Did you ever use a handpunch (a thing with nine keys bit like a mini typewriter)and repair mispunched carsd with little sticky squares. Those where the days. Our mainframes where in different towns and each program compilation took a day. Make up the pack send it in a van to the Computer centre and get the results back the next day.

>My very first job with computers was at a company called "Computer Congenerics Corporation of Colorado." They balanced the banks' books. We programmed punch cards for a Univac system. It was back in 1977. Never, never will I go back to that!
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>>>Hi Jos,
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>>>>In the second case, for a data oriented app, VFP wins hands down becuase it has its own native database and cursor technology which .Net does not have *natively*. Any technology you plug into .Net to handle the database end of things, eg SQL, can equally well be plugged into VFP and hence cannot be used as the differentiating factor between the two.
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>>>>Anyway, .Net can do everything. VFP is dead. Learn .Net and then be outsourced to India/Eastern Europe/China.
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>>>Thanks, I needed that laugh. What about south africa ?? Anyways, I might better stick with VFP as it now becomes a niche that might pay as good as COBOL programmers :)
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>>>Walter,
>>You could refresh your punched card skills as well for those clients that still use them. Imagine COBOL mainframe using punched card job packs. A definite niche :-)