As it puts the finishing touches to its FoxPro release 2.5 for Windows and MS-DOS, Microsoft Corp is working on the next version of the database software, which will include object-oriented extensions, US PC Week reports. A Microsoft official demonstrated an automatic conversion utility in FoxPro 2.5 for Windows the other day, showing how it can modify MS-DOS applications created with FoxPro to run directly under Windows, where they will acquire such Windows attributes as push buttons and drop-down menus. He also demonstrated FoxPro 2.5 for MS-DOS running under Windows 3.1, made possible by the addition of an MS-DOS Protected Mode Interface extender that works with Windows’ memory manager so that the two products can coexist. Meantime Microsoft developers are poring over the blueprints for FoxPro version 3.0, which the paper says will contain object-oriented extensions to the language, an object-oriented debugger for writing cleaner code, and a matching precompiler for helping to wrap up code into compact, distributable pieces.
