>Those who are looking for new tools instead of the ending path of Visual Foxpro, dBase is still going strong, While Foxpro is cooling down dbase is hoter and hoter. F.ex. what I found from the posted letter "Support for CallBack Functions. One item that has been on the wishlist for a very long time is support of callback functions." It has also other VERY powerful features like instantly internet support etc. all that are definetly worth for looking for. And I really know as I'v been with fox since 1984 :) . Now I really am thinking to
>get one for myself and there are also bargains ones for students :D
>
>AT
>
>P.S. Another thing on te newest letter was the next one: We are in the process of adding support for high precision numbers to dBASE Plus. We are now integrating a library from IBM (called decNumber) which implements high precision decimal floating point math with precision up to 34 significant digits. In addition, this library also supports arbitrary precision BCD (binary coded decimal) math - supporting up to 1 billion significant digits and exponents up to 9 digits. Precision for once :)
>
>P.P.S. Here is the link I got http://www.dbase.com/dBase_ProductRoadmap.asp

I used dBASE III many, many years ago and only switched (to Foxbase+) because of clone features and drop dead speed. Not sure they are moving forward with the product (since Borland dropped support - I think) or just trying to keep a revenue stream coming in from a code base that they are maintaining.

I've spend the last few weeks looking at Alpha Five. Hate the name, but the product is very interesting; and very promising. Especially, if you're trying to preserve access to legacy dbf files. There is a wealth of information on their website and lots of videos, doc, reviews, testimonials. I remember this product from very long ago, but felt it was an end-user product (which it was). In the last 5 years they have definitely taken a turn towards the developer.

I have to point out two things about MS's handling of the VFP product.

All this talk about revenue stream from a developer product is bunk. Developer products provide other benefits to the vendor and revenue stream is a side benefit. MS should talk a lesson from Apple who literally gives developer tools away. You might counter that with the fact that Apple is trying to encourage development for the Mac, and you'd be right and you should also be ready to admit that it's working. Their OS market share is going up as is their Mac sales. I'm sure most of you have consider cross-platform development as a requirement for your next development tool. I know I have.

The fact that MS felt it was necessary to discontinue development and support for VFP is not the worst thing that they did. No, I think the worst part is they completely disregarded their responsibility to provide the VFP developer community with a reasonable migration to an alternative product. I've looked at .NET and it would require years of training and unbilled time to simply learn and convert the applications that are generating a revenue stream for ME. Keep in mind that during this time I will be simply trying to provide comparable features that are in my current app and will preclude any enhancement during this time because of time constraints.

And no matter how good VFP is, would you dare write a new application knowing that just around the corner may lie an incompatibility with a future OS change and MS won't be there to provide a fix or patch. And when you take into account that any future development in VFP will have to be offset with the time it takes to convert to another language and you'd be crazy to consider using VFP except to maintain current apps. At this point, I've lost all faith in MS as a provider of developer products and/or tools.

Eventually, all my current applications will need to be re-written and that will cost me tens of thousands of unbilled dollars. I won't bet on MS again. As much promise as .NET may have, MS has provided me with absolutely NO motivation to migrate to it from VFP. It's no wonder that my MS stock has flatlined over the last 8 years and perhaps even explains why Vista has been so poorly received.