>>More open source from M$, but they can't open source VFP?
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>>
http://tinyurl.com/y92txmd>>
>>Yeah, yeah, they can't because blah, blah, blah. If they want to do it they can. Maybe if we keep pestering them? (I won't hold my breath.)
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>Lets suppose they did open source it... Who would be willing to learn the code base in order to make any changes? Would you want to trust the new "shade tree" or weekend developers to have understood all the potential problems for making a code change in a class somewhere? What new bugs could be introduced that would further degrade or undermine the stability of VFP now? Why would a company want to pursue managing any code development when their fruits of labor would also be open source?
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>Don't get me wrong -- open sourcing the code base would be nice. But I don't really see it as a solution for being able to "keep it alive" and enhancing it as a major (or even minor) platform anymore for development. It is a dying platform and many will be able to continue careers in supporting the installed base of applications for years to come.
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>However, any new development should move on in a new platform. I for one would be hesitant to develop in any MS solution now. They have changed the platform to C/Basic, then to C++ and VB, then moved to dot net. They have established that they will leave a major development platform in favor of the next "hot" platform and then no longer support the old. This has had a less effect on C or C++ developers, but for VB and VFP this has left the user base with no upward migration of existing applications. VB to VB.net is not trivial; it really is a new development platform and not a continuation of the exisiting (to me it is only the naming that is the same).
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>So what platform to pursue -- will Windows always be King? Will Mac ever grow up or Linux? Do we hedge our bets by choosing a development platform that supports all? Each has to decide their own destiny...
Ah, a very dramatic ending. <g> And true. I agree with what you say, you wouldn't want just anyone working on that code, but perhaps we could get Christof W. and Craig B. and some others interested. Granted, it could go well or poorly, but a lot of open source languages are doing quite nicely, so I prefer to look on the bright side. However, I think M$ will be too stubborn to do it (they know how good it is).
Here's another article about M$ "opening up" their C# and VB compilers, but I'm not sure if "open up" means open source. It comes across as something a bit less than open source.
http://tinyurl.com/y92txmdInteresting, nonetheless.
