Yep, there sure are....and the good living is through the clients who want to convert their apps from VFP to something else. <s>

Are you imagining millions of small businesses with individual bespoke applications they want rewritten? ;-) I'm sure there are quite a few such apps out there from the days when everything was bespoke and whose users have avoided change until it is forced upon them, but there's a strong drive toward apps from niche vendors targeting multiple customers in a specified industry. If you run a panel-beating shop with a bespoke app that can't be maintained, you are more likely to seek out a vendor with a $995 panel-shop product than to commission a rewrite in NET. Customers won't want to pay the full cost of any rewrite, though they may be willing to pay for specific add-ons that provide unique advantage. IMHO it is more likely that the *vendor* will specify the tool. I just can't imagine Mom and Pop on the family farm in Virginia demanding a NET rewrite of a product that they can buy off the shelf for a fraction of the cost.

Since 2002, there hasn't been any measurable period of time when I wasn't involved in at least one VFP to .NET project. I just started a new project with a client in the midwest that wants to move from VFP to .NET. And each and every time, the decision was made soley by the client, not by anyone "selling" them anything.

That's cool, but does the "client" have only two employees and what's the budget? I think we're still talking about different things.

Your line about the white shirts is empty and pretentious.

As I keep trying to tell you, much of the value in the GDP comes from small firms whose principals, family and staff spend their days at the coal face. The concept of power meetings with lattes and crisp white shirts and competition to rewrite their app would make them ROFL.

Your line about "customer selecting a development tool" as being foreign...is just plain wrong. The customer model of the late 80's and most of the 1990's has changed.

I think you are saying (again) that you're still talking about something other than small business. As a reminder, the majority of GDP is generated by small business, the majority of whom have fewer than 5 employees.

The notion of telling people there's a good living to be had for VFP developers looking after these apps is not good advice. Sure, some will be maintained, but at the rates and salaries I've been seeing for VFP work??? Give me a break.

All I'm doing is questioning the suggestion that the millions of small businesses out there are going to pay thousands of dollars for bespoke rewrites, which seems to be an incentive dangled here, rather than paying $500 for a vendor's niche app. IMHO they'll go for the niche app if the *total* cost represents a saving. Even if they're computer-savvy, they're not going to pay tens of thousands of dollars in consultant time and new hardware etc etc today just to avoid the horror of the $500 alternative possibly losing support one day. As you say, "give me a break."