Alpha4 Unresponsive under Windows 7/8 after

**cahalsall** · 09-26-2014, 07:15 AM

Since the advent of Windows 7 and 8 (I run 32 bit versions of both) I've been having a problem that I have not found a solution for. After running commands or scripts that perform very long procedures Alpha4 becomes unresponsive. Sometimes if (and it's a big if) a key is press exactly at the moment the command or script ends or if response to a prompt or dialog box that appears after a long procedure is selected immediately, Alpha4 may recover. This of course rely on the fact that you do not take you eyes off the screen for more than a millisecond, literally.

To get around this I've tried to have all prompts appear at the beginning of scripts but in some cases this is not possible. There are complex scripts where you want the user to select and option based on results of manipulating data. Sadly I'm unable to run these types of scripts anymore under the aforementioned operating systems.

Has anyone else been experiencing this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

**DaveM** · 10-04-2014, 01:34 PM

Charles,

I don't always comment on a4 anymore. But, it may be time to move on to a5. It is not that expensive and it does not take much to learn or you can have one of the several on there that can do that for you.

Just a suggestion because as MS moves on, it will not get better.

**cahalsall** · 10-06-2014, 02:49 PM

I purchased Alpha5 version 7, including the runtime, a few years ago. Such was my confidence in Alpha Software. I ended up being very disappointed with the product. Turns out it was still an XBase platform and based on advertisement I assumed that I would have been able to manipulate SQL tables the way I did DBF ones. Xbasic, looks a lot like VB Script and Visual Basic, the very thing I was trying not get involved with.

Alpha4 was really built for non programmers like me, Alpha5 is a developer's tool. Creating applications is just a part of what I do. Twenty years ago I would have taken on Xbasic but I do not have that kind of time anymore.

**Tom Cone Jr** · 10-06-2014, 05:21 PM

Some are recommending a third party product called dbDos Pro.

Check this thread.

I have no experience with it and cannot personally vouch for it.

**DaveM** · 10-07-2014, 03:25 AM

Charles,

I have many apps built in a5v7. Some have very little code in them. I was there in 3, 4 and now 5. Just moved to v12. I came from VB and clipper mostly with a lot of other stuff. The way a5 does it is not that hard.

I did not recommend a5 due to it's ease or how hard it is. It was simply because v4 will have a harder and harder time trying to run on newer systems and I don't know of an easier to learn platform for desktop.

Good Luck though.