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Aussie DevCon 2007 .. Part 3 (Saturday Content)

This is definitely spanning more posts than I figured. But then, I wrote more notes than last year. A lot more.

Anyway, we are looking at the Saturday content today, which was the most diverse of the days in terms of speakers and .. content. Ha.

Bob, Bruce, Geoff, Russ .. and myself.

Actually, looking at things, this will be a huge post. Hmmm, it’s a good thing people love reading lots of small fonts and dull language.

You’ll notice that as my talk approaches, the notes become more and more .. less. Ha ha.

Let us gird our loins and rush onwards to the battle! I mean .. to the content!

 

Bob Z .. Clarion 7 – the New RTL, Controls and Menus

 

  • We’re looking at Visual Styles (Tabbed Styles) .. Menu .. etc etc
    • You’re free to change the highlight bar to whatever you want.
    • Simple embed point, take full control .. whatever.
    • Icons in the highlight bar .. make it look a lot better.

 

  • Tools-Options -> Use smart tags
    • Rather than go and access commonly used properties .. have a tag window that when clicked comes up with the Menu Editor, selecting the context’d control you were coming off. 

 

  • XP Themes example
    • Tabs Locations
      • The movement of the tabs .. the text doesn’t get distorted (as opposed to the .NET runtime??)
    • Themed Progress Bar
    • Test List, Drop & Combo
      • Fully themed .. don’t have to do anything to get that.
    • Point of this is that you get all controls fully themed by default, just recompile
    • Now that sheets and tabs are fully themed, the prompts need to be checked transparent if you’re using a non-white??? Theme. Not sure about this.
      • Ohhh, TRANSPARENT controls have a background that is the color of the theme.
      • In Clarion 6 and previous, controls such as prompts were not populated with the transparent attribute, because the background was always
      • The body of the sheet tab will pick up the theme color.
      • If it doesn’t have transparent ticked, then it will have the color of the window assigned to it.
    • The "Type" ing of fonts .. True, Clear, .. the drawing of text in all controls has been replaced, and they will display right, but default.
      • If they didn’t have ClearType in by default, weird stuff (in Vista) would happen.
    • Okay, you set the color of the tab .. and at runtime, the header gets the color .. the actual body stays the same as the theme.
    • 4 different tab styles .. 0 (Default), 2 (Colored), 1 (B & W), 2 (Boxed)
    • The User can change their themes .. not sure, faded out for this bit.
    • Control Collection Editor .. for example, from the Sheet properties, you can click to edit the Collection of Tabs.
    • When you want to highlight certain tabs .. give it a color .. if you want to de-emphasise a tab, give it no color.

 

  • Back to the School App
    • Compiling with both C6 and C7 .. we are looking at the different between the two apps.
    • First try didn’t work .. we got themes in both apps. Obviously Bob is trying to show us that when you compile in other the C7 you don’t get the themed support.
    • Showed that you can Opening Working Folder

 

  • By default, brings in the included DLLs into the directory.

 

  • Showing the compile in Clarion6 didn’t work.

 

  • You can have a separate redirection file for .. each .. Project? App? Not sure which one.
    • No, in the Clarion Version options. So you set it for the version of Clarion you are using.

 

  • Bob talked for a while about the output settings by default .. apparently in the Alpha there was a lot of "discussion" as to where the exe outputted .. in Clarion7 they had just done the bin\\debug or bin\\release .. like most other compilers .. but lots of 3rdParty folk didn’t like it.
    • Possible to continue working when compiling (it’s on a different thread).
    • But not possible to compile a second thing at once .. because MSBuild must compile sequentially.
    • Bob showed us in C6 9056 .. "Extended UI" .. enable the XP Menu, and then choose a color type, which is a theme file?
      • What is the Color Type?
        • The color on the body of the tab (that is, the header)
      • compiling in C6
      • something happened, it could have been something between having C7 and C6 opened at the same time ..???? but Bob’s C6 was very very slow doing any compiling, generating .. the ABC stuff at the start.

 

  • Three things missing from the AppGen
    • File Integration, and the .. missed them.

 

Bruce (Capesoft) .. Making Your Clarion Apps Compatible With And Designed For Windows Vista

 

  • Cover what you need to know, to start thinking about
  • How does Vista impact us as Clarion Programmers?
  • And, How does Vista affect our programs running at our customers ..
    • These are the two questions
  • What’s everyone talking about?
    • UAC
      • Making windows more secure by asking the user to allow programs to do things ..
      • Bruce then showed the Mac ad
      • Showing lots of different windows that UAC pops up
        • You can have 7 dialog boxes pop up (not all UAC)
    • Best way to handle UAC
      • Show a UAC error
      • With a trusty magnum .45
    • Go ahead and try to program with UAC turned on
      • Because the Users will have it turned on
        • This is a myth ..??
        • But go ahead and try.
        • Average time to failure seems to be less than 2 weeks (to try and program with UAC on)
      • The camel may be strong, but the knees are buckling
  • Clarion 6 on Vista
    • Keep it out of the Program Files directory
    • Runs fine even with Aero turned on (minor cosmetic issues)
    • SV blog contains more info
  • Vista for Users
    • UAC will probably be on .. although MS might take a lot of it out.
    • Your program needs to be Vista compatible.
    • Turn on UAC (on a test machine) for testing
  • What NOT to do
    • No INI files in the windows dir
    • Registry
      • only write to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, or better yet, not at all.
        • Registry is not the most reliable of data sources
    • Personal opinion
    • No Data files (including INI files) under the Program Files dir .. use GetFolderPath or ds_GetFolderPath
      • These procs (the api) gets the proper data folders, which have changed from XP to Vista
  • What TO do
    • Sign your apps

 

Geoff Spillane .. SetupBuilder 6 – Vista Ready – A Practical Demonstration

 

  • How SetupBuilder can overcome some of the problems faced with development on Vista
    • but also to show how SetupBuilder can manipulate the files and folders to do some housekeeping, to take some basic tasks, make it very easy to use .. to use the Power of SetupBuilder. It’s main power is in the scripting language. Friedrich has made it so you can dragNdrop .. so you don’t have to learn a new language.

 

  • Code Signing .. Vista’s reaction
    • Showing the UAC window, the first one .. "Cancel or Allow" .. heh heh
    • Audible warning as well that happens (ha ha .. very funny)
    • A Code Signed application is a much more genuine window
      • Different color, different wording .. far less aggressive
    • Signing
      • People hiked their prices up with Vista ..
      • If you have a current sub with Lindersoft for SetupBuilder, then you get a significantly reduced price for a cert. with COMODO.
      • But also, for those who haven’t bought SB .. for $25 (US) you can purchase a Lindersoft Community Membership, which then gives you the reduced price for the COMODO cert.
    • Geoff takes us through the purchasing of a cert. from COMODO through the Lindersoft site.
    • Okay, now he’s going into SB -> the General Information .. and you put in the Digital Signature information
    • It sets up the code signing for the Installer .. but you also need to code sign the Uninstaller? But the Uninstaller doesn’t exist, it’s built at runtime .. so Friedrich did some fancy footwork, and code signs it at runtime.

 

  • Code Signing your applications (as opposed to your Installer)
    • So now we go into the Script Editor in SB
    • Geoff drags the Script Function .. the "Code Sign Application" function .. which brings up a window dialog to fill in the necc. Info.
    • We see SB code signing the application, and then the Installer/Uninstaller after this.

 

  • Embedding your Vista Manifests
    • A quick fix :: (for people with sizable apps)
      • Throw in a Vista manifest, set it to require Administrator
        • You then get the friendly warning .. but you still get a warning, although only once I believe
    • Geoff runs through how to add a Vista Manifest in SB, using the script functions .. dragNdrop, fill in the window .. badabing, badaboom.

 

  • How do we put things in the right place?
    • SB makes it very easy
    • Geoff showed us how
    • Including Registry Entries .. same kind of deal .. fairly easy.

 

  • Handling Shortcuts
    • Very easy interface .. here, as everywhere else, SB explains itself

 

  • If you don’t have a complicated install, you can work with dialog windows, but if you do have a complicated one, well, you lead through and work in the scripting .. very powerful

 

  • Shortcuts again
    • Showing how to add a ‘choice checkbox" for the User to choose whether the icons get installed.
    • seems to be you would discover most of how SB works simply by using it .. seems very straight forward.

 

  • Using SB to do some house keeping
    • Dealing with Files and Folders
      • SB elevates it to Administrator level

 

Russ Eggen .. ABC Compliant Classes (And Templates)

 

  • ABC Standards defined
    • Included in apps when used
    • Must work out of box
    • Allow Developer to make changes
    • Support embeds for public methods
    • Generates correct code, whether embeds or not
    • Allow extending the class
      • Without once touching the base code
    • Classes must be able to be exported when using as DLLs
    • Changing which base class is used
  • Coding the CLASS
    • Russ opened up TextPad ..
    • Created a new Projct in C6
    • Then went back to TextPad
    • Wants to put together a very simple class, to show us a few things
    • So sets up TextPad for the coloring etc of the code

Missed a bit, phonecalls .. went to loo ..etc etc

  • Russ has kept going with the coding of the Class .. it’s Clarion this time .. ahhh, he’s got the .clw open in C7.
  • !ABCIncludeFile(ABC) would link in to all apps whether used or not.
  • Three ! (!!!) changes it to a tooltip in the C7 parsed autocomplete.
  • C7 part
    • Setting the Link Flags is very important .. the source GPF’s without them.
    • Eg. _DEMOLinkMode_
  • Back to the Slideshow
  • Coding the Templates
    • So we have a class in LibSrc
    • Russ then goes into TextPad again, starts coding a simple Template.
      • Reminder to make the Template ABC Compliant .. (the default, if you leave it blank, is Clarion (Legacy)
        • So put FAMILY(‘ABC’) at the end of the #TEMPLATE first line.
      • Need a #PREPARE statement for ABC Compliance .. (Russ also lets us know that his own preference is to code the #ENDPREPARE right now, so as to not forget.
      • Okay, above the #PREPARE there needs to be a #BOXED(‘Default prompts’),AT(0,0),WHERE(%false),HIDE .. and #ENDBOXED
        • This is for setup code going on behind the scenes, and you don’t want the prompts visible
      • This doesn’t yet cause the "Loading ABC Defaults" window .. that’s in the #PREPARE statement (not the #BOXED)
      • Russ then went through the #PREPARE body
        • #CALLs ..
      • The template code to EXPORT all Class stuff (which is a previous point of ABC Compliance)
        • #AT(%BeforeGenerateApplication) .. #ENDAT
    • In the middle:
    • #CALL(%AddCategory(ABC),’DEMO’) this takes ‘DEMO’ and prepends it to the ABC link stuff above
    • #CALL(%SetCategoryLocation(ABC),’DEMO’,DemoClass)
      • That’s all you need to make sure it’s exported for DLLs

Okay. I missed a fair bit of Russ’ stuff, mostly because i was in and out of the loo and on the phone with the wifey, talking about my talk. And honestly, for an hour or two, I was pretty wiped out after the exertion of singing and dancing for the crowd. Heh heh.

Apologies Russ!

However all is not in vein. Ha ha. Or vain.

Dave Beggs came to the rescue. I’ll now display his notes verbatim.

Cheers Beggsy!

 

Included in apps when needed

Work out of box

Allow developer to make changes

Embeds for all public methods

Generates correct code whether embeds used or not

Allows extending the class without touching base class code.

Automatic Exporting of the Class if DLL

Allow changing of the base class used

Coding the class

!ABCIncludefile(ABC) would link in to all apps whether used or not

ShowMessage   Procedure() ! ,Extends            The ! ,extends makes it show up in the embed tree

If you put a comment in a class with three !!! then it becomes the tooltip in the C7 parsed autocomplete

Coding Templates

#Template(Democlass,’Devcon Class’),Family(ABC)   ! the default family is Clarion!

#Extension(DemoClass,’Global Demo’,APPLICATION

#Boxed(‘Default prompts’),at(0,0),where(%false),Hide

  #Insert(%OOPHiddenPrompts(ABC))  !in abboop.tpw – calls group ooppprompts – basically loading all classes in memory

#EndBoxed

#Prepare

   #Call(%readabcfiles(ABC))  ! read the abc header files if not already read

   #Call(%SetClassDefaults(ABC),’DC’,’DC’, ‘Democlass’)   !the second one would have the applicationtemplateinstance in a local class

#EndPrepare

#Atstart

   #Call(%readabcfiles(ABC))  ! read the abc header files if not already read

   #Call(%SetClassDefaults(ABC),’DC’,’DC’, ‘Democlass’)   !the second one would have the applicationtemplateinstance in a local class

    ! this is like an init – set the class defaults   this is ths same as the #preopare – the 2 calls needed at both atstart and prepare

#Endat  !not #Endatstart!

#AT(%BeforeGenerateApplication)  !This will generate the export files for multi dlls

#Call(%AddCategory(ABC),’DEMO’ )  !Demo will be made into _demolinkmode_ and _demodllmode_ – MUST BE UPPERCASE

#Call(%SetCategoryLocation(ABC),’DEMO’,’Democlass’)

#Endat

#tab(‘Global Message Instance’)  ! allows the developer to change the class name

   #Button(‘&Message Stuff’)       ! done on a button so you can use the with, and

#With( %Classitem,’DC’)          ! make the global prompt come up as a single instance

      #insert(%GlobalClassPrompts(ABC))

#EndWith

#Endtab

#Tab(‘demo base class’)     !Allow the developer to change the base class

Prompt(‘&DefaultClass’:’. From(%PClassname)),%Classname,DEFAULT(‘Democlass’),REQ

#EndTab

#At(%GatherObjects)

  #Call(%ReadABCFiles(ABC))

  #Call(%AddObjectList(ABC),’DC’)    !puts a value in %thisobjectname

  #Call(%ObjectList,%ThisObjectName)

  #Set(%ObjectListType,’DemoClass’)

#Endat

#AT(%GlobalDataClasses)

#Call(%SetClassItem(ABC),’DC’)

#Insert(%GenerateClass(ABC),’DC’,’Global Instance’),NoIndent   !Generate the code

#EndAt

#If (%Baseclasstouse())

#Call(%Fixclassname(ABC),%Baseclasstouse())

#For (%pClassMethodPrototype),Where(%MethodEmbedPointValid())

#Call(%SetupMethodCheck(ABC))

#At(%DemoClassMethodCodeSection),Priority(5000),Description(‘ParentCall’),Where(%parentcallvalid()) ! Add Parent call embed code

#Call(%GenerateParentCall)

#Embed(%DemoclassMethodDataSection,’Demo class data section’)

#?Code

#Embed((%DemoclassMethodCodeSection,’Demo class codesection’)

#Call(%GenerateNewLocalMethods(ABC)

#AT(%GobalData)

#At(#ProgramProcedures),Where(%ProgramExtension <> ‘DLL’ or ~%GlobalExternal)

  ! this knows whether to include in multi dll

#Call(%GenerateVirtuals

#group(%Parent Call   ! this is called as a function and retuerns the abc version which could not be done as the template wouldt have recognized abc earlier.

Local templates

Classprompts, not globalclassprompts

Default instancenames setclassdefault in prepare – use activetemplateinstance

Finally Russ has skeleton template.

Also 36 page pdf template

 

Bruce + Jono .. Fun With Capesoft

 

(notes taken from Bruce’s actual words .. I realised too late that I should have been doing this all along, rather than trying too hard to understand and write in my own words .. ha ha)

 

  • takes Jono about an hour and a half to knock the app together

 

  • first group of products
    • Around the concept of LookNFeel
    • We judge things based on what they look like, we shouldn’t, but we do.
    • Most of the car purchase is emotional.
    • Emotional attachment comes with benefits
      • Saving you time
      • Saving money
    • There are a lot of little things that we put together
      • In the app, there’s a very subtle shade of background color
    • Draw heading at the top of the window
      • A 21st century look to it
    • On the Form .. entry fields are rounded
    • If you turn you tabs into a Wizard .. you get a line down the bottom under the buttons
    • Large fonts tends to exaggerate everything, so this looks much better in normal mode
    • You can have icons on your Draw headings
    • AnyFont .. allows you to change your font at runtime.
      • When changing from major versions, we change the font, the style, the heading ..
      • Looks different, works the same (People love this)
      • Changing the CharSet of the fonts .. eg. Greek letters
      • A lot of users who don’t have perfect eyesight anymore, nice not to be looking at a 6 point font.

     

    • TearOff
      • Ken got a standing ovation (phoned up Bruce one day) in the middle of a demonstration .. went to the menu item, clicked .. and got a Toolbar window
      • Put icons, icons in text, dock the window

     

    • Hyperactive
      • Allows you to make meaningful data do things.
      • Internet, Email address, word docs, Skype .. how do we make our users use them?
      • Question about Terminal Services etc .. what Api is being called .. 
        • Bruce said he wasn’t sure, but others said it works fine

     

    • KeepingTabs
      • Remembers which tab you were on
      • Trivial .. but makes a huge difference to Users
      • Can store the info wherever you want

     

    • EasyHelp
      • Who likes writing help? Apart from Russ .. maybe that’s the exception that proves the point!
      • Can write your own help at runtime
      • OR more importantly, someone else can write the help for you at runtime.
      • Capesoft uses their Distributors and Dealers to write their help.
      • Question from Warren .. are there tools available for copying help from other files?
        • A: it’s a Topspeed file, so trivial to do it yourself
      • Automatically populates tips and other things from the Dictionary

 

  • Second Group of products are ones that we have tried to be creative with data .. "Addicted to Browses"
    • Insight Graphing
      • It was really nice to seeing guys adding graphs to applications this week.
      • Lots of different types
      • Do heaps of stuff with them .. right-click copy, add to presentation, drilldowns, send to different places, print .. etc etc.
      • Zoom Out, Zoom In, Copy, Save As ..

     

    • HotDates
      • Calendar view of your data
      • Very illuminating, you can see a lot of things from this that you can’t normally
      • The example of the guy who took a sick day on a Wednesday every 6 weeks, had mapped his entire year out
      • Can go month, year ..
      • DragNDrop the records around
      • Go to the form from any of the records
      • Grab one, move it somewhere
      • You can insert, cutNpaste, copyNpaste ..
      • It’s actually adding the records like a browse

     

    • File Explorer
      • GPS coordinates, plugged into Google Maps .. get the place where they had the sighting
        • "Changing a Sighting record"

     

    • Send To
      • Wonderful story
      • Client is leaning over Bruce’s shoulder, getting the browse right, the sort order .. he said "Great, print that!" .. Bruce said no, we have to go to a report.
      • Which is insane .. so kill two birds with one stone
      • Did a proof of concept, then handed it to someone else to code, which is the better way to code .. get all the glory and don’t do the hard work
      • Send it to printer, file, email, ftp or the clipboard ..
      • And when it’s going there, you can decide the format
      • PDF, HTML, Excel, Word, CSV, XML .. you can add your own format if you like
      • It preserves all the formatting, the colors, the graphics, assuming the destination format supports those elements.
      • If your browse is really wide, when it goes to the printer .. prints over multiple pages .. multiple columns of pages .. there was a Sideways reference here, from old Apple days
      • Q: will this work with Clarion .NET
      • A: no idea yet, don’t have it
      • Q: do you have to have Office installed?
      • A: if Excel doesn’t exist, it will be greyed out on the window, gracefully
      • Q: if you don’t want Excel, do you need Office Inside?
      • A: yes you do.

     

    • Office Inside
      • Office Inside does have a nice feature, if the user gives you a file in excel format .. the Import of an Excel file straight into a TPS or whatever file you have
      • Through a wizard interface
      • You can do it one off, or leave the wizard interface for the User to use
      • Bruce’s First Law .. People Lie
      • Bruce’s Second Law (which has been repealed) .. Never Call the Customer a Liar to their face
      • Bruce’s Postal Law .. the further away things are, the faster they get to the destination

     

    • GPF Now
      • I made a comment this week, and people laughed
        • "GPF’s are your friend"
      • But I was serious
        • They are a very important programming tool
        • What is wrong .. and Where it’s wrong
        • What is the biggest problem?
          • We don’t know how to interpret the information
      • "Would you like to GPF?"
        • For the masses (because real programmers code in HEX) we wrote a little app
          • A whole pile of information in the window that comes up after pressing "GPF Now" ..
      • What build of windows
      • What key was pressed
      • What thread was running
      • The line number of the program
      • The procedure, the module
      • All of the line numbers that were used on the way to this line

     

    • NetTalk WebServer
      • The Online Account app on the web
      • A simple clarion exe, no dependencies, no IIS, no Apache
      • Accessible via any browser
      • There’s a danger here, with all these examples
        • You think this is the way this has to look, and get set in the pattern
        • You have complete control as a programmer over what the thing looks like
      • Jono clicks through Invoices, line items, Customers .. showing off various aspects of the Web Serving.
      • Customers->Change button-> a dropdown for Country
        • The Shipper Codes change with the change of DropDown
      • Customers->Invoices Tab->
      • In Jo-Burg, people deployed on Monday the week after the Capesoft Training
      • Online Calculator example
        • BMI Calculator
        • Don’t need a button, because all the fields are dynamic .. but you can if you’d like
        • All of this is done with Clarion code, no custom Javascript in this particular app
        • Q: ????
        • A: we are not taking an existing application and transferring it to the web server
      • What we’ve got are browses and forms for you to create (you can reuse your reports)

     

    • RightReports
      • Spend a few minutes with a brand new product
      • Available in alpha (we have a closed alpha group)
      • RightReports is the ability to include in your own application (all source code, no dlls)
      • The main reason why we went down this road is that you have the ability to write your own code, your own functions that the report engine will make use of
      • Went to the loo
      • A very simple report, Invoice
      • Q: Dropping in Graphs
      • A: hopefully one day
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Day One :: Aussie DevCon

New Terminology coined by Bruce Johnson, implemented and brought to life by Jono Woodhouse

WAC :: Wide Area Connection

LAC :: Local Area Connection

WAN’s and LAN’s are a thing of the past. So 20th Century. A new era has arrived, and it’s name is WAC. Phe3r the LAC.

Friday, 28th April, 2006

Our day began quite early for a family guy like myself :). Brett & I were waiting out the front of the pub (naturally) for the taxi at around 5am. Bill arrived just as the taxi pulled up, along with Adam who’d come for an early morning stroll.

John met us at the airport, and we boarded the lovely service that is JetStar. The flight was a generic, white-washed, ordinary flight. Of course, I can probably count more digits on my hands and feet than times I’ve flown in a plane. So that’s all relative.

Ahem.

Anyway, because of fog, smoke, or great maruading dinosaurs, we couldn’t land at the Avalon airport and were redirected to Melbourne. This turned out to be a boon as we were able to feast on some pretty luscious breakfast at one of the many wonderful cafe/eatery’s in Turak. At least I think it was Turak. It’s a cool name for a suburb anyway, so let’s just say it was Turak. Turak.

Turak.

Anyway, driving into the Salvation Army campsite reminded me forcibly of … camp. From the age of around 17 through 22 I attended a huge amount of camps. Week long, fortnight, weekend. And there was definately a feeling of,

Hmmm. Lots of new people. Initial social awkwardness followed by loud laughter. Putting out feelers, seeing how people react to my personality.

It’s funny. By day two, my brain had automatically assumed i had known everyone on camp (I’ll be randomly substituting "DevCon" for "Camp", so be prepared :)) for a long time. I opened up one of the Capesoft booklets and immediately upon reading heard Bruce’s voice in my head. Of course, maybe that’s cause he was standing next to me talking. Heh heh.

Anyway.

First, before going on.

A Big ShoutOut to Tony and David for an AWESOME conference. Seriously. It was fantastic. We (the Sydney Crew) had a blast. You guys put together something special. The homegrown guys giving talks, the Capesoft guys and Andy, not to mention Russ. And most importantly, we had unbelievably great food. I’ve been to a lot of camps, and that was most definately the best.

So thankyou.

Caveat:I may get the order wrong in some places. My memory is like a first-year implementation of a fifo stack, it should return things in order, but for some reason random deviants occur :).

Capesoft Profiler

Of all the sides of development, I have always shied away hard from the debugging, afterwards work.

Sitting in this seminar changed that. A big step towards more complete development.

Profiler is a super piece of work. But what is very cool is that it’s best used in conjunction with a bundle of other stuff, including, Shock, Gasp, Swoon, the Clarion Debugger (more on this later, thanks Russ!).

Profiler basically allows you to dive right into the gooey insides of your code and find out just where you can shove your dross code into the refining fire to emerge silver & gold. Or something like that :). I made that one just for you Jono, heh heh.

The first thing Jono asked me, as soon as the words "Stu Andrews" came out of my mouth, was .. "How do you come up with such imaginative descriptions". Of course, I couldn’t let slip with the truth. That I trained under Mr Shakespeare himself, or that I was experimented on with a super-nerd-writer serum as a teenager, or that my mother forced me to read the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner again and again .. oh wait on. That last one rings a bell.

Another Ahem.

Of course, the real truth is that I try to let my mind just wander. Free itself from the bonds of reality, from a specific line of thought, and just reach out into all the wonders of imagination to see what comes back. Of course there are bits of experience in memory that warp and straighten the returning thoughts. That’s the crunch. But that’s how it works. Like a subroutine. Sort of. Ha ha.

Anyway, back to the show.

PHP Templates

Next up Dave Griffiths gave us a seminar on PHP Templates.

Now. Dave had lost his notes, or left them behind. Can’t remember. I think he did a pretty good job despite this massive set back.

He also gave one of the more concise truths I heard all weekend. That the "Web" movement is similar in size and importance as the Windows thing was back in dos days. In terms of Clarion. And really, in terms of anything. It already is. We have a great deal of movement, momentum, happening already. Just browse the net and you can see it. Turn on the telly, we’ve got ads over here that show it. In the paper. It’s there to see.

I’m not convinced PHP Templates themselves are anything special. Well, no, that’s not true. They serve specific purpose, and do that purpose well. It’s just that purpose doesn’t seem, to me, to be utilising what Clarion does best.

One thing that is useful though, is that it’s often easier to purchase hosting and start developing in php, because the hosting service allows this. Most of them have Apache or IIS running with PHP and MySQL. Now if you’re wanting to get into some experience, this is a great way to go. And pushing a clarion app into PHP would be a pretty cool learning experience, I have no doubt.

A Tale of 3 Drivers

Bruce is a fantastic person to watch and learn about how to present. He has learnt his subject matter well. He has most probably run through the plan of attack a few times, and he believes in what he is saying.

Oh yeah. Not just believes, but dogmatically.

Here’s a (maybe I spruced it up a little) transcript of a conversation that ensued during the Drivers seminar.

Bruce:And so you would like to place these Mickey Mouse figurines in order of size, along with the related Mouse-ke-teers for each of those Mickey’s in size order too. But you just can’t do it with the tools I have in my hands (a fork and a shovel).Donald Duck:Yes you can.Bruce:Ahhh, no I don’t think so.Huey, Duey, & Luey:Yeah, you can.Bruce:I’m going to stick to my guns. You can’t do it.

It turns out that Donald wanted to create a new world order by buying a rope to tie together the hands of the Mickeys with their own Mouse-ke-teers and sorting them that way.

But Bruce was right.

And I’ll tell you why.

Because he’s being a smart, lazy developer. Putting a business mind ahead of an intellect’s mind. This is not disparaging to Bruce in any way. Those of you who have met him know just how much cranial brainiac power rests in that head.

It’s that he can see further than solving the initial problem at hand. Why would you want to create another key for a single report that is only going to printed every so often? Why not use a combination of the drivers (IP, In-Memory, Dynamic) to solve the problem, which then establishes a foundation for any similar ones that come along?

If anyone can actually recall a better version of the events, feel free to let me know. I’m sure I probably missed the actual point. Just going off the memory chip.

So yeah, the seminar was about the three drivers, IP, In-Memory, and Dynamic. Bruce wove a magical story of dragons and knights and a damsel (princess) in distress.

The InMemory and Dynamic were most exciting, probably because I’ve had some exposure to the IP and understood it a little better. They are all 3 pretty cool.

To SQL or not to SQL

Sean then gave us a Seminar on SQL. Here was a subject that my colleages new a lot about. Bill and John especially have been dealing with the joys of SQL for a long time, and could fill a few books with tales of their battles, fighting the goblins, foul fiends and bog men.

Once again, the adage was used, it’s a wonderful tool used in the right place. It’s not going to be the answer to every problem, just like every other tool. It has a purpose.

My own opinionated opinion is that at a conference, I’m not so much interested in a history of a product as what it can do for me. This isn’t a criticism so much as an observation. My interest dropped, although rose again later, in a number of seminars where the history of something was discussed.

Don’t get me wrong, history is very important. It has it’s place. And my opinion isn’t going to change how people demo and give seminars. But I’d like to talk through history later, or read about it in my own time. Give me something that’s gonna blow my socks off :). Heh heh.

——

After some free time, we headed to the Cellar Restaurant in the middle of the beating heart of Geelong.

The food was great, although i would have liked to have partaken of both the fish AND the lamb. Mmmmm. Anyway.

The best thing about the night was chatting to people. Becoming a group of companions, not just a bunch of separate people. It was good.

It’s getting late here, and it was getting late there. Not much more to tell of Friday. If I remember anything, it’ll go in the next few posts.

Also, some photos will be forthcoming, along with the podcasts of the Interview with Capesoft.

‘Nuff Said,