I really confused

Question

Hi,

I really confused..what is the different between Visual FoxPro and Visual Basic and Visual Studio..???..which one better..???..what features for each programs..??..when to choose each program..??

Please help me..

Thanks,

Jennifer

Answer 1

Visual Studio (VS) is a development environment with multiple languages/tools in it. Visual Studio version 6 had Visual Foxpro (VFP) in its family of languages/tools. After that VFP community chose to be separated from VS. Current version of VS (VS 2005) have VB,VC#,VC++,VJ# included. All of them are in the .Net family while VFP is not.

VFP is a data centric language/tool. It has its own data engine plus can utilize other sources such as SQL server, Oracle, XLS, XML, text ...

.Net languages are general purpose languages. You can do anything with them including data operations. They don't have a data engine on their own but can utilize data sources like VFP does.

Which one better? All are powerfull and a comparison doesn't make a real sense to me. For features you might read it at pages like msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro, msdn.microsoft.com/net etc.

I use primarily VFP, SQL server and C#.Net. Being honest (though I have been using foxpro maybe equal to your age) if I were starting to programming from scratch probably I would choose C#.Net (considering if I were to make a choice between MS languages/tools).

VFP is not for free (once you buy it however you can build royalty free applications including the data engine). VS and its individual languages' express versions are for free for the first year (and 49$ after that if you decide to continue with). SQL server 2005 express is for free forever as a data engine. Express versions are versions with less features for a developer and in my opinion doesn't work for a developer on the long run (however this is my personal opinion you might like them very much).

You might try to download them from MS site and try yourself. Unfortunately there is no VFP evaluation version to try with. Whatever you choose learn it well. At the end it's not the tool but the developer who makes it shine:)

If you specify what type of applications you think to develop then others might give better advices on what to choose.

Answer 2

Is Visual Basic the good source to start a programming language please..???....Because, really I confused...which is different between Visual Basic 6 and VFP..???...They are in one family, MICROSOFT...

Answer 3

It all depends on what kinds of programs you need to write. They are different tools for different puurposes, althoug there is some crossover.

If you plan to study VB, then disregard VB6 which is an old deprecated language. It has been replaced by VB.NET

VFP is a data-based Object Oriented development language and also has a built-in database. It can connect to anything through ODBC, ADO, XML, etc.

VB.NET is an Object Oriented all-purpose language. It has no built-in database alttough it can connect to anything through Net technologies such as ADO.NET

Your question is too generic. The answer will depend a lot on your needs. Also this forum is not the best place for your question as it is more geared to solving concrete programming problems. For your needs I would suggest you do some research online looking at the VB.NET and VFP sites, going to the local bookstore and getting a book or two on the subject, visiting the websites of Visual Studio.Net (an excellent IDE for developing in VB.NET, C#, etc.) and visiting http://www.hentzenwerke.com  for books on VFP.