>Hi Craig ---
>
>Sent an email to foxmktg@microsoft.com...told em that without a VFP core exam in the MCSD track that any efforts to market VFP as a strategic tool were a sham.

I have to think that your e-mail is only going to give more credence to the idea that Foxheads are fanatical, and that they are only looking at the computer software development industry through FoxPro-colored glasses.

>
>And you're right about the wording...sorry....but I do see this a direct threat to my chosen career...I don't WANT to primarily become a VB developer.

No disrespect intended, but what exactly is your chosen career? Did you graduate from college with a degree in FoxPro, or with a degree in computer science or business?

One of the pitfalls of our chosen careers, that of a software developer, is that the industry is very volatile. Five years ago, I thought WordPerfect was the be-all and end-all of word processors. Now I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. My first major project was in DBase, and at the time I thought FoxPro (actually, FoxBase at that time) was a wannabe that was a pretender to the xBase throne. Today, I wouldn't do DBase work if you paid me, and people have tried exactly that.

Why have I distanced myself from these once-proud programs? Simple economics. There were other tools out there, maybe not better, but more widely accepted. People would pay me to use FoxPro, and our office standard was to use Word. Some people would rather fight than switch, but it wouldn't pay my bills.

I still know some people who are working with Dbase, WordPerfect, DOS, and other good-for-their-time programs. They live in fear of being laid off, becuase that's all they know. They never entered the Windows world, never learned how to use Microsoft Office, never gave up on what they thought was the best product on the market. In the meantime, the rest of the market has passed them by.

Like it or not, FoxPro is going away, and probably sooner than any of us would like. As computer professionals, we are expected to adapt to whatever technology takes over as the dominant force in the software world. Right now, that force is Visual Basic. Five years from now, who knows? We can either cling to a language that may be technically superior but is not forward-looking, or we can accept the reality of our surroundings, swallow the bitter pill that is the advent of Visual Basic, and move on, ready for the next century.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm in this for the money, as well as for the challenge of solving a problem and the satisfaction of a job well done. I'll campaign for a presidential candidate, but not for a programming tool. I'll send donations and volunteer to save stray dogs and cats, yes, but to save the Fox? I don't think so.

Bill Yater