I wanted to report (from a VFP point of view) about the MS Booth at Internet Expo this week in the Jacob Javits Center NYC .

They had a tiny corner for VFP which was manned by someone demoing ... VB6. When I asked for a demo, he said the rep who knew it well was not there (he was at lunch at 1130am, ...yeah, right..).

I did talk to him for a little about this problem of MS's lack of marketing of the product. He said that MS recognizes and is committed to VFP for the long haul. However they are doing it to keep us guys happy and not for any new programmers. I asked him why is that. He said that all new programmers are asking for is VB.

In their presentation theater at the booth, MS was demoing Visual Studio on huge monitors. The big banner on top mentioned everything on the VS except... VFP. I asked him about that. He said that MS did not think anyone would show up!

He did admit that they are doing a bad marketing job and that several people did ask for VFP (But since the booth was manned by a VB expert, they could not demo it).

He also said that when they go into the big corporate sites they don't push for any language in particular. The clients seem to choose VB though (Now,,, why is that? Could it be that they don't demo it in their big theater presentations?)

Of course the above info comes from one guy (me), at a particular show, from a particular MS rep. So.. it may be no big deal. Maybe at other shows they do present VFP as part of studio.

The MS rep said he was sympathetic to our problem and MS's lack of marketing.

Before I left he politely asked me if I wanted a demo of their new VB6. I said: No thanks.. and walked away looking for a corner to lick my wounds.

Costas