John,

How can a reasonable technical discussion on the pluses and minuses of different technologies be carried on with you when you make statements like:

"But millions of developers fall into the "what you don't know can't hurt you" category."

There's obviously numerous folks from the UT who moved to .Net. I just don't see them making posts that they are going to resume their fulltime VFP career because .Net is just not usable. Especially from a data standpoint. As a matter of fact, it's just the opposite. They typically ask questions when folks make the above comment, about what can't you do in ADO.Net.

There's a study group started here in LA for the .Net certification. Several of the VFP guys I work with are part of the group. Not one has complained that using .Net is a waste of time because it's missing too many features.



>I agree that one platform should be selected for rewriting, rather than a mishmash.
>
>not sure I'd limit it to Java or C#. What about Python and the like?
>
>IMHO there should be a development tool decision and a database decision researched independently. A purist would say the database is for storing data, not applications. But the world changes. I can "see the writing on the wall" that Java already is and C# et all are/will be viable options for Database procedures, which will blur the distinction. But in 2005 I don't agree that SP is the most satisfactory way to handle the biz rules unless you have selected a clumsy data manipulation mechanism for your tiers. When I say "clumsy" I mean compared to the persistent disk-spanning indexable local cursors offered by certain tools ;-)
>
>Needless to say, I don't agree that ADO.NET is sufficiently capable on the data manipulation front. Moving from VFP and loving ADO.NET would require a massive dose of kool-aid IMHO. But millions of developers fall into the "what you don't know can't hurt you" category.
>
>Finally: could you please advise all of us here what parts of dotNET / C# you found most difficult in your voyage of the last 3 years? The language constructs themselves aren't so hard so was it different ways of doing things(SP and ADO.NET VS REQUERY() and local manipulation) ... this is a serious question!