>>Is the wave to mediocrity really worth the ride??
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>>JimN
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>>>Providing a solution with multiple tools seems to be the way everything is heading. You might as well ride the wave before you are left behind.
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>I think that this is a fascinating discussion. I've talked to people before about this, and there never seems to be a consensus. Microsoft says use the best tool for the job. Most of the VFP crowd say use VFP for everything including changing your oil and walking your dog. I had ties to VB before I ever started using VFP and I have chosen the route of learning multiple programming languages. Does this make me a mediocre programmer? Well, I guess that depends on who you ask. Maybe I am, but if I had been focusing on VFP only I'd probably still be mediocre....
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>Beyond that, do you ignore other tools or other ways of doing things? Do we have time to learn more about DCOM, MTS, ASP, N-Tier development? Do we ignore Visual InterDev? Can we spend a little time learning PL/SQL? I can't see us having time to do all of this either....
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>I've seen people who try to use one tool for everything no matter what, because that's all they know. This can be limiting.
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>I think that VFP is a great tool for database work. It is my choice, but I also enjoy using VB. This is a complicated issue to me.
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>Any thoughts?

I think each individual case is different. It also depends on the amount of non-programming knowledge you need to do your programming. In a larger company, you might have programmers who are involved with a very narrow scope of a system. They might have the time and capacity to learn different tools and use these different tools. In a smaller company with a system just as complex, the programmer's scope of knowledge may have to be wider. That programmer may just not be able to learn different languages. He might spend a lot of his time just learning the non-programming aspects of the system. This is where I feel a large company has an advantage. Each programmer only has to know one small piece of the system. He has the capacity to learn different languages and try different technologies. And the analyst will be more familiar with the entire scope of the system but won't need to know ANY language in detail. Similarly, some systems only require general knowledge. It would take a matter of minutes to detail what the system needs to do. In this case, more energy can be spent learning other tools.

I guess the question is, do you have enough time to learn different languages? If not, and if VFP can't do what you need, you pass the job on to others.

Joe