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German Conference

Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 11:34 am
by bwolfsohn
Looking forward to hearing about the conference...

I guess the beer "joints" don't have wi-fi ??


:lol: :lol:

Re: German Conference

Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 3:03 pm
by rdonnay
This is the last night. Just got back to my room from the speakers dinner.

Conference went well.
Many VFP developers were in the sessions.
I introduced them to the Xbase++ language and then to eXpress++.
This is the first year I gave away free software. Every attendee received a free copy of eXpress++ and my last 4 years of white papers.

I want them to join our community and I think that this promotional idea and one more year will seal the deal.

Based on the feedback, I plan to improve on the design features and also start implementing some WebUI stuff into eXpress++ using XbpHtml*() functions.

There is still a lot of resistance from the Fox leadership, but not from the developers. They don't like the materials I provide and want me to do everything to their specifications. That has never been my style. I communicate with our community very differently than they do with theirs. I don't user powerpoint. I write detailed white papers instead. I decided that I needed to work with the developers and forget about trying to get the leadership to accept me. I'm convinced now that they don't like me. It's going to take me awhile to warm up to the idea of going back to the SWFox/SWXbase conference next year but I will probably yield again to the pressure from Steffen and Bobby. There were 98 attendees (including speakers). The Fox leadership suggested that our Xbase++ sessions would only be drawing 7 attendees because that's all who signed up for those sessions. They were dead wrong. I counted 45 because I gave away that many USB drives with eXpress++ on it to the session attendees. The Fox leadership don't want to believe that Xbase++ is their future, but the numbers don't lie. There seems to be a clash of cultures here based on their long marriage to Microsoft and our culture of "live free or die".

Steffen was very pleased with the results and now we believe this is going to give us more leverage to not have to live with their rules. This was a Fox community sponsored event yet 58 of the attendees were Alaska Software customers or sales leads. Steffen plans a much larger promotion for next year based on this year's results.

Re: German Conference

Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 5:44 pm
by Cliff Wiernik
Things look promising. It is the users that know what they need to do to survive. And they are talking to you.

Cliff

Re: German Conference

Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 6:36 pm
by bwolfsohn
Roger,
Glad to hear things went well for you...
There is still a lot of resistance from the Fox leadership, but not from the developers
The goal of power is to maintain that power.. Alaska threatens their future... The only reason Alaska is in the arizona conference, is they don't have enough bodies to pay for the expenses of the conference without the alaska attendees. if they did, they wouldn't let you in the front door...

Any news on alaska giving boris the info he needs to implement cxp with xb2net ??

I hope the problems in france aren't spilling over to where you are locally, and you'll be able to get out of there on schedule..

Safe travels...

Re: German Conference

Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 11:49 pm
by rdonnay

Code: Select all

Any news on alaska giving boris the info he needs to implement cxp with xb2net ??
I forgot to talk to Steffen about this.
Hopefully, I will see him at breakfast before we leave for the airport.
I hope the problems in france aren't spilling over to where you are locally, and you'll be able to get out of there on schedule.
.

No problems here.

Re: German Conference

Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 6:37 am
by HaPe
Hello Roger !

I am one of the VFP-Developers on the german DEVCON and visited some of your sessions.
Your sessions are informative for me and will help to do my first projects with xBase++.

I hope we will see You 2016 in Frankfurt :-)

Re: German Conference

Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 7:14 am
by rdonnay
Hans -

Welcome to our community.
I felt a very warm acceptance from VFP developers and an eagerness to learn this development platform.
I have attended VFP events since 2009 and this is the first year that we have seen this kind of movement from the VFP community. I enjoyed the Frankfurt conference very much and consider it a big success.

We are here to help you through this transition from your VFP world to our Xbase++ world. I know that this can be difficult, but I promise you that it will be worth it. My next goal is to start developing add-on features to eXpress++ and also special tools that can help "hybridize" the process. For example, I am looking at developing a tool that will take the meta-data from VFP and build eXpress++ SGL code. This way you can still use the VFP visual designer until you become comfortable with making the full transition.
I hope we will see You 2016 in Frankfurt :-)
I have already made a committment to be there next year and have been invited by the leadership of the conference and by Steffen.

Roger

Re: German Conference

Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 7:18 am
by rdonnay
Any news on alaska giving boris the info he needs to implement cxp with xb2net ??
We need to have a private conversation about this.
I talked to Steffen. Give me a phone call or a Skype call.