Jim I don't and can't wait for M$. I'm sure that we are similar in that we make our own destiny.

It would be an easier sell sometimes, if M$ spent money that motivated CIEO's or IT Directors. Unfortunatly there is no press clips that get emailed on a daily bases. Is there a feature in PC Week touting VFP? I can't remember when I saw one - ever.

There is no positive way out of this mess. I can email Robert Green but that is preaching to the chior. He cares but in a mega organization like M$ he owns very little clout. IMHO.

Anyway this is a great place to see how people fall. I am in favor of a name change to VFP. I figure if you lose the "FP" administrators might give it a second look.

__Stephen


>Stephen, Evan, John et al,
>
>Here we go again, telling MS why they won't do something rather than posing the question and waiting for MS to give us an answer!
>
>I know that MS is not likely to answer, but that in itself would say something and, better yet, it would not have the effect of letting them off the hook, as does our present method of answering for them.
>
>A half-million licenses is nothing to sneer at, no matter that some other product may have 10 or 20 times that number. I've gotta believe that MS has more than one product with fewer licenses registered than VFP.
>
>As for losing VB adherents to VFP, well the advent of VS should change those dynamics considerably. Who could tell who got lost from what to what in a VS world???
>
>I would agree that one of MS' motivators appears to be pushing everyone towards SQL Server and such related stuff. But again we should see if they have anything to say on the matter, since there is a huge market in the small/medium sized business not at all attracted to SQL Server and its costs (obvious and hidden). Does MS really want to exempt itself from that market???
>
>Maybe one (or more) people could write a question(s) to Mr. Green and see what response is forthcoming. (I cannot because I'm sure I am personna non grata in those quarters).
>
>Jim N
>
>>>Hi Evan ----
>>>
>>>>I have seen evidence that this is 10 to one. 5,000,000 to 500,000. This is from reading various white papers on the MS site. Of course... I don't have the links. Perhaps this ratio isn't so bad. VFP is a specialty tool for databases while VB is touted as being a jack-of-all-trades.
>>>
>>>I think the ratio is somewhat irrelevent. How many good VisualInterDev or VJ++ developers are there? At least one of these groups probably has fewer developers than VFP yet MS markets the hell out of them because they are specialized and don't threaten VB (much).
>>>
>>>I think that the main concern on MS part is marketshare fraticide. Meaning, we know that VFP is a great general-purpose business development language, right?
>>>
>>>If MS pushed VFP with that in mind, where would the converts come from? From VB or potential VB developers and MS gains --nothing--. Mind you, I'm only playing devil's advocate.
>>
>>
>>Too bad you are correct. Where are the convers going to come from. teh person holding the $. M$ markets the heck out of web related tools. Thats their direction. One that I don't agree with. What is every business concept bread from a fortune 1000 company? I hope not.
>>
>>We are a manufacturer for the construction / home center markets. Our long term customers are barely able to put the page face down on their fax machine. But they can sell security doors and that's what we care about.
>>
>>Has anyone seen the Web interface to Wal-Mart yet? I am helping out a small company work that monster. Talk about techno overkill. It's like forcing everyone to run FoxFire to give you last weeks sales that are demanded by the buyers on a weekly basis. On the positive side, FoxFire let you save a report for re-use.