>There was a brief period around the time VFP was released when they publicized and promoted it. It was featured alongside VB and VC++ at two different Microsoft Developer Days (remember those?). I was the VFP speaker in Chicago and had at least as large an audience as those in the other two rooms. This moment in the sun didn't last, of course, but it's important to remember that it wasn't always dissed by Microsoft.

Yes, been to one of those in February 1995 in Budapest, when Alfredo Pizzirani demoed VFP3 Beta (which we got, took home and tried out for a couple of weeks, really got my mind spinning then). Three months later, Microsoft had a large stand at the IFABO fair (that was the year when BillG visited Budapest to preach against piracy and for American style IP legislature)... and nobody there had a clue about Fox. And that's the year when VFP3 was published. And the guys and gals at the stand knew all the buzzwords du jour - ActiveX, componentware, object brokering, what have you.

So maybe there were times when it wasn't explicitly dissed, but it was never properly marketed either. And still it survived 16 years so.