>... choosing Java is a very, very good way to be sure that your development environment does not fall behind. With Java, if your supplier lets you down or holds you hostage to their own benefit, you can say "bye bye" for very low cost ....
>This is so good for us, it turns us back into "customers" of the vendor instead of vassals.
>
JR

Hi John,

I am definitely sure that many UT members would really appreciate getting into a non proprietary development environment such as JAVA. Yes we are awfully stuck to-day .. no more MAC (or UNIX version) and more recently no more UI - ask uncle VB to do the job.

The problem is possibly that the move of VFP seems pretty steep especially for Fox aficionados who think data constructs first, hi-level interface objects second and some hi-level snippet coding in the end. Not really C or C++.

I can see most of us as a community moving out of Fox (kindof have to!) but Java seems still pretty much of a low-level toolbox to me (I am currently investigating the not so trendy Delphi as an alternative). But may be am i unaware of the current Java market status in this respect?

If you have you been successful at:

- experimenting some hi-level data-bound active-X or beans (do you know of a smart hi-level data-bound grid!) from any of the Java you mentioned,

or - as well

- linking up VFP application-or-database services and workstation Java code in some way,

i'd really like to hear from you and would definitely join the JAVA forum if any is set up on UT! You are clearly right that the "Java" word does sell!

François