VFP 9 Now and Then...
I 'm very excited about VFP 9.
The amazing new features of VFP 9 provide a tremendous productivity boost.
I used to write endless lines of code in the resize event in order to keep the form controls alligned and in sync with the form dimensions. In VFP 9 it is just a property setting for every control.
I used to subclass the textbox control and write complex code in order to give it the "auto complete" feature. This is handled by the properties window now.
I used to write "connection's manager" classes (Thanks Andy Kramek) if I wanted to have information about active connections on Sql Server. The new ASQLHANDLES function does the job nicely.
I used to buy third party products in order to have my reports as a single file for mailing.
Now the new ReportListener Class can handle not only this but many many more.
I used to buy third party products for Plots and Graphs. Now I can easily use the amazing GDI+ API.
I used to write my own Procedures in order to get information about the tables in a MSDE db.
Now I can see and browse very easily any table from Data Explorer tool.
In previous versions of VFP you have to carry a database file if you wanted to have transactions.
You can now include free tables and cursors in transactions (Very useful).
These are some of the new features that I have already discovered and use in my daily work.