Hi John..


>I guess there are many different types of work. My company produces large-scale health software- things like regional Breast Screening Programmes where Access etc is not an issue and clients look long and hard before spending the big bucks. VFP is "the right tool" technically for much of what we do, the trouble is that we have had problems with customer perception based on what "everybody knows" about Foxpro, which translates to perception of the company and the quality of what we can offer. Plus, the bright young things that we need to staff the development room are not coming through for VFP, again because of what "everybody knows" about VFP. We can get all the Delphi/Java programmers we want, but not FP.
>
>As for what "everybody knows"; whether for right or wrong, this is a real issue... there was also a time when "everybody knew" the world was flat, and knowing he was right probably didn't make Galileo feel any better when he looked like being executed for heresy!


This is where things get tough - when you know VFP is the right tool - but the customer won't let you use it - or you have to go to great lengths to justify the use of VFP.

In these cases - you have two choices;

1. Use tools the customer feels comfortable with. If it is technically feasible, then this may be the best course of action. For example, if the client wants Access and you need to store millions of records, well - there is a big problem there. You either need to convince the client to use VFP - or possible SQL Server - or walk away from the job. As long as what tools the client wants me to use technically make sense to use in that situation - I have no problems whatsoever in using those tools.

2. Try to convince them to use VFP - at the risk of losing the work because you choose to only work in VFP.