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Virgil Bierschwale | 1 Apr 2010 01:01

Re: How did you get your start in FoxPro?

I hear you.
when they laid everybody off where I was working at, contracting was 
just getting going and it paid double what full time did with no down time.
far cry from today

On 3/31/2010 5:55 PM, John Weller wrote:
> 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
>
(Continue reading)

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Jarvis, Matthew | 1 Apr 2010 01:51

RE: How did you get your start in FoxPro?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: profoxtech-bounces <at> leafe.com
[mailto:profoxtech-bounces <at> leafe.com]
> On Behalf Of John Weller
> Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 3:55 PM
> To: profoxtech <at> leafe.com
> Subject: RE: How did you get your start in FoxPro?
> 
> we started as I could not get my head around the Foundation Read (I
still
> don't understand it.).  

I feel your pain.... I was the same way until I locked myself in a room
for 3 days until I understood it... the lure of beer and women got me
out of the room and I STILL don't think I fully got it....  <g>

Bachelor of Science, Mathematics, 1985, Focus on Numerical Methods &
Mathematical Statistics (I'm a number crunching kinda guy).

I had no real world programming experience (school was Pascal, Fortran,
Basic and others) but came out from upstate NY for a few weeks to move
my girlfriend back with me to go to Syracuse. While out here in Oregon
wanted to pick up some bucks so asked a friend who's dad owned a
computer store if I could sweep floors or whatever. He remembered I had
a technical degree and asked if I wanted to write some code since he was
too busy to do it - I said sure. So I got paid to learn dBase III and
write the app (Manufacturing & Inventory control for nuclear sub hatch
covers). Since my school stuff was on Apple II's and mainframes, I'll
never forget staring at my first PC for over two hours trying to figure
out how to turn it on, and too embarrased to ask.....
(Continue reading)

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Jeff Johnson | 1 Apr 2010 02:11

Re: How did you get your start in FoxPro?

Virgil:  I'll skip all of my programming experience and get right to 
FoxPro because that is what you are looking for.  I was an accomplished 
programmer and working for a company as director of finance and 
programmer.  (I have a BS in Accounting and a BA in Mathematics (Algebra 
is my specialty))  My father passed away and I decided I was heading 
down the same path he was so I decided to leave the corporate world and 
go broke - sorry - go into business for myself.  I developed an 
application in Quick Basic and was able to market it through someone 
that is still a very good friend of mine.  We work in the trucking 
industry.  Another programmer friend of mine handed me a couple of disks 
that had FoxPro 2.0 on them.  He said, "Try this and tell me what you 
think."  I went into competition with a group that was using Paraducks 
and I blew them away with speed.  That was 1991 if I am not mistaken. 
My friend never went into FoxPro as he was more of an AS400 guy, but I 
have never looked back.

Jeff

Jeff Johnson
jeff <at> san-dc.com
SanDC, Inc.
623-582-0323
Fax 623-869-0675

http://www.VetsFindingVets.org
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Virgil Bierschwale | 1 Apr 2010 03:15

Re: How did you get your start in FoxPro?

I think a lot of us went the SBT route.
Sage now owns it, but never promotes it from what I've seen.
Kind of what Microsoft did to foxpro

On 3/31/2010 6:51 PM, Jarvis, Matthew wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: profoxtech-bounces <at> leafe.com
>>      
> [mailto:profoxtech-bounces <at> leafe.com]
>    
>> On Behalf Of John Weller
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 3:55 PM
>> To: profoxtech <at> leafe.com
>> Subject: RE: How did you get your start in FoxPro?
>>
>> we started as I could not get my head around the Foundation Read (I
>>      
> still
>    
>> don't understand it.).
>>      
> I feel your pain.... I was the same way until I locked myself in a room
> for 3 days until I understood it... the lure of beer and women got me
> out of the room and I STILL don't think I fully got it....<g>
>
> Bachelor of Science, Mathematics, 1985, Focus on Numerical Methods&
> Mathematical Statistics (I'm a number crunching kinda guy).
>
> I had no real world programming experience (school was Pascal, Fortran,
> Basic and others) but came out from upstate NY for a few weeks to move
(Continue reading)

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Virgil Bierschwale | 1 Apr 2010 03:18

Re: How did you get your start in FoxPro?

Glad to hear that...
I've been toying with the idea of learning python by writing an invoice 
application (similar to how SBT started) for all platforms, but just 
can't focus on it right now...

On 3/31/2010 7:11 PM, Jeff Johnson wrote:
> Virgil:  I'll skip all of my programming experience and get right to
> FoxPro because that is what you are looking for.  I was an accomplished
> programmer and working for a company as director of finance and
> programmer.  (I have a BS in Accounting and a BA in Mathematics (Algebra
> is my specialty))  My father passed away and I decided I was heading
> down the same path he was so I decided to leave the corporate world and
> go broke - sorry - go into business for myself.  I developed an
> application in Quick Basic and was able to market it through someone
> that is still a very good friend of mine.  We work in the trucking
> industry.  Another programmer friend of mine handed me a couple of disks
> that had FoxPro 2.0 on them.  He said, "Try this and tell me what you
> think."  I went into competition with a group that was using Paraducks
> and I blew them away with speed.  That was 1991 if I am not mistaken.
> My friend never went into FoxPro as he was more of an AS400 guy, but I
> have never looked back.
>
>
>
> Jeff
>
> Jeff Johnson
> jeff <at> san-dc.com
> SanDC, Inc.
> 623-582-0323
(Continue reading)

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Virgil Bierschwale | 1 Apr 2010 03:55

Foxpro Developers - Chapter 01

Ok, I'm not an author.
Never claimed to be, nor wanted to be, but I believe I need to do what I 
can to stop what I see happening in software land here in America.

Chapter 01 is now available at the following link and thank you for the 
stories that were submitted to me.
I believe I did not incorporate any thing that would identify you, but 
please doublecheck and if I need to change something, please let me know.

http://keepamericaatwork.com/?p=7921

Thanks,
--

-- 
Virgil Bierschwale
Vets Finding Vets <http://www.VetsFindingVets.org>
Keep America At Work <http://www.KeepAmericaAtWork.com>

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Fred Taylor | 1 Apr 2010 08:18
Picon

Re: How did you get your start in FoxPro?

I'd been working as professional programmer in mostly Fortran for about 5
years when I first had to do a data job in dBase][ in 1984.  From there to
dBaseIII, then someone suggested FoxBase.  Did that and SCO FoxBase for
years, and never looked back.  From SBT roots on both DOS and XENIX, worked
on TIW WorkShop for many years moving it from DOS, to WIN, to VFP versions.
VFP programming for a call center for a few years, then some contract work
for the US Bankruptcy courts.  Currently still have a 9-5 working in VFP,
and doing side work in all Fox versions.  Managed to keep steady work for
most of the years in Fox.  Never had the time to get a degree, had been
going to school for architecture when the computer bug for software bit in
1979.  Seriously looking at Python as I've got a long way to go before I can
retire.  Retire, yeah right.  Some kinda cruel joke, I'll have to work for
20 years after I die.

Fred

On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 3:23 PM, Virgil Bierschwale <vbiersch <at> ktc.com>wrote:

> 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
(Continue reading)

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Alan Bourke | 1 Apr 2010 10:19

Re: Foxpro Developers - Chapter 01

Interesting what you say about degrees. I've never had direct experience
of the US but the impression I get is that often someone straight out of
college with a degree and no experience would have a better chance than
someone with perhaps lesser educational paper and proven years of
success in the field. I think it's the opposite way round here in
Ireland/UK, largely.

There are an awful lot of useless people holding degrees, especially
these days - I don't know about the US but here it has become very
devalued because any idiot can get one eventually.
--

-- 
  Alan Bourke
  alanpbourke (at) fastmail (dot) fm
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Alan Bourke | 1 Apr 2010 10:25

Re: How did you get your start in FoxPro?

I fell into it in 1991 because it's what the first company I worked for
used - I was a C programmer before. First job was patching up a system
for a company that made windows, which had been done in Foxpro/LAN with
the screen builders and so on - but I didn't have the screen designer
files, just the generated code.

I've expanded my knowledge since then into C# (and trying to find time
to get into Python) but the core of my work is still VFP.
--

-- 
  Alan Bourke
  alanpbourke (at) fastmail (dot) fm
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List Administrator Account | 1 Apr 2010 13:04
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ProFox List Statistics for March, 2010

==================================================
ProFox List Statistics
March, 2010
==================================================
Subscriber Count at End of Month:
		ProFox: 348
		ProFoxTech: 203
==================================================

Total Posts: 1764
(Up 81.48% from February, 2010)

Total [OT] Posts: 871
(Up 297.72% from February, 2010)

Total [NF] Posts: 416
(Up 25.3% from February, 2010)

Daily Message Counts for March 2010
------------------------------------------------
DOW	 Date  Count
---	 ----  -----
 M    1 -   18
 T    2 -   93
 W    3 -   75
 T    4 -   68
 F    5 -   55
 S    6 -    2
 S    7 -   25
 M    8 -   45
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