Foxpro today & Tomorrow

Welcome To Expert-Foxpro-Advisor

Your Resource For Foxpro Development, Foxpro Programmers And Business Software Development And Implementation


Since you have come to this site, most likely you are either a business owner or business manager, or a software development company that works with Foxpro. And most likely, you have identified a need in your company for a person or persons with skills in Microsoft's Foxpro.

For Business Owners and Managers

For business owners or managers without a technical background in software development and software technologies, a short primer is in order:

History of Foxpro

Microsoft Visual Foxpro is a programming language and database management system. In the early 1980's a company called Ashton Tate developed the original 'Dbase'. Dbase was the first database management system/programming language that was easy to use and reasonably priced. For the first time, 'the masses' were able to harness the power of a database and easily build powerful applications for business purposes. By the mid 1980's use of Dbase had grown in leaps and bounds. Starting around the mid 80's as well, several serious competitors to Dbase came onto the scene. The most significant of these were Foxbase by Fox Software, which was released in 1984, and Clipper by Nantucket Corporation, released in 1985. In 1989 Fox Software released Foxpro, the successor to Foxbase. In 1992, recognizing the powerful technology platform in the Foxpro product, Microsoft aquired Fox Software.


By the early 90's Foxpro had achieved a dominant position in the marketplace for desktop/PC based databases. All the other competitors in the market had become, at best, minor players. It is estimated that at that time there were well over 200,000 Foxpro applications in use worldwide. In 1994 Microsoft released Visual Foxpro 3.0. Although Visual Foxpro 3.0 retained 'backwards compatibility' with even the earliest versions of the original Foxpro/Dbase language, it was radically more powerful; Foxpro had reinvented itself to become and extremely powerful, modern and thoroughly capable tool for modern software development. In subsequent years, Visual Foxpro 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were released. These releases added even more power and capabilities to an already powerful software and database platform.

Usage Of Foxpro - Declined Starting in The Late 90's, But Still Going Strong...

Although Visual Foxpro had become an extremely powerful software tool, and although it had (and still has) legions of developers who were absolute fanatics about it, starting in approximately the late 1990's, usage of Foxpro began to decline. At about this time, Microsoft began to heavily market the use of the other software development tools in its arsenal. These tools included Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access and Visual Basic. Beginning in around 2001, Microsoft launched the '.net framework'. The .net platform was Microsoft's response to the ubiquity of the Internet; it signalled the beginning of Microsoft's effort to put Web application development and Web application development strategies at the core of their software development strategy.

Foxpro Today - Still A Superior Platform For Software Development For Business Software Applications

For Foxpro Developers and Programmers, Microsoft's push to have companies use other software tools was very disheartening. Foxpro developers understood that Visual Foxpro was an extremely powerful tool; it was easy to use, yet incorporated the most powerful concepts in modern software development - use of 'Object Orientation', a powerful Visual Forms interface, and, most important of all, true to its origins and history, it was still, by far, the fastest database platform available. Although Microsoft SQL Server had come a long way, Foxpro's underlying database technology made it the platform of choice for applications on a Local Area Network where speed and performance were of the utmost concern. Even today, in many environments, Foxpro's 'local database engine' often outperforms Microsoft SQL Server.

Foxpro's Place In The Software Development World And Business Software

In the past several years, usage of Foxpro has continued to diminish. This is especially true in the larger 'corporate arena', where the software must be 'interoperable' with other web development initiatives. Even more importantly, in the large corporate arena, Microsoft aggressively pushes companies to use it's other tools; the .net framework and others.

However, that said, there are still hundreds of thousands of Foxpro applications in use, worldwide, ranging from very old Foxbase applications to the most modern VFP 9 applications which are being actively developed. And, because the 'Foxpro Community' is still extremely active, and extremely committed to the continued use, and improvement, of Visual Foxpro, new extensions and improvements to the language and system are being aggressively developed. In recent years, due to the activities of numerous committed individuals and companies, extensions and improvements have been made to the Foxpro language that are extending its interoperability with Microsoft's other tools, and expanding it's abilities to be integrated with web applications. In fact, in the past year, usage of Foxpro (Visual Foxpro) has once again seen a resurgence. Microsoft itself has committed to support Visual Foxpro until 2014.

Rewriting or Replacing Existing Foxpro Applications Is Often Unwarranted

Although Microsoft may be aggressively pursuing the use and implementation of it's 'newer tools', many, especially those who are savvy about Microsoft's tactics, recognize that, in many cases, just as the push to get the 'latest operating system upgrade' is often driven by marketing hype, not 'real business need', so too, the need to adopt the latest software development tool or platform is often driven by marketing hype as well. For the thousands upon thousands of businesses, large and small, that have existing Foxpro applications in place, humming away, admirably serving the business purpose for which they were developed; the question becomes, 'what purpose would be served by converting this application? What would the return on investment be for converting such an application? As a business manager, or technology manager, it will be up to you to sort through the marketing hype, the vendor hype, and the functional requirements for your software applications, to make a reasoned decision about whether an application needs to be rewritten, or replaced, by a newer application based upon a different technology platform. In many cases, after a clear and reasoned evaluation of the business requirements, the answer becomes clear: rewriting or converting the application would be time consuming, costly, and, most likely, provide very little, if any, return on investment. In these cases, usually the best solution will be to continue with the existing software infrastructure. In these cases, an existing solution can be enhanced, either with the current Foxpro version, or by upgrading to the latest Foxpro release. In other cases, it may turn out that continued use of Foxpro may not be the right choice for an organization. In this case, other software tools and techniques may be necessary. Please realize, however, that we are also well equipped to help you in making this assessment as well, and further, we are also extremely proficient with other technology tools and platforms, ranging from web development technologies, to Microsoft's .net platform, to Java and others.

We are commited for Long Term Commitment To Provide Quality Foxpro Applications To Business Software Users


we are committed to the continued use of Visual Foxpro as an ideal choice for Business Software Solutions; especially for small to medium sized companies who already have an extensive investment in the Foxpro based solutions. We can help you evaluate your existing software applications, and evaluate your new software development efforts.

We are committed to the idea that Foxpro applications, and Foxpro Development will continue to play a vital role in the software initiatives undertaken by small and medium sized companies around the world. With this idea in mind, to staffing and managing Foxpro Programming and Development projects with top-notch, highly skilled programmers and analysts, with a committment to excellence; a committment to delivering best of breed business software solutions that provide a measurable return on investment for the companies that implement them, and deliver the functionality that a company requires for the solution in question.

Govind Mori
Rajkot