My first foray into programming was Applesoft on an Apple II and something (basic?) on a Commodore Pet.

Got into doing this for money a couple years after I decided I wasn't good employee material and quit my last job (which was a pretty unorthodox one anyway, as jobs go) I never like having my own happiness (or productivity) depend too heavily on the decisions of others <s> That predeliction gets reinforced every time I actually go on-site for a client. (these days, through the wonders of Logmein I usually avoid that as much as possible )

My biggest "contribution" to this community (or at least the one I am proudest of) is to lure a lot of my friends into quiting their jobs and becoming independant consultants. A number of them have done quite well <s>

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>As a guy who learned FORTH from a $29 cartridge on my C64 (and published an article based on that code <s>), I can see both sides of things. I think the problem is that most programmers work for someone, and that someone looks at it as "you should be able to use what you have." Those of us who for ourselves, or for enlightened employers who look at productivity, don't have that problem.
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>Which is a sad statement on the enlightenment level of many, probably most, employers, but such is what it is.
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>Hank
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>>The thing I often find amusing about the reluctance to invest in tools and training is that ours is probably the best-paid profession in the world (perhaps excepting prostitution) with such a low monetary investment required to get up and running. $2k in software, $2k in hardware, $10k in training if you really go all out and you've got a 6 figure income.
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>>As opposed to an Arby's Franchise, a NYC taxi medallion, or trade school course as a court reporter ... seems like a pretty good deal to me.
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>>>As one of those framework guys (our stuff, which builds on VPM, makes virtually your entire application metadata driven, including transparent switching between backends), I have to agree. We have our loyal followers, and the rest act as though using a tool isn't a possibility. Which it may not be, because the people for whom they work know nothing about the real deal of what happens in development. I'm not planning on making a living off tools, that's for sure. I can, however, help other people make great money by using our tools, and so that's how I make my living. As my mother, who grew up very poor, used to tell me: if you want to make money (for which she did not have a high regard in the large scheme of things), figure out how to make money for other people.
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>>>The biggest market for eTecnologia will be in VB6 and Access programmers, as I see it. These folks just want to get the work done, not deal with arcania. But eTec needs to show "street cred" in the VFP development market to make that move.
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>>>>>>Also, do what I did. Simply buy the thing. $120 is not a big deal, and I'm sure to them at this point the more rapidly they see subscriptions coming in, the faster this thing will move. Not because they will be getting rich, but because everyone who is dedicated to a cause is motivated by seeing that there efforts are being used by other people.
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>>>>>This is the same thing that eventually killed VFP. Its sales to new versions/upgrades didn't keep pace with the costs. There are people here bemoaning the passing of VFP that are still using VFP 6.0. Those people aren't going to shell out the bucks to buy a new piece of technology to keep fox alive.
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>>>>This has always been a source of irritation for me in our "community". Some very clever folks put out books, third party products etc and then people who were supposed to depend on Fox to make a living (and Lord knows it's been a really good one) wouldn't put their money on the table. I remember people agonizing about buying Hacker's Guide - in its day certainly a must-have for anybody who wanted to do Fox apps.
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>>>>Frameworks - the best bargain I can imagine in this or .NET - were resisted - not by people who were capable of writing their own (though I still question how cost-effective that could be) but by people who had no real clue about how to really use an object oriented language to create serious applications that would scale who could have been up and productive very quickly with a good framework and some training. Stonefield, XFRX, VFE, MM, VPM, Drew's stuff, incredible books and articles from Tamar and Ted, Doug, Whil, Marsha and Andy, Cathy, Marcus, Rick and a whole lot of other very smart people who could have always made a lot more money in client work than putting the time into providing third party stuff.
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>>>>And we get questions here on how to convert a VFP 6.0 app written against tables using FP 2.6 code to SQL server or .NET.
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>>>>I say this both as someone who spent ten years in VFP doing framework training, mentoring and project rescue and who now is on the other side - buying a .NET framework (Strataframe) , investing in their training and then hiring a mentor to work with me 4-6 hours a week. I bought Red-gate tools for sql, ReportSharpshooter from Perpetuum Software ( HIGHLY recommended ) and god knows what else and haven't found any of it yet to be anything other than a no brainer in terms of ROI.
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>>>>The tool builders have pretty much moved on. All the more reason to support those who are still left. The etechnologia folks are asking for one billable hour.