Perry,

I don't think you do understand my position in regards to .NET at all. If you have taken the time to read my messages carefully, you'll see I don't ever have said that people should NOT learn .NET. I've never said that .NET is NOT a good carreer move. It is just simply not a case of beeing right or wrong. The ease where people claim something like: "People have to learn .NET skill to maintain their carreer" or even implying "You have to jump ship now or you will drown" however is something that strikes and irritates me.

.NET is an evolution in programming platforms. We don't know if this is going to survive in the long run, but it definately now is MSs strategic platform. Personally from an idealogical point of view I have much to complain about .NET, but that is my opinion and if someone asks or tempts me, I'll express my viewpoint all will base it on obsertvations I've made. I've got the same right to do so as the .NET supporters and I'll do it with the same enthousiasm and persistence.

For the record:
I did NOT flame KevinMcN for posting this message here. I did however wondered if this is the right place to post such message. What do you think will happen when anyone posts a JavaConversion conference message onto a Java forum ?? You have the freedom to do so, but don't complain you are beeing flamed for it.

>Possibly not in the Netherlands, but in the USA, a very large percentage of VFP job posting list .Net as a requirement. Considering that .Net job postings are few and far between to begin with, it would behove any VFP developer to learn a skill that is consistently listed alongside VFP these days.

Sure, I won't deny that learning .NET is an asset if you think this is a strategic move. However, I wonder how many people just leave VFP as beeing a dead language and think that .NET is better in all aspects of software development. This is just not the case. There are enough aspects of VFP far superiour to .NET to justify continuation of the VFP as a language. I really object against the prophets declaring (or implying) VFP is dead, and we all should jump ship now.

>Even if spending time with Java was not necessarily the right decision at the time, Java is obviously an extremely popular tool. And if you have Java knowledge you have C# knowledge.

Absolutely. Today, I think my chances are better with Java than with .NET in getting a new programming job (thinking outside the Windows box :) ).

Walter,