I'll do role playing.

I'm MS.

"We have a decision to take. put the developers needed to conclude the VFP project on a high note. What do we gain by doing that? Hmm prove that we care for our customers. If we don't do it what are the consequences? What will those developers do if VFP's last implementation is not perfect?

It's not like we didn't warned them. They knew about our .net direction.

So really what do we have to gain by REALLY doing a strong SP2. Hmmm the more I think about it the less I feel like we should add more people to the ones that are still (physically yes but perhaps not 100% mentally <g>) there.

What's the worst that can happen if we don't really support it like we said we would? Are they going to leave and use other tools. Tools that we don't make? Perhaps but that will probably be a minority. And anyways we lost enough money with that VFP thing that affected our SQL Server sales over time. That VFP proved to be better than we expected. And anyways a lot of those (die-hard VFP developers) are probably using SQL Server for their data storage. So in the end what do we really lose. Hmmm the more I think about it the more I think that we don't lose a lot.

OK so we'll be thankful to those working on SP2 and tell those VFP developers that SP2 is REALLY the end of the road. And when they see that we don't respond anymore they'll realize that it's really over."

>Absolutely. As Bob P said, I wouldn't treat my customers that way.
>
>>It's a question of service. You don't drop a product with existing bugs. At a minimum, the product should be left in reliable status before abandoning it - especially given the lifecycle posted. Granted no new development will occur, but existing known bugs should be fixed until the end of the lifecycle.
>>
>>
>>>Why lament VFP? Many people have been waiting for the other show to drop for years. Well it's dropped and it ain't all bad. In fact, it might be the best thing that's happened.
>>>
>>>Microsoft has given us enough hooks into VFP to do just about anything we want. And they have even given us a centralized forum for continuing to improve the product (www.codeplex.com/vfpx). This is probably about as close to open source as we are going to get from MS.
>>>
>>>I realize that some issues were introduced with SP2. But is there any issue in VFP SP2 that doesn't have a workaround? I see more fixes in SP2 than new bugs. If we wait for an SP3 to come out, we might be more dissapointed. We all know what happens when you crack the code open. If there are limited resources for VFP development and they are never going to release the base source code to us, I say leave it alone. Chances are another SP can introduce more issues.
>>>
>>>I have worked with several different language tools, and VFP9 SP2 has the fewest bugs of any other tool I've worked with and is one of the most extensible. Not just for building add ons to the IDE, but to integrate with other dev tools. We've got dedicated gurus out there, like Rick Strahl and Craig Boyd that have been showing us for years how to combine the best from different dev tools and put them together with VFP to make uber-apps.
>>>
>>>I would encourage VFP developers not to focus so much effort on trying to force MS to continue the product. Your efforts would probably have a higher yield by focusing on extending the product. Check out VFPX on www.codeplex.com/vfpx and see what is already there and expect a lot more to come. If you can't contribute directly, at least download the projects that are there and provide some feedback to the developers who have donated hours of their time to extend VFP for you...for free. I'm not just saying this because I am one of the project managers on VFPX, but because I know how much it means to get feedback on your efforts, good or bad.
>>>
>>>And VFPX is not the only place to find extentions for VFP. They are all over the web, including the download section for this web site. If you have ever downloaded a tool or snippet, you should send the person who posted it some feedback. It might encourage them to do more or give them an opportunity to address any issues you found while evaluating it.
>>>
>>>This message is not directed to Bill. His message just happened to be the one I hit the reply button on.