FoxPro 2.0's interface introduces a new concept called minimized windows. Any system window or user window created with the new MINIMIZE clause can be reduced to a one line by 16 character minimized window containing the window's title. The minimized window can be positioned anywhere on the display or automatically "docked" in the lower right portion of the screen.

The minimize provisions, along with new Zoom commands added to the FoxPro menu line, make it easy to place many windows on the screen or in a window simultaneously and still have ample space for output.

FoxPro 2.0's built-in program and file editor has been enhanced with several user-requested features. An optional status line can display the line and column number of the cursor's current position, as well as various status annunciators. Hanging indentation capabilities have been added. Search and search/replace are now bidirectional, forward or backward through a file. Line numbers previously sought are now remembered by the editor, an aid to program revision during debugging.

FoxPro's interactive Fourth Generation Report Writer has been enhanced with several improvements which increase flexibility and improve ease of use. Among the many advances:

• A new Selection Marquee selects multiple objects with either mouse or keyboard. The marquee surrounds a group of objects with an outline, after which operations can be performed on all the selected objects.
  
  
• Users can now open as many Layout windows as memory permits. This makes cutting, copying and pasting objects between report definitions fast and easy.
  
  
• GROUP and UNGROUP options have been added, which allows users to manipulate a complex collection of objects as a single object.
  
  
• Users can add and remove lines in bands by stretching the bands with the mouse.
  
  
• New Report Variables capability creates variables associated with a report. These variables permit elaborate calculations to made within a report and may be retained for later processing.
  
  
• Improved handling of group printing adds control of whether a group will print at the bottom of a page, an option to reprint the header of a group that spans more than one page and resetting the page number at a group break.

Quick Reports, Screens and Queries can now be created under program control, without invoking the FoxPro 2.0 interactive design tools. This allows programmers to design systems which gather information from end users and create reports, screens and queries reflecting user needs, without requiring the user to learn or use the FoxPro design tools.

The FoxPro language has been upgraded with many new and enhanced commands and functions. Among the highlights:

• Name Expressions - Name expressions allow users to store a name to a memory variable, then refer to the memory variable in a command or function. This is significantly faster than macro substitution.
  
  
• Logical Operators - The logical operators AND, OR and NOT no longer need to be surrounded by two periods. This saves keystrokes and is more intuitive for beginning users.
  
  
• @ SAY/GET has been greatly enhanced with a variety of new clauses. Among the new features: DISABLED prevents an item from being selected, and displays it `greyed out'; SHOW GET[S] redisplays a GET field after updating in VALID, WHEN, ON KEY, etc. routines; CYCLE doesn't terminate a GET on the last field, instead starting again at the first GET field; and OBJECT specifies which GET object is entered when a READ is issued.
  
  
• FoxBASE+/Mac type objects - text edit regions, text buttons, radio buttons and check boxes - are now supported in FoxPro 2.0. Language syntax is almost identical to that of FoxBASE+/Mac. In addition to programming the creation and use of such objects, they can be created without programming via the new FoxPro Screen Builder.
  
  
• ARRAY FUNCTIONS - FoxPro 2.0 adds a comprehensive array of functions to manipulate arrays, including ACOPY(), ADEL(), AELEMENT(), AINS(), AFIELD(), ADIR(), ASCAN(), ALEN(), ASORT(), and ASUBSCRIPT(). In addition to these new functions, entire arrays can be passed by reference, a potent enhancement for advanced programmers.
  
  
• DEFINE MENU, DEFINE PAD, DEFINE POPUP, DEFINE BAR, ON BAR, ON PAD, ON SELECTION, ACTIVATE MENU, and ACTIVATE POPUP have been significantly enhanced. Twenty-three new commands and functions have been added to the arsenal of menuing tools. Users may control the pads that appear in the System menu bar and the options appearing in System popups.
  
  
• DEFINE WINDOW adds a FOOTER clause to display a footer centered at the bottom of the window. A FILL clause permits filling the window with a specified character.
  
  
• LABEL and REPORT add a PREVIEW clause which sends a representation of the labels or report to the screen for content and layout checking prior to printing.
  
  
• PACK now removes unused blank space in FoxPro memo fields as well as records marked for deletion in a data file, reducing disk storage required.
  
  
• SET SKIP TO is available in FoxPro 2.0 to create one-to-many relationships between databases.
  
  
• LOOKUP() is available to make relational lookups simple and fast.
  
  
• USE AGAIN allows a database file to be opened simultaneously in multiple work areas.
  
  
• ZOOM WINDOW changes the size of system and user-defined windows. Windows may be reduced to a one line by sixteen character `icon' displaying only the name or title of the window, enlarged to fill the entire screen, or anything in between. MIN, MAX, NORM, AT, FROM, SIZE and TO clauses provide complete control over window size and location.
  
  
• WCHILD and WPARENT functions assist in development of complex windowing user interfaces by returning the number of child windows and the name of a parent window, respectively.

Users can enhance the visual appeal of printed output with new printer drivers in FoxPro 2.0. Drivers are supplied for a variety of popular printers, with special drivers for printers supporting Hewlett-Packard PCL and PostScript.

Users can create new printer drivers or modify existing ones easily. Drivers use standard FoxPro code, so special features can also be added readily. Versions of the printer drivers written in C using FoxPro's API open architecture are also provided for users requiring maximum throughput.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Perrysburg, Ohio, May 20, 1991 - Users can create custom menus easily with no programming with FoxPro 2.0's new interactive Menu Builder, new and enhanced commands and functions, and templates which create menu code.

FoxPro 2.0's new interactive Menu Builder, one of a suite of new fourth generation design tools, combines advanced, highly flexible menu capabilities with unparalleled ease of use.

Users merely specify menu prompts and the commands they should execute. Multiple level hierarchical or cascading submenus and popups can be created easily. Users can specify keyboard shortcuts merely by pressing the desired shortcut key.

Once the menus and popups have been defined, the new FoxPro code generator system takes over and creates the program code to implement the menus and popups, No user programming is required. The generated code can be executed directly or inserted into any FoxPro application.

Users now enjoy full control over the FoxPro System menu bar and popups. Items can be deleted or added, and routines can be assigned to the Systems pads or System popups. This allows users to customize the FoxPro system menu for many purposes, including simplifying the available options for beginning users, adding new options seamlessly or changing how standard options operate.

FoxPro's command language has been expanded with over two dozen new commands and functions and powerful enhancements to many other commands. Over 100 new system variables have been added to control the FoxPro System menu.

These new language expansions provide the underpinning for the interactive menu definition and automatic menu generation systems. In addition, they allow advanced programmers to gain still further flexibility and control.

The new Menu Builder is part of a suite of fourth generation tools in FoxPro 2.0. In addition to the Menu Builder, the new Screen Builder and enhanced Report Writer and Label Generator tools provide enormous versatility with unmatched ease of use.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Perrysburg, Ohio, May 20, 1991 - FoxPro 2.0's new Project Manager helps developers manage the application creation process. The Project Manager unifies and coordinates all the elements which are part of an application. Users can create applications under the Project Manager's control to run in interactive FoxPro 2.0, the FoxPro Runtime, or two types of executable EXE packages.

A FoxPro 2.0 project is a special file which keeps track of all programs which are required to create an application, as well as all the dependencies, references and connections among the files. Working in conjunction with FoxPro's automatic compilation features, a project insures that compiled files are based on the latest source files.

Projects can contain more than program object code. Users can store interface elements like screen sets, menus and formats, reports, labels and queries, external API libraries, memory variable files, keyboard macros and even read-only databases for lookups. Storing all these elements in a central location helps organize development and reduces disk clutter.

Developers can build projects either interactively, by specifying all the component pieces of an application, or automatically via FoxPro 2.0's new Build command. Build searches files and libraries for references to other files or libraries, keeping track of everything that will be needed to create the final application.

"The project concept provides the flexibility and control of traditional `make' utilities, but with far less effort and no learning curve," noted Dr. David Fulton, President of Fox Software. "Projects greatly ease development of complex applications, smoothly and easily."

Once users create a Project, they can build either a custom application (APP) or two styles of executable program (EXE).

A monolithic single EXE contains everything necessary to operate as a stand-alone executable application. Alternately, developers can opt for a collection of small EXE files which require the presence of a central Fox library.

"There are advantages to all three options. It's basically a packaging decision, with the optimal choice depending on the application, the hardware and software environment, and other factors. For example, using the small EXE model makes remote updating via modem much more efficient and less costly," Dr. Fulton observed. "There seems to be some mystique about EXE files, and now FoxPro satisfies those who want this approach. But we've provided the flexibility possible with EXE's throughout all three techniques. FoxPro 2.0 is one system that happens to be able to create both Runtime and different flavors of EXE executables; there's no `EXE compiler' per se."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Perrysburg, Ohio, May 20, 1991 - New fourth generation relational tools in FoxPro 2.0 provide users, programmers and developers with easy-to-use, interactive relational data entry, relational querying and relational reporting capabilities.

An innovative relational query-by-example (RQBE), integrated FoxPro SQL language extensions, one-to-many relations and other relational features work in concert with FoxPro 2.0's 4GL Screen Builder, Menu Builder, Report Writer and Label Generator tools to provide unmatched power and flexibility.

FoxPro 2.0's new Relational Query-by-Example (RQBE) provides an easy-to-use interactive environment for retrieving information. The RQBE process requires no programming. It is appropriate for both beginners performing ad hoc data retrieval and programmers and developers constructing queries for incorporation into applications.

Using FoxPro's unique windowing user interface, RQBE users can easily build even complex relational queries with either mouse or keyboard. The user can specify which databases to access, how they are related, which fields to include in the output and how they should be grouped, sorting sequences, the format of the output, and specific selection criteria for any field.

"Enhancing relational capabilities was a central design goal for FoxPro 2.0, and the new Relational Query-By-Example is the cornerstone of this effort" said Dr. David Fulton, Fox Software President. "While it offers the interactive and easy-to-learn, easy-to-use aspects of traditional QBE's, RQBE goes well beyond them in its abilities to extract the exact information the user needs even in complex relational situations - at extremely high speed and with no programming necessary."

Unlike other relational querying implementations for microcomputers, which have earned a well deserved reputation for sluggish performance, FoxPro 2.0 provides extraordinarily fast data retrieval. On an industry-standard benchmark suite of 69 queries, FoxPro 2.0 outperformed other relational products by dramatic margins:

The real-world implications are extremely significant: consider that competitive relational products can take well over an hour to perform tasks which take FoxPro 2.0 under half a minute! Even the fastest competitive product takes over ten minutes!

• NOTE: Oracle licensing provisions prohibit publishing of benchmarks of Oracle performance. In these tests, Oracle performed much slower than any other product tested.

FoxPro's 4GL RQBE generates a FoxPro SQL SELECT statement which may be used anywhere in source code programs. In many cases, a single FoxPro SQL SELECT can replace many lines of FoxPro-style code.

FoxPro 2.0 adds non-procedural SQL SELECT statements to the mainstream of its programming language. No special switches or mode changes are required to access the power and efficiency of FoxPro SQL SELECTS.

The non-procedural aspect of FoxPro 2.0's SQL greatly eases the complexity of intricate data retrieval tasks. The need to write and track complicated FoxPro SELECT and SET RELATION TO statements is eliminated in favor of concise, easy-to-understand SQL SELECTs.

During RQBE definition, the user can examine the SELECT statement being constructed at any time. "This can be a potent learning technique. SQL is new to most FoxPro and X-Base users," Dr. Fulton noted, "Experimenting with the RQBE interface and seeing the resulting FoxPro SQL SELECT is one of the best ways to learn SQL I've seen."

FoxPro 2.0 also provides several other powerful SQL commands. CREATE TABLE creates table structures programmatically without reference to an existing table, and INSERT adds records to a table in one step, which requires fewer locks in network environments and thus yields notably faster performance.

FoxPro 2.0's SQL implementation supports nested SELECT statements, allowing selection of records from a set of records chosen by another SELECT. In addition, FoxPro SQL offers the uncommon capability of accepting general expressions in the projection (fields) list and WHERE clause. This provides tremendous flexibility in query design, allowing use of the rich spectrum of FoxPro expressions in SQL statements.

Relational query results can be directed to a variety of FoxPro subsystems, including a Browse, the Report and Label form systems, a Cursor, the screen Display, etc. SQL output can be sent directly to an array.

In addition, RQBE output can be routed to an automatic Quick Report. This option creates attractively formatted columnar or form-style report output from a query immediately, without the need to predefine a report form.

Users can now display multiple related datafiles in simultaneous visible windows with FoxPro's powerful BROWSE facility. When moving through a parent database in one BROWSE window, only the related records in children databases will be displayed in multiple BROWSE windows on the screen at the same time.

FoxPro 2.0 implements SET SKIP TO to create one-to-many relationships between databases. SET SKIP TO allows moving within a child database without moving the record pointer in the parent database. In this way, many records in the child database related to a single parent record can be displayed.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Perrysburg, Ohio, May 20, 1991 - Rushmore(tm), a patent-pending new access and filtering optimization technology introduced in FoxPro 2.0, provides startling speed increases in accessing data in indexed files. Even compared with previous versions of FoxPro, already widely regarded as the fastest microcomputer database manager, FoxPro 2.0's Rushmore technology can access data up to two orders of magnitude or more faster!

"We think the Rushmore technology is a true breakthrough that advances the state of the art," said Dr. David Fulton, Fox Software President. "It opens new vistas for data management on microcomputers. Massive tasks that were beyond the scope of micro-based computers and required mini or mainframe computers are now well within the capabilities of desktop systems."

Rushmore optimization is automatically employed - and dramatically improves the performance of - any FoxPro command that uses a filtering condition where indexes are available. Common FoxPro commands like BROWSE, SCAN and many others benefit automatically. The long-requested general-purpose BROWSE FOR in FoxPro 2.0 provides remarkable performance, largely through the availability of Rushmore technology.

Rushmore, combined with other optimization techniques, is also utilized automatically with FoxPro 2.0's new SQL SELECT statements.

"Rushmore has an extraordinary impact on data access. It works with any existing application, although programmers will probably want to change some strategies to extract its full advantages. Interestingly, the best techniques for using Rushmore are simpler methods, not more complex," Dr. Fulton observed. "It's better to look at an entire database, rather than use tricks to work only with subsets."

"For example, on a 140 megabyte data file of 1.6 million records, a simple COUNT without Rushmore active took 186.5 seconds with FoxPro 2.0 (and 422 seconds with dBASE IV). A SEEK-COUNT WHILE strategy took 43.3 seconds with FoxPro 2.0 (and 79 seconds with dBASE IV). With Rushmore active, the simple COUNT took .126 seconds! Note that this is 3,349 times faster than the same simple COUNT under dBASE IV and 627 times faster than even the best strategy with dBASE IV!"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Perrysburg, Ohio, May 20, 1991 - A new object-oriented Screen Builder in FoxPro 2.0 uses fourth generation techniques to create attractive and functional input and editing screens. The new Screen Builder is easy to learn and easy to use for beginners, while providing complete control and flexibility for advanced users, programmers and developers.

The user designs screens by simply choosing objects from a pull-down menu and placing them anywhere on the screen, with either a mouse or the keyboard.

The objects include:

• Push Buttons for initiating actions.
  
  
• Radio Buttons for selecting a single option from a set of options.
  
  
• Check Boxes to get information from the user (typically indicates the state of a parameter).
  
  
• Popups for choosing from a short list of related items.
  
  
• Lists for selecting items from a FoxPro array.
  
  
• Editable Text Regions for editing memo and character data.

The Screen Builder, modeled after that in FoxBASE+/Mac, provides sophisticated, object-oriented controls without any programming. Taking full advantage of FoxPro's unique event-driven, windows-style interface, elegant and highly sophisticated screens can be constructed quickly and easily.

As objects are placed on the screen, a broad spectrum of editing options, including range checking, validation clauses with user-defined functions, when clauses and even scroll bar management of long fields can be attached.

Advanced users can also create "Code Snippets" (blocks of code attached to screen objects) to provide unlimited control over object behavior, field contents and other aspects of the screen interface. The code snippet approach places controlling code where it belongs: at the point in the system where it has effect.

The FoxPro Screen Builder includes a variety of tools and options to ease the screen design process. Selecting multiple objects is now faster and easier with FoxPro 2.0's new marquee tool. The marquee surrounds a group of objects with an outline, so operations can be performed on all the selected objects.

Users can draw boxes and lines using a variety of line types, including single and double lines, a panel of solid color, or any ASCII character, in any color combination. Graphic elements can improve entry accuracy by improving the readability and by calling attention to a particular area of the screen.

Objects can be positioned on top of or behind other objects, centered, colored, grouped and ungrouped for ease in manipulating complex collections of objects, and the order in which objects will be accessed can be changed. A time-saving Quick Screen option displays datafile fields in either columnar or form layout, eliminating the need to enter a series of fields manually.

Users can create Screen Sets consisting of one or more screens. Each individual screen is a functionally complete interactive element that can be part of a larger functional group of control panels and full screen displays. The Screen Set concept encourages construction and reuse of generic screen elements and control objects.

Information about the objects on the screen is saved in a FoxPro database, which in turn is used by the FoxPro's code generation system to create polished FoxPro code. The generated code can be executed directly or inserted into any FoxPro application.

The new Screen Builder is part of a suite of fourth generation tools in FoxPro 2.0. In addition to the Screen Builder, the new Menu Builder and enhanced Report Writer and Label Generator tools provide enormous versatility with unmatched ease of use.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Perrysburg, Ohio, May 20, 1991 - FoxPro 2.0 provides template language technology completely integrated within FoxPro, using FoxPro itself as its own template language. The new approach replaces FoxView, FoxCode and FoxGen, the template tools provided with earlier versions of FoxPro.

The new FoxPro template system is implemented with only a handful of specialized FoxPro text merge commands. In conjunction with the new Screen Builder and Menu Builder discussed in related releases, these few commands provide the many benefits of template systems, like ease of application development, reusability of template modules, and commonality of interface across multiple applications.

"The new template capabilities in FoxPro 2.0 represent something of a conceptual breakthrough," noted Dr. David Fulton, President of Fox Software. "Template systems have always been based on the concept of writing a form of pseudo-code and replacing portionswith actual product code later. Of course, this required users to learn a completely new language and set of rules - an investment which many programmers simply weren't prepared to make."

"It dawned on us that we could handle this via the time-tested concept of the `mail merge' - simply using FoxPro as its own template language! It proved remarkably easy to add just a few text merge-oriented commands to FoxPro and provide all the unquestionable benefits of template technology without any of the drawbacks. There's little or no learning curve required. Anyone who knows how to program in FoxPro already knows the template language!"

The actual process of writing templates and creating code is straightforward. A SET TEXTMERGE TO command specifies an output file to which all subsequent code will be directed. SET TEXTMERGE ON indicates that all text code found between TEXT...ENDTEXT commands, or that appears after a special TEXTMERGE character (\, \\) is output to the file. In addition, all expressions, functions and memory variables found between paired angle brackets (<< and >>) are to be evaluated before they are sent to the output file. SET TEXTMERGE TO closes the output file.

The resulting code is standard FoxPro source which the user can execute or further modify as desired.

FoxPro 2.0 includes a variety of sample templates, which are themselves FoxPro programs, that process output from the new Screen Builder and Menu Builder. The output can take the form of FoxPro format files, code segments, or applications.

FoxPro 2.0 includes a new Application Developer called FoxApp. Users can create simple, yet well-structured and functional, applications with absolutely no programming and minimal effort. In addition to creating usable applications, FoxApp can also be employed by novice users as a learning tool.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Perrysburg, Ohio, May 20, 1991 - FoxPro 2.0 offers a multitude of new features, patent-pending technological advances, performance unmatched by any microcomputer database, an innovative Relational Query-By-Example, completely integrated SQL, a suite of fourth generation design tools and many other advantages, in most cases at the same price as earlier versions of FoxPro.

The single user version of FoxPro 2.0 carries a suggested retail of $795, identical with previous versions of FoxPro.

"This represents an incredible value," noted Charles Valentine, Jr., Fox Software Vice-President of Marketing and Sales. "We've never particularly emphasized price as a major selling point for our products, but providing such massive performance acceleration and extensive benefits while maintaining price deserves special attention. Also notable is the inclusion of both standard and extended true 32-bit versions at no additional cost; in the past, we and many other vendors have offered separate versions at significant extra cost."

FoxPro/LAN, the multi-user version which shipped simultaneously, also provides both standard and extended versions. Retail price is $1,295.

"The LAN product is extremely cost efficient," Valentine observed. "Unlike dBASE IV, Paradox and others which require expensive `LAN Packs' for each group of a few nodes added to a network, FoxPro/LAN is licensed per server. Users are welcome to add as many nodes to a server as their network system allows, with absolutely no extra payment to Fox. It's not uncommon to see corporations spending twenty or thirty thousand dollars or more for competitive software just to serve a large network. With FoxPro/LAN, they need spend only about one thousand dollars, with vastly superior performance to boot."

The new FoxPro 2.0 Distribution Kit serves the needs of developers and programmers who wish to distribute applications to end users and clients. It replaces the Runtime sold with previous versions of FoxPro.

The Distribution Kit can create three forms of packaging for distributed applications: the traditional runtime, small EXE executables using a central library, or single monolithic EXE's. All three are completely royalty free; once developers buy the Distribution Kit they never need pay Fox any royalties or account for their sales in any way.

"Once again, the Distribution Kit is an excellent value," Valentine said. "Retail price remains unchanged at $500, even though the Kit provides more flexibility via its multiple packaging options."

Fox continues its tradition of low-cost upgrades for its existing user base.

Price protection for FoxPro 2.0 took effect on February 1, 1991. All registered owners of FoxPro 1.02 who acquired it after this date can upgrade to the equivalent package in the FoxPro 2.0 system at no cost.

Upgrades for other owners of FoxPro 1.02 are $195 for single user, $250 for LAN, and $100 for Runtime to Distribution Kit upgrade. In addition, registered owners of FoxBASE+ can also upgrade to FoxPro 2.0 for the same costs.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Perrysburg, Ohio, May 20, 1991 - FoxPro 2.0 introduces a new virtual memory system utilizing sophisticated technology to optimize memory utilization and increase performance.

The new virtual memory system does not use overlays, eliminating the inefficiencies inherent in overlay swapping. In previous versions of FoxPro, 64K of RAM was used for managing overlay swapping. The new virtual memory manager does not need this memory, and restores it to the general memory management pool.

The virtual memory system manages segments intelligently. Granularity is improved because segments are smaller than massive overlays. The intelligent memory technology can exchange needed segments very rapidly, and frequently used segments are retained in memory as needed.

The root segment in FoxPro 2.0 is reduced to approximately 280K, which makes much more usable memory (on the order of 200K) available to the FoxPro memory manager. This is particularly valuable in the LAN version of FoxPro.

The virtual memory system improves performance in several respects. In addition to increasing available general purpose memory and the intelligent and extremely fast segment management, critical code that previously had to be stored in the root can now be relegated to segments because segments can be loaded so much faster.