>>>I guess you are special and yes I have to take time to learn one that is why I usually turn off every feature I can and just make it a phone. I guess you are one of the special people who can buy a new software/hardware tool without having to learn anything, or buy a new car and know what every gizmo is without reading the manual or being told. You'd make a great pilot right up to the point to hit the ground.
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>>>It is people like you that try to turn off debate or input from others by labeling them in a personal demeaning fashion. You fit right in with the current flow of things in this country. If someone doesn't agree they must be dumb, or worse.
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>>Hey, I'm always looking for a better mouse trap. That's why I'm here.
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>>Someone mentioned a lawsuit for recommending DBF's as a current data store. I guess my point is that I feel somewhat misled by Microsoft who just simply decided to shut VFP down. The fact that .NET is there as an alternative is not really of much good in my case because of the time and effort it would take to learn .NET and convert my app. If they would have made the VFP language one of the CLR languages, that at least would have made developers like me fell that they were trying to offer a migration path.
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>>I have no resentment towards those who have migrated to .NET and find it appealing. I'm quite sure that it will do everything - and more - that VFP will do. But in my case, it's almost an insurmountable cost to bear. At this point, I have no choice but to stay with VFP, discontinue further development other than maintaining current apps in VFP, and search for an alternate development platform.
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>>Right now, I'm looking for a cross platform development solution because I simply don't trust MS. I already know that I can't compete with a trained programmer, so I try to offer something else. That comes from my educational and business background. From my perspective, if I'm looking for a business applications, I'd rather get one designed by an accountant than a programmer without a business background.
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>I agree completely with your position given your circumstances. If I were running a small shop (I think that's the case, not sure) with many customers and a huge investment in the current code base, I wouldn't want to change either. Well, might want to, but would have a hard time cost justifying it.
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>The one part of your post I would quibble with is saying Microsoft "simply decided to shut VFP down." They did a number of things. For starters, they created a Visual version, a more or less fully featured modern Windows development tool. I'm not at all convinced Fox Software could have done that. They kept it alive for what, about 15 years, while all the other Xbase tools went away. And I don't thing discontinuing VFP was something they did on any kind of whim. They thought about it long and hard, and when the decision was made it was a painful one. I trust Alan Griver as much as anyone in this community and it was clear from his posts here at the time how much it pained him. But Microsoft didn't get where they are by being sentimental. Some products make sense for them to continue to invest in and some don't.
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>I hope you don't seek out other vendors out of pique at Microsoft. It will greatly surprise me if Windows, .NET, and SQL Server are not key products for them for the foreseeable future.

Mike

There are plenty of other vendors still supplying derivatives of the xbase language... Alpha Five, xHarbour, Alaska Software, to name a few. Some how they still see a future in the continuation of the language that Microsoft didn't see. I'm quite sure that MS just wanted to push everyone towards .NET. I remember when it first came out and many of the VFP developers (including myself) showed quite a bit of resistance because it was more time-consuming than VFP to turn out an app. And I'm not sure that has anything to do with being familiar with the .NET platform or just the nature of the beast. MS probably said, "why should we continue to evolve VFP when our focus is on selling SQL Server?" If we abandon VFP, maybe we'll only lose a few hundred thousand hard core users, but at least we'll take that choice away from anyone new coming into the developer community. Not to mention the fact that IT personnel (who are pretty much steeped in the .NET tea), will turn away anyone not using .NET.

There's not many companies who can just write off a few hundred thousand users and just move on. I know I can't do that to my customers and not worry about what the response will be.

I'm beginning to see a tide change in the OS world and I would not be surprised that if in 20 years, MS would be down to maybe a 50% market share. As soon as more developers (like me) realize that MS does not make a very good partner, then writing for more than one OS just makes sense. I'd rather have 80% of an 8% market share than .001% of a 80%. Especially when the software that I write is currently not offered on the other OS.

Who knows, MS may have done me a favor. I've never been one to blindly follow the leader.