>SNIP
>>
>>In NO WAY am I trying to let them off the hook! I would love to hear an explanation from them why VFP is bring treated like "The Red Headed Step Child"! And without any marketing "spin" applied, thank-you-very-much!
>>
>SNIP
>
>Fred,
>
>I'm sure (and was) that that was the case. But I *do* feel that these kinds of guesses do take them off the hook.
>
>Way back in July Mr. Gates was said to have said that MS needed to do a far better job of communicating with its users. You'd think that by now something ewould have materialized toward that end, but NOTHING HAS!!!
>
>I just wish that people like yourself would send them questions along these lines relentlessly until you got answer(s).
>
>Cheers,
>
>Jim N

Jim,

I do send messages to M$ periodically, through other forums for other product development we do. Eventually, it becomes tiresome to continually beat your head against a wall. It does feel so good to STOP, though! :)

I do agree we need to continue to ask until we get answers. Right now, I'd even like to get an answer I didn't WANT TO hear, as opposed to the dead-silence or the "marketing spin" (read: useless) answers I have received in the past.

It still boils down to very few within M$ even know about VFP to this day, including the people they DO send out to trade shows, etc. And some of these people at trade shows, are a little light in their experience with VFP. I was at COMDEX in Vegas, where there must have literally been hundreds of M$ personnel there, and there were only a handful there even knew M$ sold VFP! There were 2 people in the Visual Studio booth there that "knew" VFP, but they were pretty clueless. Someone came up to them while I was there with a VFP question and they couldn't help him. I was able to help the guy out, and we tried some stuff out at the booth, and the M$ people were AMAZED that VFP could do things like that. They did give me a T-shirt for my "support". I contrast this to some of their other personnel that were there for other products, and they knew their stuff inside-out! (web-related products, of course!)

Until there are more people within M$ that understand just what a gem VFP could be to them, it's an uphill battle! But I bet you every one of them there could expound on the virtues of using VB, even in places where VFP would be a more obvious choice (at least to those of us who are AWARE of VFP).

So I repeat, I certainly do not intend to "let them off the hook". I'm just waiting for the throbbing headache to subside before I dive in again. :)