: The owner had gone to a trade seminar and learned that PCs were obsolete and : tablets are the future.
So, the scores of billions of lines of source code for mission critical applications is just gonna be trashed and rewritten for ARM processors or any of the other NOT x86 instruction set processors. I can never find one of these people when I really need to sell something in a hurry for top dollar.... I am pretty sure, in spite of the hubub over tablets that the destop pc is not on life support in the least. pc sales are lagging only in the context that there is no real reason to upgrade past Win7. Win8 is mostly a retread with the Metro desktop as a wrapper to try to homogenize the interface between desktop and tablet, but there is an epic fail on the tablet for MS as no x86 applications will run on it, just MS own rejigged Office suite, minus all the VBA support. That and your custom software, if you write for the ARM processor at all, must be sold through the MS Store. Stinky I know.. ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Engwer" <[email protected]> To: "RBASE-L Mailing List" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 2:39 PM Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Rbase and Tablets : Karen, : : I know how to do it but it would be a daunting task to convert the entire : application to work smoothly with a tablet and I am not sure it would be : worth it. I have about 180 forms and about 120 reports that would need : modified. Some forms would need parsed into three or four sub-forms. When : I conduct product demos, I frequently get asked by potential clients if they : could use a tablet PC with my software. I relate the following experience : to them. : : : : Last summer one of my clients bugged me to setup an IPad so that his : employees could take it to the sales floor to gather patient information. : The owner had gone to a trade seminar and learned that PCs were obsolete and : tablets are the future. He was so convinced that he bought an IPad from a : vendor at the trade show. I set his IPad up and he immediately deployed it. : In a couple of weeks they decided that the IPad was not a good solution if : you had information to collect; like address, phone #s and insurance. The : extra time that it took to key the data using the on-screen keyboard : resulted in angry patients and angry employees. By the end of the third : week they decided to just use the IPad for verifying past history and for : viewing the patient notes (that worked well but it did not save much time). : During the fourth week, one of the employees dropped it on the floor and : that was the end of the IPad. They are back to using a wireless notebook : computer, on a cart, that they wheel over to the patient. Everyone is back : to being happy now! : : : : There are definitely applications where tablets are a good solution but if : there is a moderate or heavy need for data entry (especially while a : customer or patient is waiting) a PC is much better. I will continue to : experiment with tablets and I suspect my clients will come up with an : application for the tablet in their business. I enjoy working with them but : I will proceed cautiously. : : : : John Engwer : : (412) 751-2433 : : : : From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of : [email protected] : Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 12:26 PM : To: RBASE-L Mailing List : Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Rbase and Tablets : : : : John: What you can do in your situation is to have a button : or a menu selection on your main form that lets the user choose : that they are using a "small screen". Keep that in a global : variable like: xSmallScreen = "yes" : : You might also be able to trap (cval('computer')) if you can : identify the exact machine. : : Then you can take the necessary forms, design a small screen : version, and then do: : SET VAR vFormname = (IFEQ(.xSmallScreen,'yes','FormSmall','Form')) : EDIT USING &vFormname : : I don't think it would be that hard, and I'll bet you can talk your : client into trying one as a test. : : Karen : : : : In a message dated 2/25/2012 10:44:34 PM Central Standard Time, : [email protected] writes: : : : : One of my clients asked me to connect her Kindle Fire (Android) to the RBASE : application that she is using. I used a free RDP app called AccessToGo to : accomplish the task. The ATG app works well and my RBASE applications are : fully functional. However, the Fire has a small screen so it takes a lot of : screen resizing to operate the RBASE application. I may redesign some of : the forms and reports to work better with the small screen if there is : enough interest from my clients. : : : :
