>Ok, assume for the rest of this thread the .Net is not the way you are going for your future and you are forced to move from VFP. What language would this fine group of vfp programming experts move too?
>
>John

I would not recommend a single language, but recommend to search for languages that support certain features, like (of course) being object-oriented, and having other powerful programming tools, being able to run on multiple platforms, being able to work with different languages and character sets (UniCode, preferably), and others. Here, you may start to think about what other features you expect. (Note that VFP only fulfills the first requirement listed - it is a powerful, OOP, programming tool.)

I teach a basic Java course, but don't consider myself an expert programmer in this language. Anyway, I can tell you that it supports OOP, all work with Strings is done ONLY in Unicode, and it is designed to work with multiple platforms.

I am sure other languages can similarly work with different platforms, but I can't name them with certainty. I think the list might include PHP and Perl, but I am not so sure.

Delphi is a powerful programming language, and it has a version (called Kylix) that works with Linux. AFAIK, no development was done for other platforms, like the Macintosh.

.NET is supposed to be multiplatform, but I am not sure how well it works outside Windows. The Linux option is called Mono.