Table Of ContentDedication
This book is dedicated to the memory of Tom Rettig.
Tom epitomized the spirit of “Proper Programming Practices,”
and to this day, I have always used him as the ultimate measure of my code:
“What would Tom think of this?”
You are missed, Tom.
Acknowledgements
You might think that the coolest part of writing a book on a piece of software is getting to play with
new software before the general public sees it. I hate to burst your bubble, but actually, the best part
is getting to meet new people and work with old friends during the project.
First comes my tech editor and good friend Doug Hennig. (He’s also an old friend, although less
old than me by about a month.) If I had to pick one person in our community who could rightfully
assume the position of Master Developer left by Tom Rettig, it would be Doug. I was damned lucky
that his wonderful bride, Peggy, and his adorable little boy, Nick, were generous enough to give up
some of their time with him while he was editing this tome.
Next is my superb copy editor and layout pro, Jeana. We first met back in the mid-’90s (I think)
when I was scribbling an occasional article for FoxTalk. She’s worked on each of the Essentials
books so far, and we’ve all been very fortunate to have her by our side.
Thirdly, I want to thank all the readers of my Programming Visual FoxPro 3.0 book, and all the
patient customers of this book. You’ve been very nice to have waited this long; I hope this book
pleases, and that you will tell me what you like—and don’t like! I’ve learned my lesson: I won’t try
to start another company and write two other books while I revise this book for version 7.0!
Where to begin with the Fox community? I started listing names, but felt I was missing people,
so I opened my Outlook and CompuServe address books and found that I’ve accumulated more than
2,000 names over the years. So I know that I will miss a few—probably many.
There are the authors and tech editors of the books in the Essentials series: Jim, Steve, Steve,
Ted, Tamar, Steven, Drew, Markus, Mac, Rick, Gary, and Jeff. And those working on books for the
future—Della, Andy, Marcia, John, Mike, and Chaim—or who contributed in one way or another:
PAul, Rick, Kris, Bill, Barbara, Andrew, Jim, and Patty.
There are the folks on the VFP product team—both past and present—Alison, Susan, Randy,
Ken, Calvin, Robert, Winnie, Ricardo, John, Imtiaz, Hong-Chee, John, Mike, Jim, Gene, Garrett,
Mike, Doug, Steve, Tom, and McAlister.
And the UT folk, including Michel, John, Barb, Nancy, Ed, Rox, Dave, Craig, Arnon, George,
Vlad, and, of course, Lulu.
There are also folks responsible for, as they say, “atmosphere”—Val, Igor, Paul, Menachem,
Jim, Dan (P.A.M.), Kelly and that bunch, Ceil, Colin, >L<, YAG, Eldor (The PEBCAK Man),
Fletcher, Chuck, Mike, Toni, Phil, Mickey and The Dog, Ellen, wOOdy, Rainer, Volker, and the rest
of the German contingent, jMM, JVP, Rod, Ed, Chick and Bill, Scott, Laura, Laura, Laura, the Silver
Fox, Paul, Jacci, Mike, John and DTA the tag team, Art, Doug, Dick, and Heather.
And let me not forget Billy Preston!!
Finally, it’s time for attributions of the bands that kept me awake in the wee hours this winter
and spring while I was experimenting with this feature or that, or performing yet another NT install
due to the vagaries of the beta-testing process. Although they’ll never see this, nor would they care if
they did, I must mention Blues Traveler, Gravity Kills, The Poor, Queensryche, Supertramp, and,
proving that the truth isn’t always very pretty, Rob Zombie.
Software is always better when written at 105 decibels.
Whil Hentzen
Milwaukee, WI
Boring Stuff About the Author
Whil Hentzen
Whil Hentzen is president of Hentzenwerke Corporation, a 17-year-old firm that specializes in
strategic database applications for Fortune 2000 firms in the manufacturing, financial, and
health-care industries. The firm has commercial products and custom applications in use
throughout the United States and in nearly two dozen foreign countries. Hentzenwerke has
hosted the semi-annual Great Lakes Great Database Workshop since 1994.
Whil has written and spoken extensively about software development. He is a multi-year
Microsoft MVP, and editor of FoxTalk, Pinnacle Publishing’s high-end technical journal for
FoxPro. He is the author of books about Visual Studio (Visual FoxPro 6.0 Fundamentals),
Visual FoxPro (Programming Visual FoxPro 3.0), FoxPro (Rapid Application Development
with FoxPro 2.6), and custom software development (1999 Software Developer’s Guide).
He has presented more than 50 papers at conferences throughout North America and
Europe, including the Microsoft Visual FoxPro DevCon, the German National DevCon,
Conference to the Max (the Netherlands), the Spanish National DevCon, Database &
Client/Server World, FoxTeach, the FoxPro Users Conference, and the Mid-Atlantic Database
Workshop.
He spends his spare time with his kids and volunteering for the local school district, and is
an avid distance runner, hoping for one more shot at a sub-15-minute 5,000-meter clocking
before age and common sense close the door on that activity.
You can reach Whil at [email protected].
Doug Hennig, Technical Editor
Doug Hennig is a partner with Stonefield Systems Group Inc. in Regina, Saskatchewan,
Canada. He’s the author of Stonefield’s Database Toolkit for Visual FoxPro and Stonefield
Data Dictionary for FoxPro 2.x. He’s also the author of the Visual FoxPro Data Dictionary in
Pinnacle Publishing’s The Pros Talk Visual FoxPro series. Doug has spoken at user groups and
regional conferences all over North America, and at the last three Microsoft Visual FoxPro
Developer Conferences. He’s a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP.)
You can reach Doug at [email protected]
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Description:The long-awaited sequel to Whil's "Programming VFP 3.0," this volume covers the basics of developing a wide range of applications quickly, covers all of the new commands, functions, features and tools of Visual FoxPro 6.0, and describes, step-by-step, how to build a traditional LAN application with
