Hi all,

I have been tasked with figuring out the future in regards to my main client's database. Even though everything is working fine for them in VFP, since I plan to retire in about 5 years, they want a roadmap now about "where are we going". Even though I have said that VFP could well run just fine for many years and that there are other developers around who could maintain it for them, they want to know what the alternatives are and what they should be planning for (timelines, budget etc). If they do decide to rewrite, they would rather not be up against a timeline of me retiring before they have fully migrated to a new system.

Their main concerns for anything new would be "is it going to be around" and "how many developers" are there out there to continue to maintain it.

Before getting in to all the possibilities (I have followed those discussions here for quite some time), I want to ask about .net specifically - of which I know next to nothing.

I should say first that the company has no real need for a browser-based app per se - their staff all work in the same office and they do not have people on the road. They really only need a desktop app and they have liked VFP because of a) the responsiveness and b) the "richness" of the interface. Their current app automates a lot of their work and each staff person can probably put through twice the work than what they did say 10 years ago because of their on-going investment in it.

I have suggested to them at one time to "let's first replace the backend" (from native VFP tables to SQL server or Postgres or something) and they might still be open to this but what they really want is a 5 year plan and so it must include both replacing the front end and the backend.

So back to .Net - since it is MSFT and "popular", it seems like a contender in that it will not disappear soon.

- is this basically for building web apps or does it also do desktop apps (I see from the MSFT site that is *says* it does - but does it really do a good job at that)?
- are there many developers using it for desktop apps?
- does it produce nice, responsive (i.e. quick, not responsive in a web page sense) apps?
- is the language rich enough to do most if not all that VFP does?

Any thoughts appreciated! Especially from those who use it or who have tried to use it.

Thanks,
Albert