Subject Re: Returning to dBase and need help From Lee Grant <camilee@nospam.comcast.net> Date Mon, 11 May 2020 18:42:19 -0400 Newsgroups dbase.getting-started Hello Joe, Good news and bad news. The newer versions of dBASE work better over the earlier 5.0 incarnations because the software was improved over the rocky start of their OOP transition....however, that said....you must now learn OOP with dBASE. The tutorial works, albeit a new issue has popped up with the datamodules that was previously unknown, but the resultant program will still work. There really is no way for you to bypass the learning curve. To properly implement dBASE now and and for further maintainability, you will have to  learn to use it and the Tutorial is a great fledgling attempt that covers a lot of material implementation in a short time frame...but the nature of the OOP implemenation is a lot deeper than just slapping things together. If you need, you might be able to get yourself a basic CRUD (create, read, update and delete) application using dBASE2019's designers to make some basic forms and such, but after that, you'll need to understand the nature of the new paradigm. In methods(functions) of objects, you'll still be able to use your procedural programming ability, however, even there, you'll be needing to understand the OOP objects and their properties(variables) and methods(functions) to utilize them in the code. No shortcuts, I'm afraid. It should be similar to your using dBASE instead of FoxPro, designers instead of ProMatrix and I have no idea what Software Passport for licensing would entail unless it's a program to allow for multiple users, which is something you can do yourself inside dBASE using the multi-user coding. As far as sample code for you to learn from, using the designers will get you started looking at the code they generate to learn the basics form building process from...but it's as easy as dragging and dropping objects on a form to create the form...if you have a database, drop that on the form and you can drag and drop datalinked fields onto the form. But like I said, other than that basic functionality, you'll need to get further in. Lee On 5/11/2020 5:33 PM, Joe LeBlanc wrote: > Sorry about that, > I just purchased the new 2019 edition. > > Just as an aside, I started in the with dBASE 2.? and progressed to dBASE 5 for DOS where I wrote large programs over about 5 year. I tried to migrate to dBASE for windows but it was so badly written that I gave up on it and switched to Foxpro and Promatrix. I've still got a few commercial programs that I'm milking right now. > > Since nobody is supporting VFP, Promatrix and Software Passport for licensing, it's just a matter of time before Microsoft breaks this combination. > I tried dBASE a few years back but there were a lot of problems with the program. > My understanding is this version 2019 is good so I thought I'd give it another try. > BTW, I tried doing Ken's tutorial about 5 years ago and couldn't get it finished. There were so many holes in it. Even Ken couldn't get the thing to work. > > I don't want to spend the next 3 months getting a tutorial to work. > All I want is a sample programs with menus and some forms with the type of stuff I can use to learn dBASE stuff so I can. > I don't have to learn how to program ... just learn dBASE. > > Joe