Craig,

Why don't you tell us what you *really* think. :-) Well said. Although the "official" line from MS is always the same (don't assume anything that's not in the document -- move along now), the reality is that the community can and will continue to enhance VFP for years to come, beyond the Sedna and SP2 efforts that MS will bring to the game.

Thanks for a very persuasive counterpoint to the official line.

>I couldn't disagree more. This is once again perpetuating the notion that Microsoft is the only one that can upgrade, enhance, and further Visual FoxPro. VFP developers COULD review the VFP Roadmap document carefully and not assume anything related to VFP that is not in that document... OR they could take a look at the extensibility of the mature, highly-stable core of Microsoft's premiere data-centric development tool (Visual FoxPro 9), the thousands of Visual FoxPro developers that are serving millions of customers who's mission critical Visual FoxPro applications are helping them be successful, the growing need for data-centric applications that can consolidate disparate data stores and manipulate data with blinding speed, the decades of experience VFP developers have with their language of choice along with the trillions of lines of debugged source code (billions of dollars in intellectual property), and finally the ability of just a small, determined portion of the Visual FoxPro
>Community to make a huge difference moving forward. They COULD make their decisions based on those factors. In fact, they'd be remiss if they didn't factor all of those things in.
>
>This would result in Visual FoxPro increasing and flourishing even in the midst of a dwindling MS Fox Team, even in the midst of Microsoft's relative abandonment of small to medium-sized data-centric application projects (this has actually been great for VFP as customers and developers look for a suitable alternative), and even in the midst of 100's of millions spent on marketing other Microsoft tools that have been deemed strategic. This is exactly what has been happening over the last year and I believe this party is just getting warmed up. I also have to ask myself... Strategic product for who? In all due respect, not most of the customers I serve or will be serving in the next 5-10 years (probably longer). So while I believe Visual Studio and the other development tools that Microsoft sells have their place (the .NET framework is absolutely awesome) and would encourage any and all Visual FoxPro developers to become proficient in them (for one reason, I'd like to see more VFP
>developers extending VFP with them), I don't think that decisions should be made solely based on what Microsoft has planned. This was part of the reason that thousands of applications (maybe millions) got rewritten in VB6 years ago. Where are those applications now - either stuck in a dead language or once again being rewritten.
>
>I prefer to make my decisions on what my CUSTOMERS have planned. And my customers want data-centric applications with blazing speed, they want data-centric applications that are developed with minimal risk factors, they want production that can meet tight deadlines, they want the overall cost of the project to be as cost-conscious as possible... in short, they want Visual FoxPro.
>
>Microsoft, as much as I love it, buy its stock and sing its praises every chance I get, doesn't get to tell the customer/developer what they want and what they can and cannot have Ken. There was a time when they did, but that time has passed. The market place makes that decision... now more than ever. And just as Microsoft hasn't taken a serious look at continuing VFP with the next version until the previous version was nearly released, so shall Microsoft have an opportunity to review the options once Sedna is released. There was a time when Visual FoxPro was being allowed to go quietly into the night, but I think perhaps Microsoft would do well to reevaluate the situation once 2007 rolls around. Either way, I'll be fine because my business meets the needs of my customers with the absolute best development tool (in terms of speed, cost, and production) there is or will be for the forseeable future... Visual FoxPro.
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>I can appreciate your position and understand why you say what you say. But what's the thinking here? I mean so Microsoft isn't going to put more resources into VFP and market it aggressively? That's nothing new... more of the same old same old. Visual FoxPro continues to meet the needs of its customers (developers) and the customer's customers (that would be the businesses that I am developing for). Visual FoxPro can currently be extended in ways that would eclipse all of the new features that have been added to Visual FoxPro since VFP 3.0 by the very customers that are using it (Visual FoxPro Community). Visual FoxPro 9.0 is supported by Microsoft through 2015 which is just a year shy of what Visual Studio 2005 has. That's nine years before Visual FoxPro can even possibly end up in the same situation that VB6 is currently in and Sedna has yet to be released. Visual FoxPro 9.0 has SP1 and SP2 is on the way. Sounds like my bread and butter is in pretty good shape to me.
>
>To anyone reading this...
>If you're a member of the Visual FoxPro Community and you'd like to make a difference, I urge you to get involved. Start a VFP-related blog, answer questions in the forums, get active and contribute to open source Visual FoxPro initiatives such as SednaX, don't be willing to settle for less, and last but not least blow doors off with Visual FoxPro on a daily basis. Myself and thousands of other committed Visual FoxPro developers are making a difference and believe me, you can too. Every little bit helps and together we can do more in 1 year than Microsoft can do in 10 for our beloved Visual FoxPro. To heck with the naysayers and their agendas... is Visual FoxPro meeting the needs of your customers? If you answered YES, then Visual FoxPro should continue to be your development tool of choice regardless of what Microsoft is doing. I've found that if I take care of my customers, my customers will take care of me.