> > Today I use VFP to improve my own productivity and distribute my work to a very small community.
> >
> > Foxite is a great resource for keeping me out of trouble, but someday I know I'll need to hire an expert to make my applications more robust and networkable.
> >
> > So I direct my query to you VFP consultants in Foxite land: What are the common coding practices that newbies make that I should avoid to make your consulting life easier?
> >
> > Three things I've heard on Foxite so far
> >
> > 1. Keep public variables to a minimum
> > 2. Use Hungarian notation
> > 3. Create your own subclasses of the VFP base classes
> > 4. . .
> > 5. . .
> >
> > Are there certain coding practices that make you want to tear your hair out?
>
> Lots of good advice already in the thread. I'll just add a little.
>
> Regarding Hungarian notation, the key thing is to develop and follow a standard. Hungarian is fine, but most important is that you do it the same way everywhere.
>
> A biggie for me is to work _with_ VFP rather than against it. I do a lot of work with other people's code, and what drives me most crazy is when someone has written 20 lines of complicated code to do something for which there's a built-in function.
>
> For example, in one app, in order to get a list of files in a folder, the original author used LIST FILES to put a list into a text file, then appended that text file into a table (not even a cursor) and then parsed the data from the table. The whole thing could have been done with ADIR().
>
> So, if you're not sure whether there's a built-in way, ask. Dip into the Help file (or Hacker's Guide ) at random now and then to read about something you don't already know about.
>
> When I first was learning FoxPro (almost 20 years ago!), I read the manual cover to cover. That's probably impractical now, even if we had paper manuals, but the Help file makes it easy to pick something new and learn it. Read a topic or two every day.
>
> Tamar

Well said Tamar,

I would also add, set your Foxite default thread filter to "Threads with Unread Items." This will allow you to read every single post on Foxite. If you already know what the thread is talking about, you can click the "Mark thread as read" button in the Foxite toolbar. If this is something new to you, you can read the entire thread and try out some of the suggestions.

Ken
You shall know the truth - and the truth shall set you free. (John 8:33)