bb.donnay-software.com

My apologies to eXpress++ users and all others who have depended on this forum for support and the failure to provide that support for nearly 1 month.

I went on a 2-week vacation, with my dog Harley, and on day 2 a storm took out my server back home.
The battery failed to protect the server and I determined it was not worth trying to fix it.
However, the hard drive was not harmed, and so I purchased a refurbished Dell Optiplex 990 with Windows 10 for $98.00 on Amazon.com.

The server finally arrived after waiting another week, and I have been working the past 2 days getting that server running and restoring all the data.
If any of you have ever used WampServer and PHPBB3 to create a support forum, you will know how much work this can be if it is not thought out thoroughly. Fortunately, I was able to download the correct version of WampServer so that it would be compatible with the mySql database.
I really didn't expect it to be this easy, because it never is.

I had some chats with Tom Liehr about this and he recommended that I use the German forum for support.
That was my fallback option, but I really wanted to get this running.
This server is also used for my ship's website: http://ussjek.org.
I use a lot of CXP on that website and it all is working.

I had thought about making eXpress++ freeware when I determined I may not be able to support it anymore, but now that the support forum is back up, I am going to reassess how much support the Xbase++/eXpress++ community still needs and whether I should plan a new release. I have done work with PGDBE for a customer with 1200 locations and have created some tools to make the transition easier. I intend to include those tools in a new build soon.

Hi,

Happy to see everything is running again.

I saw some pictures on Facebook with Harley on a boat, so I knew for sure everything was well with you. I hope you enjoyed the holiday.

That's great news!

On the one hand, this is certainly great news, even if there were other ways to maintain the community.
On the other hand, the responsibility you honorably feel for us shouldn't prevent you from enjoying your well-deserved retirement.

But. Great to have it back.

shouldn't prevent you from enjoying your well-deserved retirement

Every time I think about retirement, I'm guessing that my age is going to catch up with me soon, but then, when my mind is given a challenge, I find that I can still function well, and with a decent amount of creativity.

Writing the children's book about my dog, Harley, was a good test of my brain function.
I learned, very fast, which resources were valuable from ChatGPT-5 and which to avoid.

It gave me good advice on how to prepare the book for publishing on Amazon.com via KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing).
It cost me zero dollars to publish the book. The books are printed on demand when ordered, and I receive a small, $4.20 royalty on each sale.
I stand to make tens of dollars from this effort, but it gave me something much more valuable, peace of mind that I can still be creative.

It also gave me really good advice on which web provider to choose to get Harley's website up and running, at zero cost.
I use Netlify.com. They offer the simplest solution when all you need to deploy is HTML, images, mp3s, and javascript.
I created and tested the website on my laptop. No web server required. Just point the browser to the start HTML page.
After testing everything, I zipped up the directory structure and uploaded it to Netlify.
Within minutes, the website was running.
All I had to do was register HarleyTheFluffyCorgi.com and point it to Netlify.
ChatGPT 5 walked me through the entire procedure.

http://HarleyTheFluffyCorgi.com

The only advice I needed from ChatGPT 5 on getting my new server running, was to make sure to use the same version of WampServer as deployed on my old server or the mySQL database will not be compatible. My expectations were rather low when I decided to do this, but we had a strategy, and it worked.

My advice to all of you is to get comfortable with AI. Don't complain about it taking your business. Instead, find a way to use it to give yourself new life.
Your customers will appreciate the fact that you are not a dinosaur.

Roger,

So glad you are back up... I retired and haven't touched code since I sold my business in 2019, but very much enjoy keeping up with the express community..

Good to have you back. Enjoy your day

Joe