Southwest Fox 2016
Southwest Xbase++ 2016
September 22-25, 2016
SanTan Elegante Conference Center
Gilbert, AZ
Speakers
Click a session topic for a description of that session.
Rick Borup
Rick Borup is owner and president of Information Technology Associates, a professional software development, computer services, and information systems consulting firm he founded in 1993. Rick earned BS and MBA degrees from the University of Illinois and spent several years developing software applications for mainframe computers before turning to PC database development tools in the late 1980s. He began working with FoxPro in 1991 and has worked full time in FoxPro and Visual FoxPro since 1993. He is a co-author of the books Deploying Visual FoxPro Solutions and Visual FoxPro Best Practices For The Next Ten Years. He has written articles for FoxTalk and FoxPro Advisor and is a frequent speaker at Visual FoxPro conferences and user groups. Rick is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) and a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) in Visual FoxPro.
Sessions:
Hands-on Branching and Merging with Distributed Version Control Systems (pre-conference)
Introduction to Microsoft Power BI
Roger Donnay
Roger Donnay is the owner of Donnay Software Designs, a Boise, Idaho firm specializing in programming and consulting in the Xbase++ language. Roger started using xBase languages in 1982 with dBASE II. His product, dCLIP, was voted "Best Clipper Add-on" by readers of Database Advisor magazine. Roger has 12 years of experience with Xbase++ and developed the product eXpress++, a library designed specifically for Clipper-developers to leverage their knowledge of xBase dialects in a way that eases the transition from text-based to GUI. Xbase++/eXpress++ applications are now in use by thousands of end-users in the USA and Europe. Roger has been speaking at Clipper and Xbase++ -Developer Conferences around the world since 1988.
Sessions:
Case Study of a VFP to Xbase++ Conversion
Compiled Xbase++ Pages (CXP)
Working with XML in Xbase++
Spyros Bobby Drakos
Spyros Bobby Drakos started programming on an IBM 360/370 Mainframe while in college during which time he took various jobs performing and playing in bands to aid tuition. After graduating with a B.S. in Management Information Systems and a B.S. in pre-medicine from Pace University, he bought an IBM PC while working in one of New York City's first personal computer stores. Armed with the original IBM manuals he got his taste of how computers work by upgrading his system to an XT and started a small service in computer system repair. After a small stint teaching system design case studies at the University, he landed a job in the field of medical diagnostics followed by one working on projects for the US Department of Defense and consulting for Coopers and Lybrand. From there he went out on his own to design software for video rental, dental laboratory and building management companies. When not programming, he has served as head speech writer for various cultural affairs events and performed solo in clubs and cruise ships and with his band in several parts of the country.
Today he owns Business Development Micro Systems and consults for the taxi limousine industry of New York City. He currently maintains software for law firms, insurance companies, taxi meter shops, medallion leasing companies, and dispatch garages, as well as transportation companies in Puerto Rico.
These days he divides his interests by serving as musical director or production manager for local stage productions. He is also an emcee for various community events and conferences, works as a vocal coach, writes mini-musicals and monologues for auditions, and teaches improv and Broadway stage classes.
Sessions:
Creating an App: My First Xbase++ Desktop Application, Part 1 (pre-conference)
Creating an App: My First Xbase++ Desktop Application, Part 2 (pre-conference)
The Xbase++ Coding Adventure: Increase Your Programming Skills
Xbase++ Code Shrink: Review Your Code in a Team
Alec Gagne
Alec Gagne is a 15-year veteran former police officer from northern California. In the 80's he became involved in various aspects of technology as they relate to the field of law enforcement. In 1987 he created one of the first laptop-based law enforcement mobile data systems in the U.S. He began working with FoxPro 2.0 in 1991 as a co-developer on a public safety dispatch communications project. He served as a technical adviser to the California Department of Justice and received a commendation from the State Attorney General for his work on a first of its kind state-wide digital mugshot system (CAL-Photo) that later became one of the models used for the FBI National Criminal Information Center technology update (NCIC-2000) project. In 1995, he transitioned into the private sector working in marketing for a Fortune 100 technology company and as a consultant subcontractor for Arthur Andersen/Accenture. Leveraging his unique blend of law enforcement and technology experience, in 1997 he created his own business as a provider of application software for the justice and public safety market. Today, Mr. Gagne's company and its VFP 9 based suite of software products currently serve a wide range of federal, state, county, and local law enforcement customers throughout the United States.
Sessions:
Andreas Gehrs-Pahl
Andreas is the owner of Absolute Software, LLC, a small software development company located in mid-Michigan. He has worked with various database applications, including dBase, ADAD9, FoxBase, FoxPro, Clipper, Alpha5, Clarion, xHarbour, and, starting in 1998, predominantly Xbase++. Using Xbase++, he has done many data conversions to and from various data sources and formats, and in the process worked with numerous RDBMSs, including SQL Server, DB2, Oracle, and PostgreSQL.
Since 1995, he has developed and supported a suite of Clipper/Xbase++ records management software products that have been used by more than 180 law enforcement agencies across Michigan. Andreas also is a frequent contributor to the Alaska and Xb2Net news groups. Additionally, he maintains the open-source XbZLib add-on library that allows Xbase++ developers to manipulate Zip files.
Andreas enjoys drumming and is an AeroSpace History buff. He knows (virtually) all there is to know about aviation and aircraft—just ask him.
Sessions:
“Where in the World is...”: Geo-Coding and Mapping (for Free!)
“You have been Served”: Service (and Controller) Applications
Tamar E. Granor
Tamar E. Granor, Ph.D., is the owner of Tomorrow's Solutions, LLC. She has developed and enhanced numerous Visual FoxPro applications for businesses and other organizations.
Tamar is author or co-author of more than a dozen books including the award winning Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro and Microsoft Office Automation with Visual FoxPro. Her most recent books are VFPX: Open Source Treasure for the VFP Developer and Making Sense of Sedna and SP2.
Tamar served as Editor of FoxPro Advisor magazine from 1994 to 2000 and was Technical Editor from 2000 to 2008. She served as co-author of the popular Advisor Answers column from 1993 to 2008. She has also written for FoxTalk and CoDe; she currently writes for FoxRockX.
Tamar is one of the organizers of the annual Southwest Fox conference and founder of the Philadelphia Visual FoxPro User Group. In 2007, she received the Visual FoxPro Community Lifetime Achievement Award. She received Microsoft Support's Most Valuable Professional award annually from the program's inception in 1993 through 2010. Tamar speaks frequently about Visual FoxPro at conferences and user groups in North America and Europe.
You can reach her at tamar@tamargranor.com or through www.tomorrowssolutionsllc.com.
Sessions:
Learn to Use SQL (pre-conference)
You Mean I Have to Write About it, Too?
Doug Hennig
Doug Hennig is a partner with Stonefield Software Inc. He is the author of the award-winning Stonefield Database Toolkit (SDT); the award-winning Stonefield Query; the MemberData Editor, Anchor Editor, and CursorAdapter and DataEnvironment builders that come with Microsoft Visual FoxPro; and the My namespace and updated Upsizing Wizard in Sedna.
Doug is co-author of VFPX: Open Source Treasure for the VFP Developer, Making Sense of Sedna and SP2, Visual FoxPro Best Practices For The Next Ten Years, the What's New in Visual FoxPro series, and The Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro 7.0. He was the technical editor of The Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro 6.0 and The Fundamentals. All of these books are from Hentzenwerke Publishing. Doug wrote over 100 articles in 10 years for FoxTalk and has written numerous articles in FoxPro Advisor, Advisor Guide to Visual FoxPro, and CoDe. He currently writes for FoxRockX.
Doug spoke at every Microsoft FoxPro Developers Conference (DevCon) starting in 1997 and at user groups and developer conferences all over the world. He is one of the organizers of the annual Southwest Fox and Southwest Xbase++ conferences. He is one of the administrators for the VFPX VFP community extensions Web site. He was a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) from 1996 through 2011. Doug was awarded the 2006 FoxPro Community Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sessions:
Creating Beautiful Web Sites Easily Using Bootstrap
Lessons Learned in Version Control
Andreas Herdt
Andreas Herdt was born in 1970 and graduated from his academic high school in 1990. His first contact with computer hardware was a Commodore C64 at the age of 15. However, the first contact with software was on an Apple IIe in a training course of information science. A turtle was to be moved in an area strewn with obstacles.
After he completed his academic high school diploma, Andreas started as a trainee for Air Traffic Control in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1995 he accommodated his passion for hardware and software. He studied Computer Science from the Information Science Polytechnic at Darmstadt where he focused on color electronic page setting and simulation technology. He graduated in 2000 with a Master's degree. His thesis was about quality assurance for GUI applications. An internship brought him to Alaska Software where he got in touch with the Web Application Adaptor (WAA). Since then he constantly developed his appetite for more, leading finally him to work for Alaska Software.
Today Andreas benefits from the experiences and passion—among other areas—in improving the Xbase++ Runtime environment. He is involved in research on multi-core scalability and transactional memory.
Sessions:
Creating an App: My First Xbase++ Desktop Application, Part 1 (pre-conference)
Creating an App: My First Xbase++ Desktop Application, Part 2 (pre-conference)
Secure Data Exchange with SSL/TLSv3 in Xbase++
Venelina E. Jordanova
Venelina got her first touch with computers and programming during her school time at the Mathematical High-School. Having a whole year of specializing in computer programming and an internship in the regional branch of the Bulgarian National Bank was an exciting experience and since then Venelina believes being a programmer is the greatest job. During her Computer Sciences study at Varna Technical University, Venelina received a scholarship from a Bulgarian military company, giving her a chance to work for them in the summer programming in Assembler and C. After her graduation Venelina was invited to be part of the information system development team in the Employment Agency in Varna. Trying to decide between Pascal and C++, the team suddenly received a recommendation to use FoxPro. Now Venelina says, "I fell in love with this language which still continues today".
In the following years her career was tied again to the Varna Technical University as a teacher. Since 1997 she devoted her efforts and knowledge to her own company JEI. In 1999 Venelina became an MCP and in 2001 her company became a Microsoft Certified Partner. In the list of projects she has worked on are wide ranges of various applications like banking, insurance and financial operations, petrol station POS software, postal address validation, an ERP system for the Bulgarian market, billing systems for utility companies, a report generating tool, and many other tools for VFP. From 2003 to 2014, Venelina was the team leader for the Visual Extend framework development.
Along with VFP projects, Venelina is also an architect and project leader for many .NET desktop, web, and mobile projects. Since 2003 Venelina has been a regular speaker at the Visual FoxPro DevCon in Frankfurt, as well as at numerous regional events in Bulgaria, conferences in Bucharest, Bunnik, and Paris, and the VFP DevCon in Prague. Since 2008, Venelina has worked together with Uwe Habermann as manager of V&U Ltd. and in addition to the development of Visual Extend, their focus was the development of various Visual FoxPro applications as well as the rich capabilities of Silverlight and the newest Microsoft technologies. This development turned later into new Modern UI and Windows Store applications RAD—Alvenos as the next step for the developers to go on. Nowadays, Venelina and V&U team work on various information systems development, using all of the development tools that Microsoft provides and are always researching the newest technologies, approaches, and tools.
Sessions:
How VFP Developers can Start with Xbase++
Make Your App Mobile
Chris McGuinness
Chris McGuiness has always been interested in how things fit together. This interest has led him into a career where he occasionally writes code but predominantly designs system architectures, workflows, and user interfaces. These architectural designs have found their way into everything from wafer handling systems for the semiconductor industry to lifesaving biometrics and intervention care communications for the battlefield.
The emergence of APIs and Infrastructure-as-a-Service has created a wonderful new set of Legos to be snapped together in fascinating fashion.
Chris has had the great fortune to spend the last decade-and-a-half working with Black Mountain Software where he has served as the Director of Engineering for the last several years.
Sessions:
Leveraging the Power of Amazon for Your FoxPro and Xbase++ Applications
Jody L. Meyer
Jody Meyer has been a software developer for 30 years and has been using Fox for all but three of them. Currently, Jody works for White Light Computing (WLC). At WLC, she works with all kinds of customers on various SQL Server/VFP applications. Previously, she was the chief architect of the WinMAGI framework, which is a world-class manufacturing ERP system for small to mid-sized manufacturers.
After hours, Jody takes her passion for software development and applies it to some volunteer projects and a couple of user groups. She is the President and Webmaster of the Grand Rapids Area FoxPro User Group (GRAFUG). She is a member of the Detroit Area Fox User Group (DAFUG), Great Lansing Area for SQL Server (GLASS), and has been known to make the trek to the Chicago FoxPro Users and Developers Group (ChicagoFUDG). She has attended a number of SQL Saturday conferences as well. When she isn't a taxi driver for her son David to Karate and Royal Ranger events, Jody loves learning karate, being a Sunday School teacher, and bicycling with her husband Jeff and walking with her dogs, Beau and Behr. You can contact Jody at:
Email: JLMeyer@WhiteLightComputing.com
Sessions:
SQL Server Execution Plans 101
SQL Server Indexing for the Rest of Us
Steffen F. Pirsig
Steffen F. Pirsig has been Chief Architect of Xbase++ since its original prototype in October 1994. He also is a co-founder of Alaska Software and President of Alaska Software, Inc.
As a frequent speaker at various developer conferences as well as at universities, Steffen manages to combine his passion for database management systems, distributed computing and of course Xbase++, with his love for engaging in shop talk and in-depth discussions while presenting his ideas and visions to an interested audience.
Steffen enjoys good wines, hiking, bicycling and music of independent labels. He also likes to fly rc-planes in his spare time.
Sessions:
Modernizing Visual FoxPro Applications Using the Xbase++ Transpiler
The Xbase++ Coding Adventure: Increase Your Programming Skills
Xbase++ Code Shrink: Review Your Code in a Team
Xbase++ Roadmap: What's Next!
Rick Schummer
Rick Schummer is the president and lead geek at White Light Computing, Inc., headquartered in southeast Michigan, USA where the team guides the customer's Information Technology investment toward success. He enjoys working with top-notch developers, thrives on the mode of continuous learning, has a passion for developing software using best practices, strives to surpass customer expectations, and shares his knowledge with others whenever he can. After hours you might find him creating developer tools that improve developer productivity, or writing articles for his favorite technology journals and his blog.
Rick is a co-author of VFPX: Open Source Treasure for the VFP Developer, Making Sense of Sedna and SP2, Visual FoxPro Best Practices for the Next Ten Years, What's New In Nine: Visual FoxPro's Latest Hits, Deploying Visual FoxPro Solutions, MegaFox: 1002 Things You Wanted To Know About Extending Visual FoxPro, and 1001 Things You Always Wanted to Know About Visual FoxPro. He is a regular presenter at user groups across North America and is a founding member and Secretary of the Detroit Area Fox User Group (DAFUG). Rick is the lead organizer of the Southwest Fox Conference, and is a regular presenter at other conferences in North America, Europe, and Australia. He is an administrator of VFPX, and a Microsoft Visual FoxPro MVP from 2002 to 2011. Rick was awarded the FoxPro Lifetime Achievement Award in October 2010.
You can contact Rick via email at raschummer@whitelightcomputing.com
Sessions:
Challenges of the Independent Consultant
Visual FoxPro Reporting: XFRX vs. FoxyPreviewer
Eric J. Selje
Eric Selje is a software developer in Madison, WI. He has been programming in Fox since FoxBase 1.21 in 1986 and recalls eagerly waiting for the box from UPS with "FoxPro". In 1995 he founded MadFox, the Madison FoxPro User Group, after attending DevCon in San Diego and realizing that learning Visual FoxPro 3 would take a group effort.
Eric is professionally known as Salty Dog Solutions, LLC, developing business applications for the desktop, web, and most recently mobile devices with an emphasis on database-driven applications. He is also co-author of VFPX: Open Source Treasure for the VFP Developer.
When he's not planted in front of a screen, Eric can most often be found on the Ultimate field, the baseball diamond, solving crosswords, or with his face in a book.
Sessions:
Phil Sherwood
Phil Sherwood is the president of SherWare, Inc., a software company founded in 1994, with offices in Wooster, Ohio and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Since graduating with a BS degree in computer science 32 years ago, he's gone from IBM mainframe computers to today's laptops and tablets. He started SherWare, Inc. 21 years ago and develops and markets oil & gas accounting and investing software.
Today SherWare, Inc. provides accounting software to over 600 oil & gas operating companies around the U.S. and Canada. SherWare can be found on the web at www.sherware.com and www.wellprofits.com.
When Phil is not working he's playing. He enjoys boating, rock climbing, paddle boarding and playing with his four grand kids.
Phone: 330.262.0200 Email: phil@sherware.com
Sessions:
Rick Strahl
Rick Strahl is the Big Kahuna at West Wind Technologies on Maui, Hawaii. The company specializes in Web and distributed application development, training and tools with focus on ASP.NET, .NET, and Visual FoxPro. Among the tools created and sold by Rick's company are West Wind Web Connection, West Wind Internet Client Tools, West Wind WebSurge, West Wind Html Help Builder and Web Monitor. Rick has been working with Microsoft technology close to 25 years, is an ASP.NET MVP and Insider, a frequent contributor to magazines and books, and speaks frequently at professional developer conferences all over the world. For more information please contact Rick at rstrahl@west-wind.com.
Sessions:
10 Cool Examples of Using wwDotnetBridge to Extend Your FoxPro Code
Creating Mobile Web Applications with AngularJS 2 and Web Connection
Tuvia Vinitsky
Tuvia Vinitsky is a principal in Vinitsky Consulting. Vinitsky Consulting develops and markets major vertical applications for non-profit organizations, community centers (JCC, YMCA), and delivery management. They also provide custom database software and website development.
Tuvia's Fox experience dates back to the days of FoxBase and CompuServe. He has written for FoxTalk and has been a presenter numerous times at regional user groups. Tuvia has always enjoyed expanding the capabilities of FoxPro, whether it was graphic printer drivers in the days of DOS or Web enabling the latest VFP 9 features.
Tuvia believes in having both breadth and depth of experience and has served as project leader for many large projects, including projects at companies like Avis-Rent-a-Car, Chicago Board of Trade, Marmon Group, and Lotus.
Tuvia and his family are long time Chicago residents. He attended Northwestern University and is an ordained Rabbi. His years at Northwestern, with its reputation for the performing arts, must have left a mark—not only is he known for his popular presentations on software development, but he frequently is a guest speaker on Jewish philosophy and teachings.
Sessions:
Don't Press That Button! Effective Training of Your End Users
The Return of DbSchema
Till Warweg
Till graduated with a Master's degree in Computer Science from the Information Science Polytechnic in Frankfurt/Main.
In 1997, Till joined Alaska Software straight from college. His primary project was the development of Xbase++ for the Windows platform. Soon thereafter, he assumed responsibilities for maintaining and enhancing Xbase++'s user interface functionalities. His special interests, and maybe therefore his strong suit, are the Graphics Engine and the component library built into Xbase++ (Xbase Parts). Till is also involved in various other areas of product development at Alaska Software. For example, he is a key member of the "PolarFox" project team.
Till is a frequent speaker at various developer conferences and other events surrounding Xbase++, both in Europe and in the US. Apart from his interest in computing, Till enjoys riding his motorcycle, exercising, and reading a good book.
Sessions:
Automated Testing of Xbase++ Web Applications
New Desktop User Interface Controls Using HTML/CSS
Christof Wollenhaupt
Christof Wollenhaupt, head of Foxpert, offers FoxPro and .NET development and consulting services to customers who benefit from his nearly 25 years of experience. Christof is a regular speaker at conferences and user groups around the world, organizes the Hamburger Stammtisch für Microsoft Datenbankentwickler (Hamburg user group for Microsoft database developers), has written for various magazines including a regular column in FoxPro Advisor for more than 10 years, and was a Visual FoxPro MVP from 1997 to 2010.
Sessions:
