>If you're concerned about meeting deadlines, etc, then I would stick with VFP. The learning curve involved in moving to .net is about 1 year to become productive in .net let alone learning a new framework.
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>If you want to move into .net, I would suggest writing your current project in VFP to meet deadlines and then develop one of your other products in .net in your down-time. That way you can minimize the impact to your business while taking advantage of .net and the learning curve.
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John,

I agree with your thought process here but I think Mark has to ask himself if there ever will be a project without a looming deadline.

Mark,

Deadlines aside, VFP is dwindling out as a viable long-term platform. For various reasons, both good and bad, the developer pool is in decline and there is no momentum for the product. I have a fondness for VFP, it was my go-to tool for almost 10 years. But it is on its way out.

My advice is to hire a senior .NET developer for this one project. Develop the project as a three-person team with emphasis on building up a class/component framework that will be re-used for many projects to come. If you want to use a third-party framework, your choice in .NET developer will probably dictate which framework to use.

However, IMO there is no substitute for developing your own codebase from which to build future applications. It is worth the extra effort for its educational value alone. And of course, there are productivity gains even greater than using a third-party framework because you already have intimate knowledge of the framework.

>>Hi,
>>I would like advice on whether to switch from VFP to .NET windows forms for our development. Please respond to anything here – I am very interested to hear people’s thoughts – even if strongly contrary to my thoughts.
>>
>>Background:
>>We develop custom business software and have done many projects, over four years, for our largest client. All apps have been developed using VFP (v.6-9). We’ve been using SQL-Server for about 6 months now and love it. The apps we’ve written are pretty complex. We are about to start a large app which we’ll be working on/with for a few years and I want to decide on the development platform from the get go. I am considering going with .NET window forms.
>>
>>Beliefs:
>>It will benefit our client to have .NET apps rather than VFP. It will increase the value of their company if a major in-house app is done in .NET. They may want to sell in 5+ years. It will also allow us to use same classes, code, etc. if/when we do web apps for them. My future business prospects are greater if we know and have developed sizable apps in .NET. Being experienced developers designing, developing, and deploying larger apps will be much more valuable doing so in both .Net and VFP rather than VFP only. Even though our apps are top-notch, when people hear we are using VFP they look at me as though I said we’re using assembler.
>>
>>Real-life:
>>We can develop these apps in VFP knowing we will do a bang-up job and meet deadlines, avoid bugs, etc. My client wants development to be as top-notch as past development and doesn’t care what development tools we use. Our client is very happy with what we’ve done and that is why we do so much work for them. I do not want to risk their satisfaction by going with .NET. Most importantly, we have a track record of successful projects. Long development time with buggy apps will have a really negative effect – big time.
>>
>>Frameworks:
>>I’ve been told that it would be nuts to develop these apps without using a .NET framework. People have suggested CSLA and DevForce from IdeaBlade. Is Mere Mortals a stronger candidate since it was developed by same people who did VFP framework? What other frameworks should I be considering? Feel free to email me at sqluser@verinow.com if you don’t to comment on Mere Mortals or other frameworks on the UT.
>>
>>FWIW: Another developer and I do all of the work – just two of us.
>>
>>For answers to these questions, I’ve looked into my alphabet soup, flipped coins, read stuff on the web, and looked at, and even read a few pages of some books. I am still not sure which way to go. The advice I get here is guaranteed has got to better than what I got from my alphabet soup.
>>
>>Thanks for reading this far. I would really appreciate any thoughts.
>>Thanks,
>>Mark