About This Book

There are lots of different kinds of software. There are communications tools, graphics packages, Web page development tools, and Internet add-ins of seemingly endless variety. C# and C++ are good for all these kinds of applications. But my favorites are database applications. And of all of the languages sold by Microsoft, Visual FoxPro and Visual Basic .NET are the two most suitable for database application development.

Databases are simply collections of tables, each containing a single kind of record. By using software to relate records from various tables, you can build complex systems to deal with data for accounting, contact management, medical information, tax collection, law enforcement, space vehicle development, and anything else. Alan Greenspan attributes the increasing prosperity of the United States to computer software, and I don't think he's talking about software for drawing pictures. Databases are awesome .

Database development, as a profession, is about as good as it gets. I can't wait to get to my office every morning. Every new project offers a chance to extend my skills. Every day produces a new plateau of achievement. I can't recommend it enough to young people who are looking for a great job and the pay ain't bad.

Microsoft is the world's largest vendor of software development tools. Its flagship product, Visual Studio, supports four of Microsoft's languages: C++, C#, J#, and Visual Basic. Microsoft also sells Visual FoxPro, a language originally conceived solely for database application development. Visual FoxPro has its own IDE, is not a part of Visual Studio, and does not integrate natively with Visual Studio languages.

Visual Basic .NET is a complete rewrite of the Visual Basic language, with a well-thought-out architecture that is methodologically elegant and robust. It represents a huge step forward in Microsoft's strategy to provide a full range of tools for application development. Visual Basic .NET's architecture moves commands and functions out of the language and into objects , a trend that is bound to continue. I see the best of Delphi, FoxPro, Visual Basic 6, and even C++ in Visual Basic .NET.

This is not to say that Visual FoxPro applications are unsophisticated compared to those written in Visual Basic .NET. In fact, they're very similar. But Visual FoxPro is easier to learn. You can write your first working application in a few hours.

Microsoft spends huge amounts of money advertising Visual Studio. FoxPro, on the other hand, is practically invisible. I won't speculate on Microsoft's reasons for not advertising FoxPro. It is a spectacular product. It is easier to learn; it takes less time to develop comparable applications; and Visual FoxPro applications run faster than anything written in Visual Basic .NET. But if you don't have clients , it's not a job; it's a hobby.

Visual Basic .NET is the database application development tool of the future. Its architecture is elegant and extensible. It gives you dozens of controls and components , drawing features from Visio, integrated UML support, integrated SQL Server administration and query support, Crystal Reports designer, an HTML editor, and everything else you can imagine. With power comes complexity, but the feature list is impressive. And it has Microsoft's support, without which no product can survive.