The X# Documentation Project

[wriedmann]

Hi Dick, hi Phil,

importing from Pearls is not a good idea, I think. In Pearls sometimes there are replies, and if an post should be transformed to a topic in the wiki, it should be a summary of the post, and contain then a link to it.

But I don't see the wiki as "my" project - it may be more like a child that grows and when it is adult enough, it goes for its own way. So I can immagine that maybe someone else may take over the project - that is the good thing in open source also: the maintainer can change.

Wolfgang

[wriedmann]

Hi Phil,

the download page for your eNotes enotes.xsharp.it has now a better look (and a icon ).

The possibility to add a description to every file will be added tomorrow.

Wolfgang

[Phil Hepburn]

Thanks Wolfgang, I will view later. Been busy fighting the code and the system etc., etc.. Some days are like that ;-0)

I will work on those dates when I get a moment - dates when material was last added to the eNotes files. I have a couple of Click Start images if you think they are OK to use.

This documentation project is HUGE - so be careful what you guys (individually) get sucked into and/or promise. It will ware you down - turn you into a shadow of your former selves!

The reason why so many Open Source projects don't go as well as they might (fail ?), is due to lack of effort to document properly. We are no different - AND - you guys have to earn a living - money to feed the family and all that!!!

Actually, in early days (years?) Pearls was NOT a discussion area, it was simply there to place useful and new 'stuff'. It was changed later when others started to 'chat', is probably the safest way to describe how Pearls was 'corrupted' :blink: :dry:

If we had any good presenters, and time to spare, we should possibly be making some video clips !?

Your plans for the moment seem A-Okay, so keep with them.

Seems also like a good time to start going to Conferences !!!! That motivates AND you learn a lot too.

My main aim in 'ClickStartXSharp' was to have working code syntax of as much X# stuff as possible. All working, and all tested. Useful to us all - me and others.

Must go and fight the dragons .........
Cheers,
Phil.

[wriedmann]

Hi Phil,

to not clutter the Pearls forum, I have put this post in the Chit-Chat forum....

You are right: the wiki is a huge project, but it is urgently needed. And I need to maintain my company, and need to learn and to go forward...

But the "why I do this" is very clear and I can justify this:

For me the X# project is very important (I may say: vital for my company) because I need to maintain a lot of VO code, and X# gives me the possibility to keep my software updated.
X# can only survive if there are enough users, and enough people that pays.
Therefore I need to do my best that as many people as possible works with X#, and the wiki should fill the biggest hole the project currently has (the runtime will be delivered sooner or later, I think).

I'm more convinced than ever that the xBase language is a fantastic language, and X# is a very good successor to VO.
VO gave me a strategic advantage over my competitors: I'm very fast developing.
And I'm pretty sure that with X# this speed will increase because many things are much easier in .NET than in Win32, and the power of the WPF GUI is simply fantastic.

The VO community was great in sharing knowledge and code, and the X# one should maintain this.

Of course conferences are very important, but they cost time (the most precious ressource we have) and many people cannot afford it, and many companies need to save money whenever possible. But we will see us in Köln, I think.

Wolfgang

[FFF]

Now then, on the new guys to X# idea -maybe what is needed is some sort of a new mini project for XIDE and VS, with VS being two mini projects - one WinForms and the other WPF.

Yep. And don't forget to include a DB part... To cite Wolfgang: while coding in VO his biggest advantage was coming QUICKly to results. Compare the oneliner to connect a dbserver to a datawindow with the (comparativly speaking ) heaps of code in .net...

[Phil Hepburn]

Hi Karl,

I have certainly not forgotten DBF's in what I am preparing for Cologne 2018.

I have been working on turning any In-Memory object into a Report.

This afternoon (just there now) I have managed to get MS Reporting Services (FREE) to turn my own simple business class of Person (a Collection of these) into a tabled report. Not clever but effective, and just a first step. Downside for some is that we need to use VS to make the RDLC file (report definition langue file).

Image attached for interests sake :-

RSinMemoryObjXS_01.jpg (57.63 KiB) Viewed 852 times

Okay, I know, the code is C# - BUT - this is all very easily translated (tomorrow). I have done the hard bit earlier this afternoon.

So I am doing my bit for VOers, DBFers and even modern .NETers too. Not bad really B) :whistle: :cheer:

Must shoot - smells of food cooking for tea !!!

Cheers,
Phil.

[wriedmann]

Hi Karl,

Compare the oneliner to connect a dbserver to a datawindow with the (comparativly speaking ) heaps of code in .net..

with the right classes this is a oneliner too in .NET:

Code: Select all

oSampleView := SampleView{}
oSampleView:Use( SampleViewModel{} )
Application.Run( oSampleView )

This is the main piece of code of my WinForms databindung application:

www.riedmann.it/download/WinformsDataBindingApp.viaef

In WPF with MVVM it is exactly one line where you attribute the ViewModel to the View.

The main problem is that we VO programmers are used to accomplish many things with a few lines of code - the Microsoft and Delphi world uses painters for everything.

Wolfgang#

[Chris]

Guys,

Just a quick note to tell you that when Wolfgang told us about this open documentation project, I was personally not very optimistic at first, because in my experience during the vulcan days such open projects lasted very little and very few people had shown interest in contributing to them.

But I am very happy to see that I was completely wrong and already several of you are already contributing! So, in behalf of the X# core team, thank you very much to Wolfgang who started it, and to all of you who are contributing now or in the future. And, by the way, thank you very much of course to all of you who are greatly supporting the X# project!

Chris

[Phil Hepburn]

Wolfgang, Karl, all,

When I have finished preparing for Cologne, and return from the conference - towards the end of April - I intend to fill out the empty/blank sections of 'ClickStartXSharp' with working code, script and images on how to most easily get into using SQL databases, and how to get suitable data both in and out of the database EASILY. Entity Framework 6 will be our friend here, it is so easy to use, we just need to define some .NET classes, and BINGO !

So as to try encourage more guys to give SQL a try, I promise to do the above.

Now that Microsoft provide a 'free to use' and easy to install 'SQL Express 2017' version of their MSSS (Microsoft SQL Server)' it is time to provide X# coded syntax to help others get started.

It is also my intension to have a section on 'SQLlight', and maybe PostgreSQL as well. Others may need to guide me on these last two flavours of 'SQL'.

Now then, back to getting In-Memory collections showing in an X# report with MS Reporting Services - 30 minutes should do it ;-0)

Best wishes to all,
Phil.
Wales, UK.

[wriedmann]

Hi Chris,

thank you very much (I hope on behalf of all that are contributing)!

We will try to keep the project running and increasing in topics. But of course we need also some feedback what is missing.
Currently I'm adding topics on what was difficult to understand for myself, but other people may have other problems - please let us know!

I'm thinking about adding a web form for requests and corrections, but this may need a few days.

Wolfgang