GetWiki

{{Short description|Programming language}}

factoids

WORK=DOWNLOAD CENTERACCESS-DATE=7 JUNE 2013, October 16, 2007, | programming language =Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003SYSTEM REQUIREMENTSWORK=VISUAL FOXPRO DEVELOPER CENTERACCESS-DATE=7 JUNE 2013, IA-32FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONSWORK=VISUAL FOXPRO DEVELOPER CENTERACCESS-DATE=7 JUNE 2013, | language = IDE: English, German, SpanishRuntime: Above plus French, Chinese, Russian, Czech, Korean| genre = Integrated development environment, programming languageCommercial software>Commercial proprietary softwaremsdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro}}}}Visual FoxPro is a programming language that was developed by Microsoft. It is a data-centric and procedural programming language with object-oriented programming (OOP) features.It was derived from FoxPro (which was itself descended from FoxBASE) which was developed by Fox Software beginning in 1984. Fox Technologies merged with Microsoft in 1992, after which the software acquired further features and the prefix "Visual".NEWS, Pollack, Andrew, Microsoft to Try New Market By Acquiring Fox Software,weblink The New York Times, 25 March 1992, D1, FoxPro 2.6 worked on Mac OS, DOS, Windows, and Unix.Visual FoxPro 3.0, the first "Visual" version, reduced platform support to only MacMicrosoft Visual FoxPro 3.0 for Power Macintosh Now Available, July 25, 1996, news.microsoft.com and Windows, and later versions 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were Windows-only. The current version of Visual FoxPro is COM-based and Microsoft has stated that they do not intend to create a Microsoft .NET version.Version 9.0, released in December 2004 and updated in October 2007 with the SP2 patch, was the final version of the product. Support ended in January 2010 and extended support in January 2015.WEB,weblink Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0, learn.microsoft.com,

History

{{see also|dBase}}Visual FoxPro originated as a member of the class of languages commonly referred to as "xBase" languages, which have syntax based on the dBase programming language. Other members of the xBase language family include Clipper and Recital (database).Visual FoxPro, commonly abbreviated as VFP, is tightly integrated with its own relational database engine, which extends FoxPro's xBase capabilities to support SQL query and data manipulation. Unlike most database management systems, Visual FoxPro is a full-featured, dynamic programming language that does not require the use of an additional general-purpose programming environment. It can be used to write not just traditional "fat client" applications, but also middleware and web applications.In late 2002, it was demonstrated that Visual FoxPro can run on Linux under the Wine Windows compatibility suite. In 2003, this led to complaints by Microsoft: it was claimed that the deployment of runtime FoxPro code on non-Windows machines violates the End User License Agreement.Visual FoxPro for Linux: A Violation of the EULA?, May 13, 2003, By Ed Leafe, Linux JournalVisual FoxPro had a rapid rise and fall in popularity as measured by the TIOBE Programming Community Index.Tiobe Index History for FoxPro In December 2005, VFP broke into the top 20 for the first time. In June 2006 it peaked at position 12, making it (at the time) a "B" language. As of January 2023, Visual FoxPro holds position 21 on the TIOBE index.WEB,weblink Index | TIOBE - the Software Quality Company, In March 2007, Microsoft announced that there would be no VFP 10,A Message to the Community thus making VFP9 (released to manufacturing on December 17, 2004) the last commercial VFP release from Microsoft. Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 was released on October 16, 2007.Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 Service Pack 2.0 The support of Version 9 ended on January 13, 2015.At the time of the end of life announcement, work on the next release codenamed Sedna (named after a recently discovered dwarf planet) which was built on top of the VFP9 codebase had already begun. "Sedna" is a set of add-ons to VFP 9.0 of xBase components to support a number of interoperability scenarios with various Microsoft technologies including SQL Server 2005, .NET Framework, Windows Vista, Office 2007, Windows Search and Team Foundation Server (TFS). Microsoft released Sedna under the Shared source license on the CodePlex site. Microsoft has clarified that the VFP core will still remain closed source. Sedna was released on January 25, 2008.Microsoft SEDNA download As of March 2008, all xBase components of the VFP 9 SP2 (including Sedna) were available for community-development on CodePlex.In late March 2007 a grassroots campaign was started by the Spanish-speaking FoxPro community at MásFoxProMas FoxPro - Visual FoxPro Wiki ("MoreFoxPro" in English) to sign a petition to Microsoft to continue updating Visual FoxPro or release it to the community as open-source. On April 3, 2007, the movement was noted by the technical press.Developers petition Microsoft to reconsider FoxPro phase out Posted by Mary Jo Foley (April 3rd, 2007) - All about Microsoft - ZDNet.comOn April 3, 2007, Microsoft responded to the petition with this statement from Alan Griver:"We're very aware of the FoxPro community and that played a large part in what we announced on March 13th. It's never an easy decision to announce that we're not going to release another version of a product and it's one that we consider very carefully."We're not announcing the end of FoxPro: Obviously, FoxPro applications will continue to work. By some of our internal estimates, there are more applications running in FoxPro 2.6 than there are in VFP and FoxPro 2.6 hasn't been supported in many years. Visual FoxPro 9 will be supported by Microsoft through 2015."For Microsoft to continue to evolve the FoxPro base, we would need to look at creating a 64-bit development environment and that would involve an almost complete rewrite of the core product. We've also invested in creating a scalable database with SQL Server, including the freely available SQL Server Express Edition. As far as forming a partnership with a third-party is concerned, we've heard from a number of large FoxPro customers that this would make it impossible for them to continue to use FoxPro since it would no longer be from an approved vendor. We felt that putting the environment into open source on CodePlex, which balances the needs of both the community and the large customers, was the best path forward."

Version Timeline

All versions listed are for Windows.The History of FoxPro{| class="wikitable sortable"! Version! Release Date| Visual FoxPro 3.0| June 1995| Visual FoxPro 5.0| October 1996| Visual FoxPro 5.0a| October 1997| Visual FoxPro 6.0| 18 May 1998| Visual FoxPro 7.0| 27 June 2001| Visual FoxPro 8.0| 1 February 2003| Visual FoxPro 8.0 Service Pack 1| 7 October 2003| Visual FoxPro 9| 20 December 2004| Visual FoxPro 9 Service Pack 1| 8 December 2005| Visual FoxPro 9 Service Pack 2| 16 October 2007

Code samples

The FoxPro language contains commands quite similar to other programming languages such as BASIC.Some basic syntax samples:FOR i = 1 to 10 NEXT && Instead of "NEXT" can also use "ENDFOR"IF i = 25 ELSE ENDIFx = 1DO WHILE x < 50 ENDDOx = 1DO WHILE .T. ENDDOnMonth = MONTH(DATE())DO CASE