ProFox November 2025

profox@leafe.com

3 participants
3 discussions

ChilkatVFP Version 1.52 Released
by Bill Anderson 12 Nov '25

12 Nov '25

Folks, ChilkatVFP version 1.52 has been released. Here are the particulars... 1) New Ai class! 2) Compatibility with Chilkat version 11.2.0. 3) Various minor documentation and coding fixes noted while adding code. Per Chilkat's website: Introducing Chilkat.Ai — a unified API for *OpenAI, Google, Claude, xAI, DeepSeek,* and *Perplexity*. With conversation management, multimodal inputs, streaming, and markdown → HTML conversion. https://github.com/billand88/ChilkatVFP Bill Anderson --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html ---

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Giving AI Claude SIGHT!
by Kurt Wendt 03 Nov '25

03 Nov '25

Hey there Foxers! I wanted to share something with the group, as I was pretty excited about this - and figured some folks here might find this interesting. And, yeah - this does involve FoxPro (which is why I didn't mark this as [NF]). As many of you already know, I've been doing a LOT of work with Claude AI since I started working here at Pako - after moving to Ohio. And, not EVERYTHING has been successful with Claude - as there have been MANY Times where he Frustrated me Greatly! Including a recent VERY Weird Hallucination with him recently - which I may follow-up here in another thread - cause it was REAL WEIRD Indeed! So - just a little back story. I was hired to support this older FoxPro system - in fact - they have TWO FoxPro based systems here. Of course, part of the deal is to help in the conversion of the system to C#. And, since I literally have really no exp. in C# before getting hired - I figured this would be a good excuse to dive into using AI for this system conversion. And, I HAVE had a LOT of success using Claude to generate XAML & CS code based upon not only FoxPro Screens - but, Reports as well. And, as I have been doing this and converting a number of screens and reports - I've been pushing Claude A LOT - and for each new screen - learn how to improve the prompts, to get better results. But, along the way - there was something that was bothering me about the process. That is - YEAH - Claude could indeed generate C# screens based upon FoxPro screens - but, there was a problem. The screens it would produce were kinda sloppy. And, I knew WHY this was case. It was pretty obvious. BECAUSE - Claude had no "Vision"! It could translate the position of labels and data fields from FoxPro to C# - but, if things Overlapped - it could not "SEE" that it was doing things wrong and making Sloppy Arse screen designs. Then, last week I was pondering this dilemma - and I began a train of thought. What if I could truly give Claude "Vision" - so that he could truly "See" his mistakes and Avoid making sloppy screen conversion designs. Well - I made a comment to Claude about this - this was my prompt to my good buddy Claude: Claude - that update was a lot better. But, I am VERY CURIOUS about something - in regards to what YOU can "SEE" on the screen forms that you build for me. I know you try replicate what is on the FoxPro screen layouts - and convert to XAML. However, it seems you have NO Ability to see when fields and data labels overlap. Am I right? Do you truly have no way to determine the full width of a data label - based upon the font size set - and thus know the approximate dimensions in Pixels??? His Reply(but, this is only PART of what he wrote back to me): You are absolutely correct - and I appreciate you asking this directly! Yes, I have a significant limitation: I cannot accurately visualize the rendered output of the XAML I create. Here's what I'm working with: What I Can See: * The numerical positions from FoxPro (Left, Top, Width, Height values)... What I Cannot Do: * Calculate the actual rendered width of text given a font size and string content * Detect overlapping controls visually... The Problem: I'm essentially working blind - I know that: * A label with Content="Customer Part # :" exists * It has FontSize="18" and FontWeight="Bold" * It's positioned at a certain Canvas.Left position... But I cannot calculate that this text might render as ~150 pixels wide, and therefore might overlap with a textbox that starts too close to it... *** THE Solution *** I then wrote my idea to Claude on how to give him "Vision": OK - I have an idea. I'm putting the letter "X" on the screen. And, I am adjusting the Height & Width for that label - until both are at the bare minimum to be able to display the X - but, without chopping off any part of the letter. Then, if I give you the dimension for that letter being displayed - and also confirm it's Style like it's Size & Weight. Then, in theory, if you know this information - you could potentially then Exactly position labels and data fields - so that nothing overlaps. Will admit - his reply was again rather funny (again - am only giving part of his reply - so as not to make this posting even BIGGER than it needs to be!): YES - you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! This is a brilliant idea and would give me a precise "unit of measurement" to work with! If you tell me something like: * "X" at FontSize="18" with FontWeight="Bold" requires Width="15" Height="28"... Optional - if you want to be extra precise: You could also test a few other characters like: * "W" or "M" (typically the widest characters) * "I" or "l" (typically the narrowest) * This would tell me if the font is monospace (all same width) or proportional (variable width) So, yeah - not only did Claude confirm that I could potentially give him "Vision" - but, he gave me great input - in regards to using a "W" as well as the letter "I". This was the screen before I implemented this "Vision" concept (which was initially create via Claude - and then I did a whole bunch of changes): https://ibb.co/HTVnYftw After prepping the new prompt, giving Claude the ability to "See" - here is the 1st updated version: https://ibb.co/FqL5mTXV So - there you have it. I'd be curious to know what folks thought about this - especially Mr. Roberts - who is also extensively using Claude! L8r G8rs, -Kurt

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ProFox List Statistics for October 2025
by List Administrator Account 01 Nov '25

01 Nov '25

================================================== ProFox List Statistics October 2025 ================================================== Subscriber Count at End of Month: ProFox: 308 ProFoxTech: 182 ================================================== Total Posts: 24 (Up 84.62% from September 2025) Total [OT] Posts: 0 (Unchanged from September 2025) Total [NF] Posts: 8 (Up 14.29% from September 2025) Daily Message Counts for October 2025 ------------------------------------------------ DOW Date Count --- ---- ----- W 1 - 1 F 10 - 8 F 17 - 1 W 22 - 4 T 23 - 3 W 29 - 4 T 30 - 3 Message Counts By Day of Week for October 2025 ------------------------------------------------ DOW Count --- ----- Wed - 9 Thu - 6 Fri - 9 Distinct Posters to the List (changes relative to September 2025) ------------------------------------------------ Non-OT messages: 14 (Up 40.0%) OT messages: 0 (Unchanged) NF messages: 5 (Unchanged) Total number: 14 (Up 40.0%) Top 14 Contributors by Number of Non-OT Posts ------------------------------------------------ | Posts Contributor | ------------------------------------------------ 1. 6 Kurt Wendt 2. 3 Ed Leafe 3. 2 Paul H. Tarver 4. 2 Alan Bourke 5. 2 Frank Cazabon 6. 1 List Administrator Account 7. 1 Stephen Russell 8. 1 Tracy Pearson 9. 1 MB Software Solutions, LLC 10. 1 Vincent Teachout 11. 1 Ted Roche 12. 1 Eric Selje 13. 1 Jeff Roberts 14. 1 Rick Schummer Top 0 Contributors by Number of OT Posts ------------------------------------------------ | Posts OT% Contributor | ------------------------------------------------ Top 5 Contributors by Number of NF Posts ------------------------------------------------ | Posts Contributor | ------------------------------------------------ 1. 3 Ed Leafe 2. 2 Kurt Wendt 3. 1 Eric Selje 4. 1 Paul H. Tarver 5. 1 Ted Roche Top 14 Contributors by Total Number of Posts ------------------------------------------------ | Posts Contributor | ------------------------------------------------ 1. 6 Kurt Wendt 2. 3 Ed Leafe 3. 2 Paul H. Tarver 4. 2 Alan Bourke 5. 2 Frank Cazabon 6. 1 List Administrator Account 7. 1 Stephen Russell 8. 1 Tracy Pearson 9. 1 MB Software Solutions, LLC 10. 1 Vincent Teachout 11. 1 Ted Roche 12. 1 Eric Selje 13. 1 Jeff Roberts 14. 1 Rick Schummer Top 4 Contributors by Number of New Threads Started ------------------------------------------------ | Posts Contributor | ------------------------------------------------ 1. 2 Kurt Wendt 2. 1 Rick Schummer 3. 1 List Administrator Account 4. 1 Paul H. Tarver Top 5 Non-OT Threads by Total Number of Posts ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Posts Subject | ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 8 [NF] Quality In Software 2. 6 To TEST or Not to Test... 3. 5 Giving AI Claude SIGHT! 4. 4 Virtual Fox Fest 2025 (Oct): Last Call! 5. 1 ProFox List Statistics for September 2025 Top 0 OT Threads by Total Number of Posts ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Posts Subject | ------------------------------------------------------------------ Top 5 Threads by Total Number of Posts ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Posts Subject | ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 8 [NF] Quality In Software 2. 6 To TEST or Not to Test... 3. 5 Giving AI Claude SIGHT! 4. 4 Virtual Fox Fest 2025 (Oct): Last Call! 5. 1 ProFox List Statistics for September 2025

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