Hi Greg,

>No way -- the end of development came due to lack of revenue stream. MS is a business and like all businesses, they only pursue avenues that will make money. The VFP community was its own worst enemy in this -- how many developers are still on VFP6? How many bought upgrades for VFP7, VFP8, and VFP9? From what I have read -- most VFP applications are still on VFP6. I have developed tools for VFP9 and many developers have asked for backward compatibility with VFP6 -- why because they don't have VFP9 (let alone 7 or 8).
>
>So just because there is another product out there that might compete with VFP will not perk MS's desire to rebuild the VFP team...

The end of development did NOT come from the lack of revenue stream. I wasn't directly involved with the numbers, but I do know that our take from MSDN sales and other sales were more than sufficient to float the product. Yes, some tightening was done, for example, the drop of SKU-ed localized versions in 8 and 9. And our budget for resources was constrained for VFP 9 but not fatally so.

The community was (and is) not the worst enemy. Quite the contrary; the strength and vociferousness of the community was a huge factor in there being a VFP 8 and VFP 9. Look who's carrying the torch for VFP now .... community efforts.

As to devs clinging to older versions, just look at the VB community. There are TONS of VB developers who will not leave VB 6 for ..Net. Tons. It's not something unique to VFP and, actually, IMHO not a huge problem in the VFP world.