To those who may have read my last comment and the reply it received. I did not see any humor in the cartoons that were posted in this thread, and perhaps that was in light of the series of very offensive emails I received from the person who posted them.
I would like to clarify the core issue here. One of our members, who spends a tremendous amount of time providing assistance to many of us on this forum, and through direct correspondence, created a small library that inherited from the tDatabase class, and the method enhancements provided in the class simplified multi-user operations and enhanced the benefits of using data objects. Some steps were automated. The class dated back to the earlier days of tDatabase when it could be used with Clipper, plus FW to build 16 bit windows programs.
When Harbour and xHarbour were created to provide a 32 bit replacement to Clipper, the DBFCDX RDD worked in the same way, and tDatabase needed little change. As a result, tData also needed little change. This persisted until ADO and SQL capabilities were added, when enhancements were made as needed in the tDatabase class. Again, this was a "supplemental class that inherited from tDatabase" and was NEVER a replacement for the FW class. It also was limited in scope.
With the guidance of that same individual, I learned the principles of true OOP business classes, and re-wrote my primary program ( a rather huge, and comprehensive, fully integrated, management system for small businesses ) using those principles. The tData/tDatabase objects were a part of that process where each class used data objects. The result was about a 50% reduction in code, and error free operations.
The tData class has been used successfully by a number of FW developers over the years. In my case, it was utilized in systems obtained by hundreds of companies, using from 1 to 20 computers in their individual networks, working 6 days a week, about 12 hours per day, and NEVER did I have anyone encounter a problem related to that class.
As for me, I was a licensed psychologist when I became involved with computers in 1982, and I learned programming from the people who wrote the dBase code at Ashton Tate, and from those heavily involved in the development of Clipper. Both companies were located within an hour of my home, and thus our community of developers was very active in those early days. Yes, I am about to celebrate my 73rd birthday, but I am not retired. I have clients who still pay me to provide support and enhancements to the software for over 36 years. And yes, time with my 15 grandkids is very important to me, and I'm with them all of the time. Life is too precious to not spend time with those you love.
Finally, it must be said that I have always appreciated the work started by Antonio, and enhanced by others, and have not disparaged that work, or those people, in any way. I'm of the firm belief if a product doesn't work for me, then I should use something else. The fact that I have used this product, and the guidance provided by the people on this forum, for so many years should be ample evidence of my faith in the work these men have done, but in addition I do try to reinforce that with my comments from time to time. And with this said, I shall relax with a glass of wine and then a good nights sleep. May you have continued success with your programming work, and I do encourage all of you to consider ways to improve your coding with true OOPS principles if you are not using them already.
