A detailed comparison between Visual FoxPro and Servoy
IDE
Let's asume you're like most developers and didn't read anything about Servoy but just installed it and are now looking at the IDE.
This IDE is called Eclipse and is a very popular development environment in which Servoy has been integrated. There are extensive
tutorials on the workings of Eclipse but for now we'll just take a quick look.
An important difference is that the Eclipse interface can be adjusted to show the IDE from different "perspectives". For example
by default when you start Servoy you will see the "Servoy Design" perspective. On the top right hand side of the screen a button
lets you switch between perspectives. At this time you will be able to switch between the (integrated) "Debug" perspective and the
"Servoy Design" perspective. If you want you can customize the development environment the way you like it and save these settings
in a perspective.
Be sure to watch the tutorials on Eclipse if you want to get to know the IDE in detail.
Command Window
First thing you will look for is a Command Window. Not there, sorry. To be honest there is an Interactive Console in debug mode but
it is not nearly as powerful as what we are used to in Fox. To put it on your screen go to Window - Show View - Other and from the popup
that appears select Dynamic Languages - Interactive Console. To use it set a breakpoint in your code and when it suspends you will be
able to type your commands in it. Don't expect that much from it though.
Project Manager/Solution Explorer
The "project manager" in Servoy looks like the Solution Explorer in VisualStudio.Net (or is it the other way around?) and also has
the same name. One difference you may have to get used to is that you don't open one or more Project Manager windows but instead activate
solutions by right-clicking on them and choosing 'Activate Solution'.
Apart from the things you would expect in the Solution Explorer is that it is also used as an 'Object Browser', if you click on the
Application object for instance you will see that the window below the Solution Explorer shows the methods that are available when
developing your application.
Hands-on
Enough talking already, let's get our hands dirty! I assume you already went throught the getting-started section and read the quick-
start guide and maybe did some tutorials. If not do so first. Below you will find a section with hands on samples that will consist of
code samples that show the VFP way of getting it done and the Servoy equivalent.
In the near future a comparison of the programming concepts in VFP and Servoy will be added here. For a more detailed technical comparison
check out the How to... section.
-- to be continued --
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