| Subject | Re: DBASE II Information |
| From | Kevin Butler <kevinb500@gmail.com> |
| Date | Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:29:55 -0500 |
| Newsgroups | dbase.getting-started |
Mervyn, Thank you so much for your input on this. It definitely looks like I may need to get back into the swing of things again. It has been, unfortunately, almost 20 years since I've last done any real programming in DBASE. It looks like it has come a long way since the days of both Ashton-Tate and Borland. At present, I can still run DBASE II on an Oracle VirtualBox running DOS (2.1, 3.3, 5.0, and 6.22). As you said, it's great to get kind of familiar with this but don't totally relearn it since the game has changed and the paradigm has definitely been shifted 180 degrees. I will definitely look into both getting the program and the reference book to once again embark on another DBASE adventure. Thank you again, Kevin Mervyn Bick Wrote: > On Wed, 17 Dec 2014 01:44:47 +0200, Kevin Butler <kevinb500@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > Good afternoon, > > > > This one involves the quest for information so I'm hoping there are other > > "old-timers", such as myself, who worked with DBASE in its infancy back > > in > > the early 80's. > > > > There were four programs that created programs that came with DBASE II. > > > > These programs were filegen.prg, formgen.prg, labelgen.prg, and > > menugen.prg. > > > > I had managed to get a hold of a book that had the full code listings for > > these programs. I was able to use some parts of these listings to create > > programs that made other programs. > > > > Unfortunately, that book got lost by the wayside after many moves via the > > military. > > > > I'm attempting to find out either a). The name of the book that had > > theselistings in them. I'm figuring it was authored by Luis Castro, the > > individual who wrote or co-wrote the four program generators. Again, I > > can't recall the book for the life of me. b). The listings for these > > programs > > from another source. > > > > The reason for my re-interest is that I had several spin off programs > > and I think I can do some modernization with my own code. Also, it is > > fun getting back into the old DBASE again just to relearn and to branch > > back out again. > > > > Any help is greatly appreciated. > > Amazon has some used copies of Louis Castro's book available from US$0.53 > http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-programmers-guide-Featuring-dBase/dp/0912677058 > > Digging into this old code may be fun and it will certainly keep you out > of mischief but with these old programs you are likely to find that they > won't output to a printer on the newer versions of Windows. This will > mean investing in dbDOS. > > If you don't still have the original dBASE programs you may be able to do > some work using the latest version of dBASE but this will be very limited > and you will have to rewrite all your input and output screens as the @SAY > and @GET commands have been dropped. > > A more worthwhile project is to redo all your programs using the modern > OOP (Object Oriented Programming) available in the modern dBASE. > > Programming in OOP for Windows is a complete paradigm shift from the old > hierarchical style of programming used with DOS and a fairly steep > learning curve is involved. On the other hand, you'll get all the help > you need here in the newsgroups and once you've mastered it you'll wonder > how you ever managed without it. > > If you buy the latest version of dBASE you will receive an electronic copy > of the second edition of Ken Mayer's The dBASE Book. While the book > doesn't cover all the advanced features available in dBASE 9.5.1 (the > latest version of dBASE) it certainly has enough in it to get you up and > running very quickly. > > If you're going to buy dBASE or dbDOS now is the time to do it. 25% off > until Thursday. > > Mervyn. > | |