>>Here's something interesting, though - for one-off handy-dandy programs I was using VFP9 rather than C# because - I thought- of its relative simplicity and brevity.
>>In fact, now I've been programming C# 99% of the time I've now begun using it for the one-off's.
>>I was just more familiar with VFP, it seems.

Tis true in many industries that you offer what you've got, you extol the virtues of what you know. But in our case, after clumsy initial NET data was replaced by typed datasets followed by L2SQL that got Foxed, we weren't prepared to put more eggs in the MS basket. Forking in open source can be just as shattering and I exhausted myself in Java in the early days when releases were relentless and IE updates would break Java. Whereas VFP? In VFP I have a prg called pread6.prg that was written in 1991 and has been added to ever since, with original routines surviving largely intact. That's worth a lot IMHO. Especially now that VFP Compiler lets me compile it to C++ that seems to run quicker than the already blazingly quick Fox.

IMHO there's a real problem in development that some people want their job always to be new and exciting. Rather than updating or modifying existing code, they salivate at the thought of starting afresh using a combination of tools du jour. Regular cycles of major development platform change have encouraged/normalized this. It's actually very childish and against best interests of customers who benefit far more if their existing apps can be perpetuated as long as their flat bed truck. Since software doesn't wear out, there's no good reason why it should have to keep being redeveloped just because (for example) MS decided to fox one of its development lines. Especially when the industry track record for grand rewrites, is so dismal. In the end, most 4GLs are very similar so there's no compelling logic to keep foxing and redeveloping rather than enhancing and modernizing.

In addition, with solutions like Xero making huge strides, the "good enough" principle will start to apply for most sorts of app. This, combined with automation, will see drastic price drops IMHO- not just in software development, but more so in accounting and law where the likes of Watson already can dredge up better case law than the most expensive legal team.