What's new in the Visual FoxPro Community

West Wind Technologies has released version 4.66 of West Wind Html Help Builder. Help Builder produces documentation for Html Help (CHM), Web ready HTML and Word/PDF format for end user applications as well as developer documentation for FoxPro, .NET, Sql Server, Web Services and other environments. Version 4.66 adds many small user interface enhancements to the IDE and a host of new backup and project export features to Zip files. There are also a number of improvement for .NET imports including support for Code Contracts and multiple example code snippets. There are also a host of small UI improvements and a few bug fixes. Help Builder is available as shareware and registered users can download and re-install the latest version.

..which of course means you DO need Source Control. And a good choice for FoxPro developers is the VFPX tool called "SubFox". We'll walk through setting up an existing project on SubFox from start to finish, and the workflow for multiple developers to use it to their best advantage. 5:30 pm, 1/17/2011 Geeks and Gurus Wisconsin Headquarters 1308 Spring St. Madison, WI 53715

ActiveVFP 5.51 and 5.61 have been released today on CodePlex: http://activevfp.codeplex.com Demo at: http://thetechconsult.com/demo (at GoDaddy shared web hosting) New and improved features: Error Handling improved, Interactive Debugging for AVFP 5.51 using the VFP debugger (requires the VFP IDE and Visual Studio), Debug Dump feature to display AVFP variables for any page, AVFP source code cleanup ActiveVFP is a totally free and open source solution for creating web applications with the Visual Foxpro programming language and database (and other DBs like MSSQL or MySQL). Faster than PHP on Windows, easier than C#, ActiveVFP makes it easy to use FoxPro on the web!!

The next meeting of the Philadelphia VFP User Group will be Tuesday, January 10. Our speaker this month will be Bob Pierce. He will demonstrate building a small VFP project that can be used to display status info and data that is simple to build yet has a modern App/Gadget feel using just basic VFP controls and classes. If there is time he will discuss his recent adventures in bar-coding and lot control and some of the issues he ran into as well as the advantages it has delivered already and future planned enhancements.

West Wind Technologies has released version 4.65 of West Wind Html Help Builder. Help Builder produces documentation for Html Help (CHM), Web ready HTML and Word/PDF format for end user applications as well as developer documentation for FoxPro, .NET, Sql Server, Web Services and other environments. Version 4.65 adds a new Command Line Console to automate Help Builder tasks from project builds, updated templates with improved direct linking features for Web Content, and improved HTML 5 support in stock templates. There are also a host of small UI improvements and a few bug fixes. Help Builder is available as shareware and registered users can download and re-install the latest version.

ChicagoFUDG: Be there! Tuesday 13 Dec 2011 at 5:30pm; 200 S. Wacker 15th floor (Tech Nexus). Our December meeting features Jody Meyer, a Fox Expert from Grand Rapids who has presented at SouthWest Fox for the past three years. She will do two presentations: From SWFox 2011 1) Wanted: More Processing Speed!, a review and demonstration of ParallelFox (hosted on VFPX), and 2) It's Easy and It's Green - PDF Output. This will be a 'digest' review of a session she presented at SWFox 2010. More info at http://www.ChicagoFUDG.com - RSVP by emailing Bill Drew.

At first glance, the BindEvent() function may seem unnecessary. After all, why bind to an event when you can just write code in the event's method? Tamar Granor will look at why BindEvent() and its cousins, the Access and Assign methods, are so valuable. Using examples drawn from real applications, we'll see how event binding lets you do things you couldn't otherwise do, and simplifies code for other tasks. We'll also talk about the difficulties involved in debugging code that uses event binding.

Southwest Fox 2011 was a great success. Now we're trying to figure out what form next year's event will take. You can help us by answering a few questions about your preferences. Please take the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VCCKNDG, so we can include your input.