Yes Jim, I agree. We can easily learn and become supremely proficient in .Net as M$ suggests and has recommended for the last four to five years or we can struggle and and bitch. At this time I am strugling and bitching. We make a living doing this stuff, but we must do this stuff beter than our competitiors.

I started my programming career as an assembler programmer. I developed business systems with impossible arcane code for 10 years and eventually was allowed to use Cobol. (Still around?) After 5 years I found FoxPro and have been a beliver ever since. I, like you and others, have dedicated my carrer to learning the inticacies and finer points of FoxPro developemnt. Now I am told "Just dive in the .Net" Frankly I don't know how I can make a living at my current skill level. I feel that at this stage in my life (60+) I must start all over again. If I must then I will but at least I can make a stink about it!

Glenn

>>Thank you for giving us a clear picture of the situation, we as developers DEEPLY appreciated your input and honesty. Like I mentioned in another thread, we are focusing a lot on "we can learn another language", which is fine, I lose a great complimentary or primary tool, as programmers we go on for the better or for the worse, but what about the customers? This looks like a movie where the big corporation is gonna step on the little people (small,mid-sized shops) for the sake of so called "progress", who's going to rescue them?. Microsoft can still come up a hero if they think about the customers first and act accordingly.
>
>Your last sentence is very true.
>Yet many of our best have said that petitions and such are a big waste of their time!