>If you're a consultant hopping from one gig to another, yes then its important to learn the most hip development platforms as most available job demand them. But as Rick Strahl already mentioned, being successful is not anymore depended on talent (alone). There are programmers in 3rd world countries that can program a piece of functionality faster, cheaper and often better than you can. For western developers there no bright future in these type of jobs.
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>Personally I earn my money because: 1. I know the tools I'm developing in very well with many many years of experience with those tools (VFP, Crystal Reports, SQL server). 2. I was trained as a software developer from the start with a firm basis on methodologies, statistics and problem solving strategies. 3. I've managed to get into a niche where thorough domain knowledge is an absolute must. Since the number of programmers with this level of domain knowledge are very, very few, I'm in a position that offers much more certainty than others who do not have that. My clients do not give a hoot about being on the bleeding edge of software development tools and techniques. They just want a solution that works for them. For anything that has to run on the web, I'm happily to hand over the presentation side of that over to my colleagues that have more experience with web development, while I keep focusing on the database and biz logic side of things.
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>Meanwhile I keep my eyes open for a tool that will not fade away for the next 20 years, because life is too short to invest in getting an expert in a certain tool. If I do that, I'd make sure its a good bet and don't listen to those self for filling prophecy that you need to learn something else.
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>Walter,

I agree with you whole heartedly. I view production code as an asset, just like a building, machinery, etc. and I want to get the greateset value out of the code possible. So if I can keep it working that's what I will do. I think after the "rejuvination" of this application that will be at the end of the line and a re-write is required unless there's a third party alternative available that allows me to keep using the bulk of the biz logic code (my prayer). Since my old framework will need considerable modification this is an opportunity to make life easier for me and switch to a commercial framework, thus the purpose of this thread.