranges. When I arrived they were attempting to do it using a combination of GW Basic and dBase III. They did not have any qualifications or training beyond a 2 week Introduction to Computers course which included some exposure to GW Basic. At the time FoxPro 2 had just been launched and the magazines were full of rave reviews so I ordered a copy and taught myself to use it whilst designing the software and teaching the others to use it - a steep learning curve and interesting times. We had some training from a civilian organisation when we started as I could not get my head around the Foundation Read (I still don't understand it.). I left the service about 18 months later and before I left was contacted by the organisation that had given us the training offering me work as a contractor - the rest, as they say, is history <g>.
Regards John Weller 01380 723235 07976 393631 > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Virgil Bierschwale > Sent: 31 March 2010 23:24 > To: [email protected] > Subject: How did you get your start in FoxPro? > > I am working on an article for my website about FoxPro > development and I'm wondering how each of you got your start > in FoxPro and whether you have a degree or not. > > To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, I will go first. > > In 1984 - 1988 I was hired as an electronics technician to > build and maintain Burn-In Ovens utilized by a company to > test integrated circuits according to mil-std 883 and some > other specifications that I no longer remember the numbers for. > > The owners brought in a program from singapore that was used > to track these burn in lots and it was written in dBase II > > As I worked my way up the ladder, I became responsible for > ensuring that all devices that were tested met the > requirements specified in 883. > One of the requirements was that each device had to be burned > in for a minimum of 72 hours and no more then x hours and as > I became familiar with this dBase II program I realized that > there were no reports to show you which lots needed to be > pulled, etc so I began to teach myself how to develop these reports. > > As I grew more comfortable with dBase II, I began to realize > that there were thousands of lots still in the oven in theory > because they had not been removed in the program, but that is > another story and one I'm sure most of us have experienced > over the years. > > As for myself, I have taken college level classes whenever I > needed to come up to speed on a subject, but I do not have a degree. > -- > Virgil Bierschwale > Vets Finding Vets <http://www.VetsFindingVets.org> Keep > America At Work <http://www.KeepAmericaAtWork.com> > > > --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative > text/plain (text body -- kept) > text/html > --- > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/abec548f177541c8a42699fc2a916...@wessex1 ** 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.
