A corollary question is : Who is left? A lot of the folks who got into Foxpro because it was technically the most exciting and powerful thing available at one time and who built the community and the strength of the product with books, 3rd party products, training, conferences etc transferred that sense of excitement to new tools as they became available and looked for new challenges in environments that show a lot of potential for future growth. They are no longer putting their energies into Fox even though they still have a lot of knowledge, may be maintaining their own VFP apps, and remember fondly the really good things about both Fox and the community.

But a very large percentage of the best and the brightest has moved on and that has had an obvious impact.

That said, VFPX, eTechnologia, Sergey and a lot of the wonderful folks who hang around here and still do at least part of their work in Fox show that if Fox is going out it is going out in style.

It's been such a great run - and in technology terms a really long one - but it isn't what it was and never will be again. There are new communities developing and new (and old) gurus doing exciting stuff with new technologies.

The numbers of developers, conference attendees, books etc don't mean much. It is more a qualitative question. If somebody is still using Fox because they are really good at it and making money, great. It is a good bet those people are also learning new stuff because of the same characteristics that made them good at and sucessful in Foxpro.
Developers who are floundering around would probably better flounder someplace where possibly achieving journeyman status has some future. If one is not already a very successful Fox developer, it is probably time to redirect. And if one is a very successful developer it is likely there is a desire to learn something new - if only out of intellectual curiosity.

On any metric the numbers are shrinking and they are shrinking fast. But mental horsepower, curiosity, excitement and a sense of community translate nicely.


>Gang,
>
>I was wondering if anyone has any information on the current health of the VFP Developer community.
>
>How many developers are there now?
>In what countries are they located?
>How many User Groups are still running?
>How many Developer Conferences are there?
>Of the Dev Conferences that are still being held, how many attendees attend?
>How many books about VFP were published in 2008?
>Are there any university courses that teach VFP?
>How many VFP jobs were available in the past year?
>What is the mathematical mode of the age of VFP programmers?
>How many young programmers are viewing VFP as part of their carear?
>
>We are trying to gauge the health and viability of VFP as a language apart from what Microsoft is doing to it. What is happening to the community?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Steve