I agree with most of what you say, and obviously if you want to be an author, VFP is no longer (and never really was) a sweetspot in that market. When I started with the Fox it wasn't that popular, as time went on it increased, but was never considered the Cool or Hip tool to be using. But I didn't chose it to be popular, I chose it to get the job done quickly, and its served me well over the years.
But I think you'll agree, very few programmers (of any type) have the skill/time/inclination to write books, and those that do garner additional work/recognition because of it.
Can you share with us roughly how much time you spent getting to a reasonable level of proficiency, and how much time you spend doing articles/books and how many hours a week you generally work?
PS: I do not shy away from learning new things and do not believe that the time doing so is wasted, I just choose to spend my time learning other skills.
Bob
>Second, here are some aspects of my life these days. I'm not going to "make an argument", I'm just going to state facts:
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>- The "hours retooling" means that I've had a steady stream of opportunities. Many times I've had to choose between, as opposed to having to search.
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>- As an author, the major publishers of developer books (Apress, O'Reilly, Addison Wesley, Sams) are far far more likely to have interest in a .NET or SQL Server book proposal than they do a VFP book. Segue to my next point...
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>- I'm now on my 2nd .NET/SQL project that came about as a result of writing a .NET book - a shop in San Diego that builds appliations for public health contacted me about doing some work - I'm starting on a project next week with them.
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>- I picked up a major financial institution as a client, that resulted from a single .NET article I wrote a few years ago
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>- An MS Gold Parter sought me out to write custom BI courseware (SSIS/SSAS/SSRS) and do some training for them
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>- Since 2003, there hasn't been a stretch of time when I haven't been involved in at least one VFP to .NET conversion project
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>- Greater % of social network (the average attendance of a major city .NET User Group is at least 5 times greater than the same VFP uer group) and usually a greater % of job postings/job announcements.
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>- I know several .NET developers who have had 10-20K increases over the last two years.
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>If I spent an hour thinking, I could probably double this list. But bottom line, opportunites are far greater for me as an experienced .NET/SQL developer, than if I hadn't gotten involved in .NET. And as I've experienced, probably one of the biggest factors here is that
opportunities breed other opportunities.
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>And by the way, with .NET, you never stop learning - you have the 3.0 and 3.5 Framework, Orcas, Katmai (which REALLY looks awesome), SilverLight, etc. I don't view any of my "learning curve" time as wasted.
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>As I've typed this, I traded IMs with two other .NET MVPs in the mid-Atlantic area - they have similar stories.
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>I don't like to disclose specific details, but I've grossed six figures every year that I've been doing .NET work, while living in Allentown. I'm moving back to Harrisburg soon, and I don't expect that to change. If I wanted to be even more aggressive I could have made more, but I cut back a little in the last year because I decided I wanted to have more of a life.
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>Kevin
'If the people lead, the leaders will follow'
'War does not determine who is RIGHT, just who is LEFT'