Thanks for the support. Reading comments (supportive or critical) almost always gives extra insights. Your mention of the 'independent layer' is one of them, for me. I guess the language IS public domain. It would surprise me if MS would forbid other parties to develop an engine that processes each and every command and function they introduced over the years. But the fact is that not a single element of the language has been approved by any independent commitee. MS was therefore the single producer of this language. If there'd be competitors we would've been in an entirely different situation now. We would simply have jumped over to another ship that has similar procedures and that is equally suited for the job.


>In the US I have seen even bigger companies than Microsoft get an outcry from a large enough segment of their customers to reverse a decision and rethink what was strategic. (IBM even!) But, it had to be a big enough set of customers. When the SHARE group sent IBM a clear message IBM listened. But SHARE ... represents a BIG customer base.
>
>Unfortunately VFP users have no organization, VFP developers are only loosely connected and few have any big voices. So that is not likely at all in this case. Microsoft might not even realize where the decision hurt them if it does, which I believe it will. Even though it will be a small hurt.
>
>I have seen many other very big companies start to die from the death of 10,000 cuts. No 1,000 of the little cuts was life threateneing.. but 5,000 was lethal. 10,000 and there is no chance of recovery. Some woke up and reversed the damage and some just got a large number of cuts that only weakened them and exposed them to competition, but they survived without changing their practices.
>
>As they say, life goes on and we must deal with what hapens. But, how we deal with it is the question.
>
>VFP is an unusual tool. It is so unusual that putting a good layer between it and the developer is a problem. Not so .NET or most other development worlds.
>
>I support your efforts at asking for the reasoning and even encouraging a change of mind, as you know.
>
>I also suggest that any future tools from anyone have a nice layer between the vendor's code and the developer; an open source layer you can own is probably best. That will also help develop for multiple paltforms, like Linux, various Unix and Apple.
>
>I suspect that some who do not protest have either taken the rout of just going on their way, perhaps breathing a silent curse over their shoulder, ignoring it hoping it goes away, or just shrugging and walking off to something else. This has been coming for a while. So a big outcry at this point may have been prevented by a long time of "writing on the wall."
>
>Me, I'll yell "ouch" protest, prepare for the expected result of no more VFP, and make sure to put an independent layer between me and any software vendor in the future. I used to do that, but VFP was so seductive!
>
>Best wishes!
>
>=============================================================================
>It may well be that, after a while, when attention of U.S. developers is finally drawn, a substantial portion of their names will be on the list too. But it may indeed also be the case that it is a cultural phenonemon. Or rather a difference in political ideology. Perhaps it's, ultimately, socialism versus capitalism.
>
>In one of my posts here, last week, I have said that, IMO, MS has a social responsibility towards its customers. I'm not saying here that MS shows no such signs at all. But I doubt whether they have shown enough of it. There has been no consultation of customers (developers and companies). Or perhaps they have had some talks, but with which customers was that? And what were the strategic plans of those customers (and consequently their advices)?
>
>I recall it was mentioned by me in a post to Rick Strahl. In the reply he admitted that he understood the decision, but that he didn't think it was a wise decision. So, perhaps his company has been consulted (let's speculate on this), but in that case the advice has not saved VFP.
>
>Perhaps MS has conducted a survey among a representative number of customers (vfp-developers and companies that depend on vfp applications), but we've never heard about such a survey.
>
>Perhaps it is a North-American cultural, or capitalistic, thing to 'fully understand' and 'not to question in any way' a corporation's decision if it is made public as the result of a 'strategy change'.
>
>In a socialist or socialist-democratic society people want/need/request that the arguments/reasons are made public. And they reserve the right to disagree and request, or even demand, a rollback of that strategy change.
>
>Now, where do I live, what ideology do I adhere? This is a question that is not only relevant for me, but for everyone involved, no matter where we live.
>
>One more thing: MS does not restrict its sales to the U.S.! Need I say more?
>Groet,
>Peter de Valença
>
>Let's develop superb standards that will end the holy wars.
>"There are three types of people: Alphas and Betas", said the beta decisively.