Gerry,

That's a sensible outcome, given what has been transpiring.

My only question is: WHY is this "committed group of programmers" so quietly contented to allow this to happen???

The analogy to the blacksmith is reasonable EXCEPT for one thing - the auto was a general phenonemon (sp?) while in the case of VFP, it is a solely MS responsibility. There *is* a tremendous difference.

Cheers,

Jim N

>I like your analogy except for one thing, Bill Gates, the captian of the MS Fleet, is not on the VFP ship, he is on the VB - VC catamarang (sp?).
>
>VFP has three assests: the DBF back end, a somewhat true OOP and a committed group of programmers. While he has been adding some VB features to VFP (toss the dog a bone?), he has also been adding VFP features to VB and Access (Rushmore). At Orlando I called VFP6 "Visual FoxBasic" because I saw it becoming more VB like. The question remains, however, "What to do about the two assests?" I think Gates has already answered the question (and the certification plan seems to confirm it): allocate the dbf backend to the roll of front or middle tier (non-critical) data keeping, and phase out OOP in favor of the COM and ADO.
>
>I don't see MS adding OOP to VB, and VC already has it. The lack of a certification route, in the eyes of industry, removes VFP from consideration as a development tool. MS knows that. If certification weren't important they wouldn't bother with it for VB and VC, too say nothing of their various end-user applications. Old folks like myself can ride out the remainder of their careers in VFP with no problems. Younger programers have to think ahead about their certifiable skills set and employability. You are living in denial if you don't think that a mass migration away from VFP will be taking place in the near future. And, migrants won't be asking for permission to leave. Professional programmers don't wrap their tools with gold veneer and genuflect before them. And, they don't have just one tool in their tookbox. When their tools wear out they are replaced. When horses were put aside in favor of the automobile blacksmiths retrained or retired.
>
>I think VFP is a fabulous tool, but without the UNQUALIFIED support of MS the hand writing is on the wall.
>
>My prediction of VFP's future: the dbf engine will be added as an option to VB and/or VC, but probably without the command line. Then, sometime in the next few years, it and VFP will be discontinued.
>
>PS - I don't need your flames, but I value your opinion.
>
>Jerry
>
>
>>>>This message is not directed at anyone personally
>>>>so please, noone should take offense.
>>>>
>>>>But after having my mailbox clogged for days on
>>>>end with a discussion of how crappy VFP is, it's
>>>>getting rediculous.
>>>>
>>>>The UT, I thought, was more of a technical forum.
>>>>Discussions of this language is better then that
>>>>language belong on the newsgroups.
>>>>
>>>>If you don't like VFP, use another language.
>>>>
>>>>If you don't like Microsoft, use another vendor.
>>>>
>>>>If you don't like life, deep freeze yourself for
>>>>two hundred years.
>>>>
>>>>But ongoing bitching about VFP certainly is
>>>>not constructive critisism, just bitching.
>>>
>>>
>>>I totally agree.
>>
>>I guess some of our colleagues here on UT is beginning to label me as one of the "MS/VFP opposition" which I think it should not be, and will never be for as long as I am a user of MS product. Nonetheless, since we are living in a democratic environment, where Majority rules and Minority fiscalizes, the existence of an opposition is much better in order to have that so called "check and balance" situation. Sorry if it sounds like politics.
>>
>>As VFP users, it’s just like we are aboard in the same ship (VFP) and the captain of the ship is MS. And as a passenger, is it bad to get the attention of the captain or officer of the ship, and say that there is something like a *hole* that needs patching in here??? We need there attention, and it’s up to them to validate the issue if it is reasonable or not. To me, UT should be a *No Holds Bared* forum, for as long as the topic or reply is related to the subject matter, and it is bounded within the parameters of its by-laws or rules and regulations, otherwise, better live in blah..blah country, where life has no challenge.
>>
>>After all, I am still a VFP loyalist and a user, and a client of Microsoft. In fact, we are very much dependent on the product - Visual Studio as a whole - and 80 percent of our projects are being done in VFP platforms.