>I've been reading this new book called "Barbarians Led by Bill Gates". The book is from the point of view of the original Windows programmer. A sentence in it struck me about "Chairman Bill's" thinking:
>
>pg 15.
>"Gates wanted all of the languages to be the same-BASIC. After all Gates had written it. But despite Chairman Bill's monument to code, the computer world needed to move on."
>
>Also nowhere in this books is the purchase of Foxpro mentioned but VB is only mentioned twice.
>
>Here are some of my opinion points:
>
>1) VFP is not a strategic product for Chairman Bill (see above paragraph).

And never will be. Only the "faithful" believe otherwise.

>2) If he dumps VFP there is some competititor who will take up the "cause".

VFP will be around for quite a while. Look how long it's taking COBOL to die. I still run across PL1, SNOBOL, FORTH, PROLOG and other lost causes. Nich appeal only.

>3) Maybe us oldtimers will live out our careers with VFP but I am training newtimers to use VFP and they see the benefits when compared to other development environments.

Only as long as system programmers continue to add to the product the new hardware drivers that the new hardware will require.

>4) I believe people are looking for alternatives. (Look at the Linux market for example).

Funny you should mention Linux. After the upteenth crash of my Win95 OS, about a month ago, I reformatted my HD and installed Linux (RedHat 5.0). Life has been fun! I dual boot with Win95 while I am converting, but I am replacing all my windows software with Linux alternatives as rapidly as possible. I am also studying programming in the Linux environment - mainly c++ (gnc++) with QT widgets that offer the GUI controls, and a sprinkly of scripts. So far, everthing has been free! Or for nominal shipping charges.
I love the "CopyLeft" policy! I haven't been able to replace Word 7 but I think I'll do fine with the $69 Linux version of the Corel 8 Word Perfect. I think the whole office suit is only $120, or so. The SAMBA interface allows running a Linux box inplace of a NT server. And, the WINE project is allowing the running of WFWG and Win95 software from Linux.


>5) I have been battling this FP thing for years with clients. The winning strategy is to make your clients/employers have faith in you (not VFP or VB).

As an independent consultant for 15 years I found early on that I didn't sell the tool, I sold myself! Tools were changing too rapidly in the early 80's to make a religion out of one. I have always kept several tools in my toolchest.

> Jerry