Learning Alpha 5 V10

[eantar]

Hi All,

I'm an Access Developer (pretty much expert level) and I'm looking at Alpha 5 V 10 as an alternative. What's the best way to learn Alpha 5. I'm not seeing any books. Not sure if I'll be able to get to the seminar in Boston. I've been poking around Alpha Sport and trying to piece things together looking at the videos but is there a better way?

Please let me know.

Eddie

[MikeC]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

Alpha has a tutorial and samples included (free) with the program you should go through, A third party tutorial called Alpha Five Made Easy by Susan Bush will (should) be out at the end of the month for v10, Dr. Peter Wayne's Xbasic For Everyone is another good choice....the beginning parts of his book says no assumptions are made as far as being a programmer but some are made--your coming from access, these few assumptions should not be an issue. The same is true for the tutorials as well--a complete programming novice may have a little difficulty with them.

All of the above are very reasonably priced IMO as well. This messageboard can also be used to learn as well (MANY samples are attached to posts) as it is treated mainly as a knowledgebase and not as a place to converse.

[Steve Wood]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

IADN is starting a series of classes in February. Click the Training Schedule icon on this page: www.alphadevnet.com

Please note: IADN classes are scheduled to start in February but exact schedule and other details are not yet established. Class offers subject to change and no reservations are being taken at this time. Signup for a Free or paid account and we will keep you informed.

[eantar]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

Mike C. thanks for the info. Great information! I'm not seeing the tutorial you say came with the program. My copy was purchased for me by the company that wants me to use Alpha 5 to develop and I downloaded an online copy. Is this a disk that comes with the box?

Looking forward to Alpha Five Made Easy. Hope it comes out soon.

Also, the xBasic book says it covers V8. Is there a book that covers V10?

Steve I signed up for a free account on the Developer Network. Thanks.

[MikeC]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

Alpha tutorial is found via Online Help which should be bookmarked.
There are also videos available for new features in v10.
Xbasic For Everyone later versions are only available as PDF.

http://alphasoftware.com/video/v10/
http://support.alphasoftware.com/alp...pv10/index.htm

Alpha seems to have dropped the ball regarding Dr. Waynes Xbasic For Everyone as you are correct in that only the v8 is available in their store. Do a search here for the books title and/or Peter Wayne as I know there was a link posted in a thread a few months ago.

[forskare]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

Mike C. thanks for the info. Great information! I'm not seeing the tutorial you say came with the program. My copy was purchased for me by the company that wants me to use Alpha 5 to develop and I downloaded an online copy. Is this a disk that comes with the box?

Looking forward to Alpha Five Made Easy. Hope it comes out soon.

Also, the xBasic book says it covers V8. Is there a book that covers V10?

Steve I signed up for a free account on the Developer Network. Thanks.

Hi Eddie,

You willl find numerous ex Access users now using A5. My experience was trying to do things in A5 the way it was done in Access was a big bust. The basic A5 stuff is pretty easy but you MUST not think Access when working with A5. If you do, you WILL be in for a lot of frustration, to say the least.

No books, etc out thus far for v10 but again, poke around and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I would shy away from Xbasic for now only because I believe it's important for you to become familiar with A5 first. With A5 open, click on Help menu and open A5 help. You will find plenty of info to help get you going.

kenn

[eantar]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

Hi Ken,

Thanks for your message. It's very frustrating that there isn't any book or video series. For me that would be the best way to learn. Still, with the help and going through the videos I'm hoping to make a dent.

Yes, it seems that trying to develop as an Access developer would indeed frustrate me as things are done differently in Alpha land.

So for now I'll keep trudging along with the help and the tutorials.

Thanks for the comment.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

Eddie, even though "Xbasic for Everyone" was written for vers 8, given your background it would be a great way to climb the learning curve for Alpha Five. -- tom

[forskare]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

Eddie, even though "Xbasic for Everyone" was written for vers 8, given your background it would be a great way to climb the learning curve for Alpha Five. -- tom

Ummmmm, maybe. While this approace is not for most, he might be able to do it but VB and Xbasic are as different as A5 is from Access. Perhaps if he, or anyone else for that matter, establishes a couple of tables and then creates a set followed by forms, use of the Genie to perform or create tasks would be a very good approach. That way, one could convert to Xbasic what the Genie did and learn the gist of how Xbasic is put together.

I think trying to learn xbasic before grasping an understanding of A5 is putting the cart before the horse. That doesn't mean it can't be done but for most, I suspect it would lead to undue frustration.

Eddie, let us know your aproach and what does and does not work. Of course, there are a lot of variables (no pun intended) for each person but whatever approach you find which works, will definately be a help to others.

kenn

[djldc]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

Here are other videos I've found helpful...
http://support.alphasoftware.com/Wha...New%20Features

Don

[susanhbush]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

I'm an Access Developer (pretty much expert level) and I'm looking at Alpha 5 V 10 as an alternative. What's the best way to learn Alpha 5.

We have books on Alpha Five that will get you off to a quick start in learning available features. In addition to mine, we also carry Dr. Peter Wayne's Xbasic for Everyone.

There is a TOC and sample chapters for each book, so you can get an idea of what's covered.

Click the Liberty Manuals link below.

[CALocklin]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

... one could convert to Xbasic what the Genie did and learn the gist of how Xbasic is put together ...

While this is basically true, I feel it's only fair to warn new developers that this can also be some very complex xbasic when all that complexity is often unnecessary. As such, it can make xbasic look much more difficult than it really is.

I think of "xbasic" as Basic (as in the old DOS stuff) but with many (many, many, many?) new functions for handling a database - and HTML, and FTP, etc.

There is some justification for the complexity. When building a Genie it's rather hard to tell how and where developers will use that Genie so it's important to add "safety factors" - various checks, conversions, etc. However, when creating your own code you should know exactly what you are doing with it. Which means all that other "stuff" can go away.

EXAMPLE:

The code created by the Alpha genie to open a form:

[COLOR=darkorchid]DIM Shared varP_Company_Info as P
DIM layout_name as c 
[/COLOR]layout_name = "Company_Info"
[COLOR=darkorchid]DIM tempP as p[/COLOR]
[COLOR=blue]'Get pointer to existing window. In case layout_name is qualified with a dictionary name, extract up to first @. In case formname has spaces, normalize it
[/COLOR]tempP=[COLOR=darkgreen]obj([/COLOR]":"+[COLOR=darkgreen]object_Name_normalize(word([/COLOR]layout_name,1,"@"[COLOR=darkgreen])))[/COLOR]
[COLOR=blue]'Test if pointer is valid
[/COLOR]if [COLOR=darkgreen]is_object([/COLOR]tempP[COLOR=darkgreen])[/COLOR] then 
[COLOR=blue]   'Test if pointer refers to a form or browse
[/COLOR]   if tempP.[COLOR=darkgreen]class()[/COLOR] = "form" .or. tempP.[COLOR=darkgreen]class()[/COLOR] = "browse" then 
      [COLOR=blue]'If so, then activate the already open window
[/COLOR]      tempP.[COLOR=darkgreen]activate()
[/COLOR]   else
     [COLOR=blue] 'Window is not already open, so open it
[/COLOR]      varP_Company_Info = [COLOR=darkgreen]:Form.view([/COLOR]layout_name[COLOR=darkgreen])[/COLOR]
   end if
else 
   varP_Company_Info = [COLOR=#006400]:Form.view([/COLOR]layout_name[COLOR=darkgreen])[/COLOR]
end if

Code I would normally use to open the same form:

fp = [COLOR=darkgreen]form.view([/COLOR] "Company_Info" [COLOR=darkgreen])[/COLOR]

I don't like typing any more than I need to so my standard is "fp" means "form pointer" and "tp" means table pointer. If I open multiple forms or tables in the same script, fpc might mean "form pointer to the Company_Info form", etc. I'd much rather type 3 characters that make sense if you understand what's going on than type 17 characters every time I want to use that variable. (Another option to save typing and still get the full names is to use abbreviations initially then use a global search and replace when the script is done. Of course, if you start doing that you will soon discover that the shorter names work just fine and won't bother with the search and replace anymore.)

BY THE WAY, thinking of names, I'm probably fairly well known for my concern about naming methods and I can guarantee you that the methods you used in Access will NOT work well in A5. One obvious example is that you cannot name a field MyCharField in alpha because it will come out as Mycharfield no matter how many times you try to change the capitalization. Same is true for index names - ndxCustID will come back as Ndxcustid. Given that intro, here (for the upteenth time) is a link to my A5 Naming Recommendations page.

[susanhbush]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

While this is basically true, I feel it's only fair to warn new developers that this can also be some very complex xbasic when all that complexity is often unnecessary. As such, it can make xbasic look much more difficult than it really is.

Cal - It is true that I put the emphasis on what you can do without Xbasic and, believe me, the results that can be achieved are quite amazing. There are some of us who do not have the time nor want to take the trouble to learn programming. For others, such as yourself, it is the only way to go. And I am the first to say that Xbasic gives further opportunity to enhance applications.

Isn't it great that Alpha Five is the answer for both of us? :)

Susan

[CALocklin]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

... Isn't it great that Alpha Five is the answer for both of us? :)

Absolutely. And I didn't mean to detract from using Action Scripting. My only concern was that I've talked with a number of developers who decided that xbasic was too hard to learn because they saw how complicated the Genie code is. Since the original poster said he was pretty much at the expert level in Access (that implies at least some use of VBA to me) and implied that he wanted to learn xbasic I thought it might be good for him to know that all those details in the code generated by the Genie are often unnecessary.

[DaveM]

Re: Learning Alpha 5 V10

Pretty much following others.

for years now, I have done the action scripting and converted it to xbasic, gotten rid of the(to me) garbage. More recent years, most of this was put into a script and lately am converting most of it to UDF's.

New programmers need to use the action scripting as much as possible(my opinion) while they learn how to get around in alpha.

Cal's naming convention should be used almost like a bible for alpha programmers.

All names anywhere should be kept as short as possible and if using xbasic, should be commented(the pain part). I have opened my own code to find I have no idea why I wrote/converted it. I don't like spaces or underscores(takes a letter place). shorter names means less room for errors(King of the errors here!) and more space for code if needed.

VB is a whole different subject than a rad like alpha, access and fm. C#, C++ is even deeper, or you can drop to 0's and 1's like asm/masm???


I must add the Fantastic report writer in alpha is the closest to Crystal Reports you can get if they would just fix it so we could seperate to an exe to print like Crystal. In other words, be able to generate a report like inventory.exe like Crystal does/can.



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