You know Ken, I respect you and Microsoft a great deal (I'm an unabashed Wintel fan!). And, I'll tell you right from the start that you're probably not going to like this post much, especially after telling us how sensitive and helpful you're trying to be. But this, "I can't say more because it could potentially hurt the VFP community." is starting to grate on me a bit. Not that one developer's opinion really means a hill of beans, but come on Ken. What are we, a bunch of poor lost souls working in the crappiest language known to man, so bad in fact that MS has to help cover up our tool's blaring deficiencies in a misguided attempt at being sensitive to our needs? You're background isn't just in development, you're a marketer too (and at one time I believe it was in your job description to market VFP). So how about some marketing here? How about some more, "Hey guys, I'm telling you this Sedna thing is gonna be out of sight!" I mean it is gonna do some cool stuff, right? It is going to interop with, utilize, and otherwise support some pretty amazing .NET, SQL Server, and Longhorn features in some pretty ingenious ways, right? Look, we all know the score as to VFP (nothing new there for many years now, but I will say that VFP9's improvements surprised me) and the Road Map does a pretty good job of showing where we can expect improvements in VFP (despite what others might say about it), Namely interop with the .NET framework or the suite of MS languages that produce managed code. And, let me just add that I really do respect your right to dwell on that if you want to. It's just that you're coming across as a depressed politician here Ken and it's bothering me enough to say something. There's not a lot of that can-do vibe eminating from you lately, and I know you have it in you, cause I've seen it. Heck, in some of your Channel-9 stuff you get this twinkle in your eyes and a smile on your face when you're showing off VFP 9.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking you to lie to us, far from it. What I am doing is asking you to highlight some of the positive, drive up some sales for VFP 9 (or at the very least let them run their course), and restore a little confidence in the consumers that are using some of MS's products (we're not all just VFP owners here you know... some of us are even share holders <g>). I'm also asking you to focus on what can be done, not what can't be done. Is that too much to ask? I mean you don't really know what is going to happen with VFP in the future. Heck, Sedna could get scrapped or turn into something more than was envisioned for all any of us know. VS2005, erm VS2006, erm could turn into VS2007 (ok, that's stretching a bit) has gone off it's road map a bit don't you think? What I'm saying is that the future is what we make of it. Consumer confidence helps drive demand which helps drive revenue which helps drive production... and around and around we go. Throw in the fact that a product is really good at what it does and you've got some potential, not a huge amount given the budget and sour-puss faces, but some.

Converting VFP developers to .NET (I'm not saying this is exactly what MS is up to) is not going to amount to jack squat for VS2005 or MS as a whole. Anybody who's even remotely based in reality knows that. Most of the sales are driven by MSDN subscriptions and the VFP developer community is just not that big to make a difference worth noticing on individual sales, plus most of us are a bunch of tight wad penny pinchers (lol...sorry I had to throw it in). Neither is putting VFP on the shelf going to be a big windfall for MS, since the expenditures and overall resources committed for VFP now and in the foreseeable future are relatively minor when compared to everything/anything else MS is doing (OK, maybe not J# - if they have more than 10 people on the Team and a bigger budget than VFP then I don't want to know <g>) . The only thing that could possibly come out of this continued poo-pooing around is some unhappy campers in the VFP Community that decide that MS really didn't have their best interests at heart, and you've already got that. You're approach to some of these questions and threads lacks tact and a fundemental understanding of what you can do to help.

John Koziol is doing a pretty good job (I've been really impressed with the way he's stepped up to the plate on more than one occasion, and that's from a Tester, a guy who's daily job is to depress developers<g>). However, whether you know it or not (and I think you do), you carry some pretty heavy weight in parts of this community still. So, could we get around to going over some of the positives again one of these first days? I'd like to hear you're thoughts on VFP being able to utilize Avalon or Indigo or .NET features and see you starting some discussion threads in the Sedna section to help generate some interest and ideas for it, there's an awful lot of wandering around going on in there (lack of leadership and a clear vision I believe - at least it is for me). If you don't have anything really good to say about VFP, then let's talk about these other technologies that VFP will be interfacing with and what are the greatest areas of potential. Even with a small operating budget, you can help make a bit of a difference with your posts here Ken. Instead of "Out of deference to the welfare of the VFP community and the business which rely on VFP strategically I must refer you to RTFMap", how about "We've got Sedna coming up and we're really interested in your ideas for it. We've got a couple years here before it comes out, so you can help us shape it into something that augments VFP's core functionality. We're focused mainly on interop and I've got a new thread going over in the Sedna section of this forum on VFP and Avalon, check it out and see what you think. Another Channel-9 video of demos on its way. And we're compiling some really good case studies for VFP9, so if you've got one please send it in we'd love to consider it for inclusion. If you haven't upgraded to VFP9, I really urge you to do so, it's the only version that is going to work with the exciting things we're doing in Sedna. Besides it's the best release yet, and VFP is the perfect MS tool for making small-medium sized data-centric applications" That's my two cents, as always feel free to take it or leave it.

>>You mean like Craig Bernston did with his blog which is now on the UT news page? Sounds like your "caution and sensitivity" is what is transparent.
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>It appears that news item is no longer on the UT home page. I'm not sure what you are saying exactly about caution and sensitivity. Regardless of what you mean exactly, I would say those things do and will always exist, often for the benefit of the VFP community.