To All,

Having got back in the (very) early morning from Prague I thought I'd

pass on observations on the conference to others in the group.

1. The conference was extremely well attended when you compare it to

other VFP gatherings I've been to - about 480 people I think.

2. All the English session topics ran concurrently - apart from one,

which meant that you could attend topics all day.

3. Lunch and free soft drinks (throughout the conference) were provided

every day. All the Brits (Myself, Allen Pollard, Rob Anderson, Andy

Davies) and Bob Lee (made an honorary Brit for the week) soon became

infamous and we were all amazed at the serving of FREE Beer at lunchtime

in the canteen. Needless to say none of us partook of the beverage ;-).

4. All sessions were well attended and the ones hosted by Steve Black

were extremely informative, especially "OOP Heuristics" which certainly

started the old brain cells ticking. I also PROMISE to re-investigate

the Taskpane after Toni's insight into its vagaries, instead of just

closing it immediately!!!

5. Both Mike and Toni Feltman gave good sessions relating to both

intellisense and Client Server Data Access Techniques. Ken was his usual

effervescent self, displaying "things to do" with the VFP9 Beta and

getting totally carried away with enthusiasm.

6. The course material was supplied as usual on a CD with many source

code examples which I shall avidly digest over the next few days.

7. The developers party was organized for the Tuesday night, but we were

forced into a "treasure hunt" route march of what seemed about 100 miles

before we finally arrived at the restaurant. Needless to say the route

bak to the hotel was about 5 minutes. I still have the blisters to prove

the point DOH!!!

8. Even now the VFP team are talking about additions to V10 and even

though we asked for the possibility of either "record structures" or a

decent Windows API interface this was met with a "probably not" comment.

On the plus side however, Ken did mention that the next release would

"PROBABLY" have a full interface into .NET with the abiity to call .NET

routines natively so that's a small step forward and gives me faith in

the fact that VFP will remain around for some time - albeit with a

declining developer's base although I still don't know why M$ can't

promote the product a little more - but that's an ogoing gripe which I

won't develop.

9. Not many people seemed to be aware of the Profox list so we all did a

major relations exercise to promote this EXCELLENT resource.

10. Prague is a beautiful city and VERY cheap so go book it in all your

diaries for next year!

All in all though, an extremely good event, both in technical content

and especially socially. It was good to meet Woody and all the other

"faceless people" we get to communicate with on Profox. I think everyone

learnt a little bit more about our beloved VFP product.

All the English speakers (yes we include Redneck Colonial Colonel Bob

Lee in that) really enjoyed ourselves especially being caught out in a

torrential rainstorm whilst trying to eat a meal outside!! I looked a

little like a drowned rat after about 10 gallons of water deposited

itself down my back. I await to see the pictures Allen and thanks for

the sympathy (NOT)!

Talking of Mr Allen Pollard, he seems to have developed a reputation

(true or false I cannot say <bg>.) of being attracted to red heads.

Whether this only relates to the female sex I'm not sure. However, some

pictures posted by Bob, with Allen admiring a read-headed HORSE were

really quite worrying! I guess this could neatly fit in with the

Daryll's in some way!!! He even began to look at the pink painted cows

with a knowing grin!!

Oh, and just to close, I thank Rob Anderson for keeping me up until 4:00

in the morning playing "guess that tune..." - well at least we had lots

of beer - hope your head gets better soon <vbg>.

As for Bob, I can’t wait to gain access the "secret pictures" from

Prague posted on his site but HOW DO I GET TO THEM!!! Especially as both

him and Allen seem to have devised a new sport roughly described as DMGP

or Digital Mammary Gland Processing. This "hobby" is only to be indulged

in whilst in possession of a digital camera, drinking LOTS of beer and

watching examples of the fairer sex pass by!!! I leave the rest to the

imagination, but how we avoided being dumped into jail amazed me.

I shall certainly book again for next year and would urge everyone else

to.

Here's to the next Devcon, and Bob - if you read this, a separate copy

of the "nudge nudge wink wink photo's" would be appreciated but only by

snail mail and in a brown paper package!!!

Have Fun Y'all.

Dave Crozier

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