>Be as abrupt as you want, Sir. And yes, I have attended a few 'so called meetings'. Some of them by MS which were really pitched to upgrade to the next level of some app or sell the next product. And sometimes freebees were handed out.
>
>>Sorry for the abrupt tone of the reply. Have a good weekend, near-senior <g>.
>>
>>As an ex-IBMer, you may find this amusing. Yesterday at work the entire IT department was invited to a technical update by our Microsoft rep. It was billed as a nitty gritty geek session focusing on new releases of Visual Studio, SQL Server, SharePoint, and so on. After we all got the invite I emailed my boss saying I wanted to attend, even if it was non-billable. He said go ahead (and approved the billable time). Lord, what a disappointment it was. First the guy showed up late. Wearing a suit and tie. He was dorky, which seemed promising, but the presentation -- which he had clearly not prepared -- was 99 parts marketing to 1 part technical meat. Any technical details were limited to what features are in what edition and things of that nature, i.e things of interest to only one or two people in the room, the guys who buy and sign. He mentioned in passing some new interaction between SharePoint and Facebook, which he said in a wry "Why would anyone want to?" way. As a developer I did not pick up a single thing that seemed of use. He even slipped in a plug for Tech Ed in May in New Orleans. Is this starting to remind you of any former computer behemoths?
>>

I went to Microsoft's "Driving Your Development with Visual Studio 2010" event yesterday. It was 3 hours of Microsoft strictly pushing Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition and Team Foundation Server 2010 which only comes with the highest level MSDN subscriptions (apparently not available retail). Cool toys - some looked VERY useful.

At their first break for questions I simply asked "How Much?".

This led to about 10 minutes of them saying "Well...It depends".

Pressing further, I finally got them to admit that this is considerably more than $5000/developer/year. Of course, "It depends..".

They said most large companies have licensing deals that reduce the cost.

So I asked, "Since I'm not a large company, I should go elsewhere for development tools, correct?"

They finally realized that they needed to stick to the agenda.

Yes - they do remind me of one of the former behemoths.

>>>Yep. Being retired and only a few months from becoming an official 'senior' I can stick with FoxPro for my prgramming needs. I'll be okay as long as I have a place like the UT to ask a question every now and then.
>>>
>>>>Asked and answered. About a million times.
>>>>
>>>>>If MS has not interest in it, it would be nice if they sold it to another software development business, so it could continue to grow.
>>>>>
>>>>>>It's a calculated risk that we must take which we think in the end, whatever the outcome, at least we tried our best. And it's really a satisfying feeling to see ourselves getting out of our comfort zone.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>So, your "break-even" success depends upon selling five projects which has not happened yet?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I sincerely hope you are able to do so and then some. I know, all too well, what it's like being in your shoes.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>If we succeeded using VFP before, how much more today. We have a deep understanding of the business process and the technology available to deliver the requirements. Failure is not an option for us here.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>All we need is to have 5 projects sold to cover two years development cost with 2 cents change.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>So two years with five developers, so far. In the US, that translates to roughly 1,000,000.00 USD (one miliion) and you are not done yet. From my experience with projects like this, it will probably take "at least" another year (another $500,000.00 USD). Am I right?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Will your $net increase be more than your $dev costs over the next few years?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>I am asking this because I have seen a lot of projects like this fail due to lack of analysis
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>Was it hard to migrate VFP app to C#?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Marat,
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>It depends on your outlook as a person and as a developer. But technically, it's not hard. You only have to start the migration correctly. In our case, it took us two years to migrate the whole solution and there are still portions which are yet to be completed. But the solution is totally huge : Patient Management, Materials Management, Financial Management, HR, LIS, RIS, Health Insurance Management, EMR, and Clinic System. I have with me 5 full-time developers. It's worth the effort and very satisfying. It gives us some sort of peace of mind because C# is becoming a language of the masses which translates to popularity even more than VB. To me, C# is the way to go for VFPers. It's killing 3 birds in one stone - Learn New Language, Next-of-Kin to Java, Futuristic...