>>Hi Guys
>>Decisions, decisions - this question has been asked a thousand times, but....
>>The problems with Terminal Services, the anti Fox attitude among ISP's and opposition vendors (every chance is taken to tell prospective clients how bad Fox is), the push towards SQL Server all lead me to believe one must eventually think about moving on.
>>Sale of a good package is (apparently) influenced by whether it has been written in flavor of the month development tools etc etc.
>>The prospect scares me not so much re-learning a platform (done that before from VB to Foxpro to VFP) as the fact that anything I see written with SQL Server as a backend is abysmally slow when compared with VFP.
>>So the question is:
>>SQL Server (or My SQL) with a VFP front end ?
>>SQL Server with a .NET front end ?
>>SQL Server with a VFP front end compiled to .NET ?
>>I still have FPD running on sites and running well, but they don't generate income, too stable etc
>>Does this mean VFP will continue forever ?
>>I have heard ramblings about an open source version? Does this mean Fox will not die?
>>One thing I have noticed is that the numbers on UT are dwindling is that because all the questions have been answered or are programmers voting with their feet?
>>Cheers, John
>
>Definitely lose the thought that SQL Server is "abysmally slow when compared with VFP." It isn't.
>
>Microsoft has stated explicitly that there will never be a full open source version of VFP. There are some current endeavors like SednaX to add open source extensions to the core product. How far those go, we'll see.
>
>Re voting with their feet, I can't speak to what is happening in Australia but in the U.S. yes, there has been an exodus from VFP for 10 years or more.
>
>Another "your mileage may vary" point based on my own observations, re FoxPro apps still running, is that there are some of those here, too. What I have increasingly noticed is that many of the companies still running them are crackpots. Bad companies, simply put. This is what has finally pushed me to abandon interest in FoxPro legacy work and move full speed in another direction.
>
>Good luck!

Unlike most developers, I didn't start out as a programmer/developer, I started out as a professional accountant. I got into programming because I couldn't find any accountants that could design an accounting system for use in small to medium size businesses.

I started learning programming with dBASE II, then dBASE III, then Clipper, then Foxpro, and finally VFP. Along the way I've looked at a lot of different development tools with an eye on finding a better mousetrap. Didn't happen! VFP was simply the best tool to get an application spec'd out and fully developed in the shortest amount of time. In addition, maintenance of the app was simplified by the fact that the language was so easy to adapt to.

No doubt about it, Microsoft did a great job of adding features and giving us just what we wanted. In hindsight, it appears that with the marketing effort (or lack thereof) they came up with, I would have to conclude that they were really just trying to move us to SQL Server and .NET.

I've never been a big Microsoft fan, but I've been a huge fan of VFP. I've spent years developing and evolving applications into robust accounting apps for literally thousands of users. Microsoft has decided to cut the legs out from beneath me and will force me to learn a new development tool soon if I am going to continue what I started 25 years ago. I'm certainly not happy about this, but I will adapt in order to continue to move forward.

One thing for sure! I will NOT put my eggs in Microsoft's basket anymore. With the numerous options available, there doesn't seem to be any competitive advantage to develop apps using Microsoft's anointed tool. With the momentum that I've seen building in the OS X world, I think you'd have to be crazy not to at the very least use something that was cross platform. With the abomination of Windows ala Vista, it appears that MS has made some serious mistakes in their own development arena and it may cost them dearly over the next decade. My own experiences with Vista have been disastrous and I've returned to XP running and screaming. BTW, did anyone notice that the support for XP runs out the same year that support for VFP runs out? (2014) I don't see anyone losing sleep over running XP... just the opposite...generally, they sleep better.

At any rate, I'm taking a wait-and-see approach. I've spent too much time learning the xBASE language to abandon ship. There are some xBASE alternatives out there and I will take a close look at them before deciding which way to go. I've also started learning Ruby and Ruby on Rails; which reminds me very much of VFP... progressive, flexible, easy-to-learn, and perhaps a migration path to cloud computing which appears to be all the rage.

Just like some people are still running Windows 2000, I think there will be people using and making a living from VFP for many, many years to come. That may be where Microsoft made their biggest mistake; it's just too good to walk away from, especially when they didn't offer you an alternative that's anywhere close... aka Access.