WOW!! Microsoft needs to get you on the VFP marketing team!

I still do 90% of my work in VFP and plan to for at least the next few years. AccPac and AccountMate installed bases are pretty darn large. From everything I've seen there is no real immediate move by either of these major accounting system providers to move off VFP.

You did hit on something important. 90% of businesses don't care what the system is written in as long as it performs and solves their problems. Most of the great things about .NET have less to do with the end user and more to do with the developer.

I've found that if you work to present the best business solution rather than the best technical solution you will be successful. If the conversation becomes about the tools and not your personal abilities to solve BUSINESS problems, you are on thin ice already. If you are respected for creating smoother business processes and workflow then the customers will trust you to use the tool that is most appropriate.

Years ago I can remember countless cases of people trying to force Access projects on me. The problem was not a VFP vs. Access problem but a problem with their respect for my skills to make their business run smoother. Once I was really solving business problems and making integrated solutions, there were fewer and fewer questions about what tool I was using.

Finally, .NET programming is not exactly like the #1 job in the world anyway. I personally know several shops that were heavy into ASP but when MS went with .NET they did not follow and instead went PHP with MySQL database backend. I also know a few went with coldfusion.

I'm also seeing a trend by many software houses to move away from Microsoft development tools altogether. AccPac now has a very tense relationship with Microsoft since Microsoft bought Great Plains. As a result they backed away from SQL Server to push DB2 and offer Linux backend solutions as well. Will AccPac go with .NET for their next-gen applications? Who knows... But from all indications if this company moves away from VFP they will probably move away from MS altogether.

I think that is why .NET people attack VFP so viciously and vice versa. It's a distraction from the real battle between MS shops and Linux/PHP/MySQL/Apache...

Good luck to you!





>Its simply a matter of economics. Kevin, Marcus, et al., are businessmen who have seen the economic consequences of limiting their horizons to fox.
>I would say they are reaping the benefits of a small group of self proclaimed developers that cannot solve problems. Their main products are seminars and
>how to publications. A decent "batch" file programmer could probably to a better job of delivering solutions than those legacy shops seeking their services.
>
>You can rant and rave as much as you like, but fox is in decline and has been for years.
>That's not the case - VFP development has moved beyong the grid-on-a-form development. Help Desk staffers should not be confused with software developers.
>
>Who's listening? Jim Nelson? Terry Thurber? Walter Meester? Self-delusion LOL.
>We're working - and we don't have to hire someone else to write our programs! Only the town clown would brag about being replaced by a software shop that mostly sells white papers and how to books.
>
>Your days are numbered John - you got lazy - you didn't invest the time needed to learn VFP. You did invest the time needed to learn DOT NOT - and now your boss is investing in a seminar delivery service to replace you!
>
>It will be interesting to hear the "boo-hoos" after this flushes out. Talking loud and long will only carry you so far. At some point - you have to write a program - on your own!