current scctext replacement for textual representation of vfp binary files

Question

What are people using in vfp 9 for a replacement for the built-in scctext.prg that translates binary files in vfp to a textual representation?

We’ve moving an existing project that’s in vfp 9 sp1 into tfs source control, but we need a way to make sure that the non-textual files are able to get the benefits of comparison that only non-binary text files allow. We plan to check both the textual representation and the binary file into source control (the binary is more for the “just in case” scenario)

According to the document at

http://www.ita-software.com/papers/Borup_Mercurial_Published.pdf

there are at least three options for converting .scx, .frx, .lbx, .prj and other non-prg dbf files in visual foxpro (vfp) to a textual representation. Only some of them allow for converting the textual information back to binary - not sure how often we’d really use that or not.

ALTERNATE SCCTEXT This one seems older with latest version in 2009 - not sure if it’s still the preferred tool - and it seems to have no way to take the textual representation and convert it back to a binary file.

http://vfpx.codeplex.com/releases/view/12955

TWOFOX This one seems similar to the foxbin2prg except it creates xml files - seems like only one dev is working on it unlike the others that are open to contributions from others so not sure how current it is and how much it’s being used by other developers - it does have two way conversion like fox2binprg has.

http://www.foxpert.com/downloads.htm

FOXBIN2PRG This one is fairly recent - but not sure if it’s production ready enough to use for prod coding working - it does have two way conversion

http://vfpx.codeplex.com/releases/view/116407

TRIGGER INVOKE ONE OF THE ABOVE ON CHANGE OF BINARY FILES IN VFP IDE What are people using to invoke these textual representation options?

I’ve seen this class that was created to run one of the programs listed above for all files in the project. Apparently it does it when the date time of the last generate is older that the date time on the textual version of the file. One detriment I’ve read is that it generates for foundation classes and other things that really are not items that a dev is working on (code that is referenced by but not included in your project).

http://codepaste.net/9yy1gm

Thanks for any advice from those that are using vfp 9 with source control out there!

jveazey jveazey · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-22T19:56:47

You should check out the scX library written by Paul McNett which is published on Ed Leafe's web site. I haven't used it in a mission-critical software project yet, but I have tested it out. It seemed to catch all the potential problems I've encountered with other scctext replacements.

The reason I haven't used it in a big project for a couple of reasons.

It is a breaking change for source control history. So, comparing source code in your current SCA or VCA files with the new files generated by scX isn't going to be simple.
It isn't a drop in replacement for scctext. Instead of checking files into and out of source control directly from the IDE, you'll have an intermediary folder.
- You'll check your files out of source control into one folder, convert them to FoxPro format, and then edit them in the FoxPro IDE.
- Then, you'll save your changes in the FoxPro IDE, convert them to scX format, and then check them into source control.

I'm sure much of #2 can be automated; but combined with #1, making the change to scX wasn't worth it for me.

current scctext replacement for textual representation of vfp binary files

2 Answers