>I have been monitoring this forum for quite some time. With the announcement of the discontinuation of VFP, there has been a lot of discussion of which tool developers should move to. Well, here's my suggestion.
>
>Oracle JDeveloper. Why?
>
>1. It's free (as in totally)
>2. It works with SQL Server, MySQL, etc. (Not just limited to Oracle databases anymore).
>
>To download it all you have to do is join Oracle Technology Network (OTN) at this link:
>
>http://www.oracle.com/technology/index.html
>
>Additionally, as a member of OTN, you can download other products and use them for free as long as it is for development purposes.
>
>I really like VFP and although I am not using it in my current contract, I miss it sometimes. But I am a bir of a realist and essentially have moved onto the best database product in the world.
>
>Regards,

Seems to be basically an IDE for Java, although the description in Wikipedia also mentions programming in other languages.

Java looks like an excellent option; although I don't know it very well yet. In contrast to Visual FoxPro:

It works on many platforms.

It is free.

It has native support for Unicode; excellent for internationalization. I.e., you can adapt your application to different languages, even those that don't use the Latin alphabet.

Threads might also come in handy, now and then.

I don't know how data handling is done; I guess with most languages this is more complicated than with VFP. Or perhaps the IDE helps here.

Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)