One of the things I enjoy the most about the often development system is the balance between high-level functional capabilities and low-level coding capabilities. Specifically, you can get an enormous amount done using the high level components and capabilities of the alpha development system. Things such as grids, dialogs, and GIS/mapping components allow you to get enormous amount done a very short period time. But if you run into a situation where you need to do some fine-tuning to your application, the Alpha development system does not constrain you.
One area and specific is the ability for you to do things at a high-level using “Action JavaScript”. “Action JavaScript” has a huge amount of functionality built into it, but sometimes it doesn’t do exactly what you are looking for. If you run into a situation where you really need to fine-tune the application, you can go into the system and add your own JavaScript scripts. Often these are very simple scripts that you can find ojn the internet (recipe’s). The Alpha Development system does not constrain you by locking you into the higher level “Action JavaScript”. Love the ability to “get under the hood” with the development environment.
For instance, in a current project I’m working on., I ran into a performance issue. Because of the large amount of data involved with the application, I was seeing a lesson satisfactory user experience. I realized, that there are couple simple JavaScript tricks that I found on the Internet that would provide an incredible change in the performance for the end-user. It only took me a short while to tweak a few scripts in my application and add some Alpha XBasic code to do some pre-processing that worked with the JavasScript. In not time at all, I had an incredible user experience that dramatically improved the performance of the system.
So, one of the great things about the Alpha development system is this balance between high-level functionality which allows you to get things done quickly, and the ability to go in and tweak specific elements of the system to get the exact desired result that you’re looking for. Don’t be afraid to lift up the hood and take a peak underneath. It is not as scary as you think!
