Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro 6.0

This is the book that every VFP programmer needs to have on their shelf, and on their machine. Many people use the .CHM file that is included with the book as their primary help reference, in place of the one that ships with VFP.This book documents all of the functions, commands, and PEMs of Visual FoxPro, including the ones that are no longer documented by Microsoft. It tells you how they work, how they're supposed to work, and what they're good for. When there's a bug, or something that looks like a bug but is actually the correct behavior, it is pointed out with cute icons in the margin.Tamar and Ted also spend a good deal of time explaning the history of Fox, and how Visual Foxpro differs from earlier versions. They also cover how to create builders and wizard templates.Without The Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro 3.0, I would never have gotten as far as I have. Buy this book, and learn more than you thought possible. :-)

A huge book (Probably the biggest computer book I own).If you are serious about Visual Foxpro you need to have this book. Don't expect to learn VFP from this book (It would be a bit like trying to learn English from a dictionary). Syntax of each VFP command is explained with good examples. This book completely fills the documentation void and goes a lot further. (If you don't like the book you could use it for a coffee table.) I only wish I could take a year off to absorb everything in it. Contrary to Author's coments it is not just a reference it can be read cover to cover.

This book is probably the best reference book for VFP that is (or ever has been) available.It can be very helpful for beginners, who are trying to figure out why this or that is not working as intended; but be warned, it is not a 'How To' book. And it can be very helpful for long-time FoxPro developers who need to be continually reviewing and reminding themselves of the intricacies and various uses of the langauge.If you're a serious developer, this book is great for honing your skills by reading a couple of topics each morning or night for the rest of your life (it's a big book).

I like the way the authors write this book. Some readers may treat it as a reference book, but I would say it is more than that. before I had this book, I knew nothing about VFP. Using this book along my software development, I built a complicated database for a law firm. Even though I do not touch VFP anymore, I still love this book. It really helps me understand how VFP works. I wish other authors would write reference books like this. For those folks who want to be VFP developers, buy it!

The authors say "This book is not a replacement for the online help or the Language Reference Manual." But when things don't work the way the manual says they should, or the manual is unclear, this book is a great place to start looking. I would rather give up the Language Reference Manual than this book.