>I am currently attending Microsoft's Tech-Ed 98 Conference in New Orleans and from what I've seen, here are some conclusions I've reached:
>
>1. Most of the presentations used/referred to VB or MS Access.
>
>2. Out of hundreds of presentations, approximately 3 involved VFP.
>
>3. Now for some real meat.
>a. There was a session entitled 8-212 Choose The Right Tool for the Job presented by Peter Wilson, Program Manager of the Visual Studio Enterprise Edition.
>b. The presentation featured VB, Visual C++, Visual Interdev and Visual J++. One of the PP slides stated 'Development tools are increasingly powerful and overlapping'. VFP was not listed.
>c. The roles of VB, VC++, Visual Interdev and VJ++ were mentioned. VFP was not.
>d. Under 'Developer Tool Strengths', the 4 above tools were mentioned. VFP was not.
>e. Under 'Language considerations' which listed tools ranging from Ease of Use to Power, VFP was not included.
>4. Have you seen the MS ad 'Where do you want to go today?'. I think the answer is VB.
>
>Although Microsoft has put a lot of effort into improving VFP, is releasing version 6 and working on the next version, it seems that the only reason is to appease the VFP developers. From a strategic point of view, VFP is not in.
>
>We've all seen responses from Microsoft stating that VFP is a key part of their strategy. If this is the case then why don't they put their money where their mouth is and expose VFP to the entire development community in the same manner as they do with VB?
>
>What do you think?
>
>Mario DeMello

I think any developer should be open to learning a new language and consider staying abreast of more than one development tool. After all, what if no one ever gave DBASE and then Fox a try?

Do not lament MS' lack of marketing for Fox, but rather spend some constructive time learning another development tool. Fox will never have the market penetration that VB does. What would be the business reason for doing so from Microsoft's perspective?

Regards,
Jack Mendenhall