I cannot begin to tell you how sick and tired I am of looking at the Sunday classifieds and seeing jobs with the description "Database Programmer, must be proficient with Visual Basic/SQL Server and/or Access". Folks, the bottom line is that Microsoft does not make enough money on FoxPro even though it is the best database application package they sell. It's much easier to continue along with the VB/SQL Server or Access/SQL Server model since the per seat fees for SQL Server are the real cash cows. However, I'll be damned if I'm going to start learning VB to do database programming!

The fact that the majority of corporate America blindly follows whatever happens to be the strategy of the week, as dictated by Microsoft, merely reinforces to me the fact that most IT managers and IS managers don't really have the willpower to think for themselves. Fortunately, I am in a position where I can call the shots and use a complement of products (such as VFP, Visual InterDev, IIS on NT Server, SQL Server and third party tools like WestWind Web Connection) to create the appropriate business solution. Furthermore, I believe that if a client insists on using something like VB, where it is clearly unwarranted, I know that I will be able to turn them around with case studies and proof that the majority of the "VB is a database language" nonsense is nothing more than marketing propaganda by a company that knows how to maximize profits.

Mark Beno
Case Western Reserve University