My Favorite Teacher Is Speaking At Southwest Fox

Updated: Most links now point to archived versions of the Southwest Fox Conference (depending on the year). Click here to visit the current Southwest Fox web site.

Southwest Fox 2005 was the first FoxPro Conference I attended. Though I was a wallflower for most of the conference and kept to myself, I was amazed at the amount of technical knowledge that permeated the air (I spent most of my time at the conference simply absorbing as much of the knowledge as I could).

What I learned in one session that year practically paid for the entire conference, saving me tons of time in my own work. That year, Rick Borup presented Integrating RSS With Visual FoxPro Applications. I had been working on integrating RSS with a couple of apps, and had hit the proverbial brick wall. Everything I tried, failed. Miserably. The harder I worked on it, the worse it got.

In a single 75-minute session, Rick opened the floodgates. My problems were solved that very day as I went back to my hotel room with my laptop that night and started applying what I had learned from Rick to my apps.

Flash forward to 2009. I was (finally) going back to Southwest Fox, and Rick was speaking again, presenting The Show Must Go On: Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning and Quibbles, Quirks, and Quickies. Having promised myself that I would go to at least one of Rick’s presentations anytime I was attending a conference he was speaking at, I chose the Quibbles, Quirks, and Quibbles session.

I didn’t go to that session expecting to learn a whole lot (though I did, especially considering he wrote a 35-page whitepaper for the session). I went because I really appreciate Rick’s style of presenting. He is direct, informative, knowledgeable, and as well-prepared for a session as anyone I’ve ever seen.

There’s never any wasted moments in one of Rick’s sessions.

And that reminds me of my favorite teacher in high school. An Air Force retiree, he taught Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus with an almost surgical precision. Never a wasted moment, always prepared, always something to learn (even when you think you already know everything there is to know).

Rick is speaking again at Southwest Fox. A pre-conference session titled An Introduction to Ruby and Rails, and a regular conference session titled Design Patterns in Visual FoxPro.

There’s no way I’ll miss the Design Patterns session.

This week, Rick was interviewed by Andrew MacNeill on The FoxShow podcast about his sessions for this years conference. As usual, his style was evident: direct, knowledgeable, and prepared.

Rick is one more great reason to attend Southwest Fox this year.

Not registered for the conference yet? Register Now…

 

And Now You Can Run The App From The Command Window

Update: Links point to the archived versions of the Southwest Fox conference (depending on the year). Click here to visit the current Southwest Fox web site.

What the heck does the title of this post mean?

If you were at Tamar Granor’s Getting Your Head Around Business Objects session at last year’s Southwest Fox conference, you’d know exactly what it means.

If you weren’t at last years conference, Tamar is another reason why you should go this year.

Tamar’s session focused on business objects. She started with explanations of what business objects are, and delved a bit into the history of business objects in Visual FoxPro (think frameworks).

She showed how she used business objects in a real-world application, and followed that with a Sudoku game, built with Visual FoxPro.

We got a brief glance at the UI for the Sudoku game, then Tamar walked us through the classes (object hierarchy) she had built. One of the most interesting parts for me was how she had used collection classes for business objects.

I really wanted to learn more about that, and I must be one of the luckiest people in the world: she’s presenting Collections: Managing Information the Object-Oriented Way at this years conference.

Most of the session was dedicated to building the “engine” for the application, using business objects. After she was done showing the classes, object hierarchy and how she linked the classes together, she said something that really kicked me in the gut – a real “A-HA!” moment for me:

“And now, you can run the app from the Command Window.”

If they gave awards for best quote of the conference, that quote would have won hands-down.

And she was right. The entire game could have been played from the Visual FoxPro Command Window, with no UI. The rest of the session was spent showing us how to connect the business objects (the engine) with the user interface.

I was stunned at the amount I had learned in 75-minutes. Even better, Tamar wrote a detailed 42-page whitepaper and provided the source code for the Sudoku game which she used as the example for the session.

Going to a session by Tamar is like going to a class lecture that you want  to attend. She is professional, informative and entertaining all at once. Which to me is a great combination of skills, and exactly what I look for when I’m selecting sessions to attend.

Early-bird registration ends September 1st. If you haven’t registered for this years conference, stop reading my drivel and go. register. now.

Two Great Reasons To Attend Southwest Fox This Year

Update: Links point to archived versions of the Southwest Fox Conference site. Click here to visit the current Southwest Fox Conference web site.

This past Tuesday, I had an opportunity to go to Atlanta for the AFUG (Atlanta FoxPro Users Group) meeting. Bo Durban and Steve Ellenoff were each doing a “practice run” on one of their Southwest Fox sessions.

First up, Bo presented Extending VFP using the Web Browser Control. I was really looking forward to this session, because I’ve used the web browser control extensively in several applications and I’m always looking for ways to improve. I’ve read THE BOOK on the subject, every article I could get my hands on, and attended Mike Feltman’s sessions at last years conference (the tips and tricks I learned from Mike’s sessions and whitepapers last year practically PAID for my entire conference trip).

Going in, I asked myself, “How much I could possibly learn from Bo’s session, that I don’t already know?”

I got an answer to that question real fast: at least four things I had no idea about in the first 10 minutes. During Bo’s session, my mind was spinning with new ways of approaching the web browser control in my apps. I couldn’t wait to get home so I could start working on them. Some of them I’ve already tried, and the speed increase on displaying HTML in my app is incredible.

And this means Bo’s session alone is worth the cost of the conference to me.

Next up was Steve Ellenoff, presenting Creating Database Abstraction Classes in VFP: Switch your Back-End with Ease. Attendees from last years conference may remember Steve’s 52-page whitepaper from his “Simulated Multithreading” session last year, and if I had to take a guess I’d say his whitepaper for this session will likely dwarf last years.

Steve showed how to switch the back-end data source for your Visual FoxPro app on-the-fly, with minimal code.

Minimal, because he’s created classes which handle the complexities of working with different back-end data servers (including VFP data tables and database containers, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostGreSQL).

In short, Steve’s done a ton of work that I have avoided like the plague.

To me, his comparisons between VFP and other back-end data servers are worth the price of admission alone. The source code for the classes you’ll get with the session will certainly come in handy.

I’ve seen Steve present several sessions in the past, and I’ve got to say he has improved with every session I’ve seen. He was top-notch Tuesday night and well prepared.

I really enjoyed my time in Atlanta, so much so I sent in a membership application this morning. The sessions Bo and Steve presented really have me stoked for the great content at Southwest Fox this year.

I’m counting the days until October 14th (63 days, in case you’re wondering).

Not registered yet? Register before September 1, 2010 for a $50 early-bird discount.