>Just wanting to put my 2 cents in somewhere in this vast array of programming language debates....I too seem to be a new victim of the Microsoft pushed .NET platform of languages.
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>I have been developing in FoxPro for over 5 years now (a puppy still, I know) and call me spoiled, but why would Microsoft make a move that seems to be almost backwards. FoxPro is a language of so many neat and powerful data management capabilities with all the hooks, bells and whistles of complex objects like grid controls and the availability and use of Windows type ole objects.

Corporate executive management thinks differently than we do. They first have to satisfy the shareholder. If they can drive value by creating a new development paradigm that throws out the old, they are doing their job.

>C# and Vb.NET are strictly dataless and require the use of another Microsoft licensed product, SQL.

Nope. You can use any backend database including Oracle or MySQL.

>Granted, you can use the MSDE version of SQL, but then you are limited to the 2gig file size as you are in FoxPro.

Actually, the limit has been changed in SQL Express to 4 Gig. However, that's per database, not per table.

>Now, all that being said, my company has spent the last 15 months converting an existing FoxPro application that uses a SQL backend to C#. We are still convering and re-writing to the tune of some $200,000.00 to date and still climbing.

Any rewrite will be costly. But the decision to rewrite your application was not made by Microsoft.

>I understand that Microsoft is not responsible for any of our skill sets, but they are responsible for pushing whatever new code product they wish. Not that long ago they were pushing C++ as the end-all-be-all of the coding languages, now it's C#....what's next.

Really? I don't remember Microsoft ever pushing C++ as the "end-all-be-all". I remember them pushing VB to do that.

>FoxPro got a bad reputation in the 80s and it's not fair to judge today's FoxPro capabilities by what happened over 20 years ago.

I agree. I've had to fight this before.