All Those Who Liked Doing Book Reports in School, Raise Your Hand

I hated doing book reports in school. I usually tried to “read” a book that had been made into a movie. I preferred to “watch” a book rather than read one. I gave up this approach when I once reported on Jules Verne’s “Around the World in Eighty Days”. Turns out the much bally-hooed scene of Phineas Fogg going over the Alps in a hot air balloon was never a part of the actual novel; it was just a Hollywood gimmick and my English teacher was aware of that fact. Anyway, why would I want to read a book when I could be outside playing? I haven’t changed too much over the years. Why would I want to read a book when I could be inside playing (on the computer)? I rarely read for pleasure, but I almost always have a technical book, white paper, or trade magazine with me. You just have to “grow ‘til ya go”.

The latest book I have been schlepping around is “Flying Fox – Applying Visual FoxPro Reporting to Any Data, in Any Environment” by Lisa Slater Nicholls. “Flying Fox” is an easily portable paperback (about 140 pages) offered by dFPUG (Deutschland FoxPro User Group). In Europe, it may be ordered at http://tinyurl.com/2pa32x. Here in the colonies, Whil Hentzen’s Hentzenwerke Publishing is handling the domestic distribution and can be ordered at http://tinyurl.com/2naej6.

What this book lacks in physical presence, (it is just an average sized paperback), it more than makes up for with content and the urge to think “outside the box” with respect to creating application reports. The introduction sums it up quite nicely. “Database developers who have never used Visual FoxPro can use this book to learn how to use VFP as a low-cost and full-featured reporting tool for their data sources. Even if you don’t use VFP for anything else, VFP makes reporting accessible, extensible and cost-effective.” What business owner would not be impressed by that degree of flexibility and cost? Not many. I want to re-emphasize that this book and its concepts are not for Visual FoxPro users only. One word of caution… If you are using a version of FoxPro that is earlier than VFP 9.0, you will have to upgrade to take advantage of all of the concepts; specifically, the use of the report listener classes. Another important point is that even though Nicholls states that you don’t need to know VFP, you will have to learn some FoxPro. However, this should not be a showstopper since she takes several chapters to draw you into the VFP environment as well as explain the commands needed to accomplish your goals.

Additionally, more chapters are devoted in the step by step development of a VFP reporting application. In summation your honor… I would like to state that I have read through the book twice and although I consider myself to be somewhat savvy report-wise, I still do not fully understand all of the concepts. It is not because of Nicholls’ explanation, but rather, reluctance on my part, to get my hands dirty since I do not have an immediate need for this functionality. I am confident that once I actually place my fingers on the keyboard and start to build my reporting application it should all come together. For me, it is simply a case of adding another tool to my development arsenal and I am suggesting that you consider making yourself aware of these reporting possibilities also. Read the book, now! It will be years before Hollywood makes it into a movie.