>Hi,
>
>I think we should look at why VFP ends up on the net admins black list.

The reputation is partly due to the a-wipes in the 90's selling grid solutions. Since it is so easy to slap a grid in a GUI and call it a program, a lot of prospects got burned. But some VB guys were doing it to - istead of a VFP grid they were throwing excel spreadsheets wrapped in VB guis - so there was plenty of stuff to throw around.

Now it's mostly MS condoned ignorance. All the grid programmers moved to NET!:-)

The best way way to improve the image is to work very hard at how we design and develop software. I have been preaching that VFP development avoid DBCs and SELECT into cursor statements, and instead, use SEEK. I have been preaching that instead of binding data to controls, write procedures that clear or "assign" values. Systems developed this way are really crisp and fast.

A developer has to be competitive and rely more on his skills with the low level features in VFP to build crisp applications.

Use OCX (list view, tree view) instead of grids to navigate. Build apps that look like commercial off the sheld apps - the standard Windows utility GUI are a good place to start. Avoid wild colors and too-kool screens - stuff that looks too exotic looks like it has an inferiority complex and is trying to hide something. Less is more. Speed is king. Think in terms of crispy interfaces.

We had this discussion a few months back. There are some very cool professional high quality projects in VFP it's just that MS seems to want to hide what can be done with VFP in the hands of an ethical hard working VFP developer:

Check thses out from some of our strong silent type VFP developers:
http://www.speakeasy.org/~word/IL2WPlaneViewer.jpg

Some stuff from Sweet Potato
http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com/images/NPCTakeoff.gif

I don't know who did this interface:
http://www.r6solutions.com/ic.htm

THere are others - MS used to have an "Excellence Awards" where they would showcase VFP projects. It seems that when MS shut down that program their stock started to decline. They should reinstitute it. I did not know that projects like the ones listed above were being developed in VFP. A "contest" would give us all a bunch of great ideas

Aspirations of being the best is what makes our projects better. I does not matter what we use to write the program as long as we try to make it the best ever.

But MS should nullify the admin types that say they can't install VFP on their network. I can read these kinds of shops early and I exit early. But it makes no sense at all for a all MS shop with MS liceses out the kazoo to avoid any MS developed application from being installed as long as it brings value to the operation. MS equity seems to correlate with the lack of VFP support. MS should change her behavior. MS should change this perception. I have given up on MS - but where there is innovaton there is hope! (a bit over the top, huh?)