>I’d like to ask you a question about Microsoft x Visual FoxPro (VFP):
>
>How do Microsoft treat VFP Language in your country?
>I’m asking this because Microsoft Brazil act with negligence about VFP and I’d like to know if it occurs in all countries.
>
>The Microsoft’s support in Brazil seems that they don’t even know about the language. They are not interested in creating books in portuguese, making seminaries, etc.
>

I think it's an issue with the book publishers, not Microsoft in general. I work for a publishing company that produces some of our titles in multiple languages, so perhaps I can clarify the situation a bit.

In the vast majority of cases, the publisher receives a manuscript in a single language. They publish the book in the language it was written in in most cases, and in some cases, may translate the book into another language if the target market in the other language is sufficient.

Translating a book, especially a technical topic, is an expensive proposition. Weatherhill has one title, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind that has sold a couple of million copies since its initial publication in the mid-70s. We've translated it ourselves into several different languages (like Japanese and Chinese) where we determined that the market wasa adequate to not only cover the expense of translation, but also make us some money. In our case, we need to be assured of perhaps 10K copies being sold within a year to break even on translation, and this is on a roughly 100 page manuscript.

We've received requests to have the book translated into another language. In the majority of cases, we've sold the right to translate and publish in another language to a foreign publisher or distributor, who has in-hosue translation resources. But it's not purely our decision to make - the author has significant intellectual property rights, and our royalty agreement may need to be amended where we sell the right to translate and distribute the title. we're still responsible for royalty payments to the author, and the nature of the royalty agreement may make publication and distribution in a foreign language or market difficult.

In markets like Brazil in particular, royalty computation and payment is a major hassle, since inflation in the past has significantly affected both prices and currency conversion. Additionally, distribution rights are complicated for us, since we use foreign distributors to handle some markets where we don't have our own presense.

If you have specific titles that you want to have translated, you need to contact the publisher, and arrange for the translation. In the majority of cases, they'll either sell you the right to translate and sell the translation, or will require that you guarentee a certain level of sales.

BTW, Microsoft isn't the only house publishing book on VFP - Hentzenwerkes, for example, publishes a number of titles on VFP6. You can't reasonably expect MS to foot the bill for translating something like The Hacker's Guide TO VFP 6 into several dozen languages. In fact, Microsoft has no right to control distribution or translation of their books. If they want to translate Hacker's Guide into Klingon, it's up to Hentzenwerkes, not Microsoft to do so; they'd have to pay to have it done. If Hentzenwerkes isn't equipped to handle distribution and sales into Brazil, with or without translation, you'll need to find a company to handle purchasing and exporting the title to you. One such book jobber (a company that specializes in acquiring books from multiple publishers, and processing the order from the standpoint of shipping, customs clearances and handling payment from companies outside the US) is Gamboge International; they've been handling sales into Brazil and South America in general for a number of years. You can send them email at gamboge@pcnet.com, or by normal mail at:

Gamboge International
18 Brittany Avenue
Trumbull, CT 06611
ATTN: Martin Berke

If they can't help you directly, they may be able to refer you to someone in Brazil who can help. It probably isn't economically attractive for them or you to handle an order for one or two titles (I believe they work on the basis of purchasers posting a letter of credit or making prepayment in US currency for orders to Brazil), and the cost of translation is probably not going to be attractive to you or a distributor unless you can spread the cost over several thousand copies of the title you want to have translated.
>In fact there are in Brazil lots of gossips about the extermination of VFP.
>

As far as anyone knows, they're just rumors and gossip. Unless you have a specific name of a Microsoft representative who made the statement (in which case, make certain to notify Robert Green about it!) there have been a number of threads recently about this; more rumors would not be terribly productive, but that's just my opinion. Just make clear the reliability of whatever claims about the demise of VFP you want to make.

>
>Thanks,
>
>Paulo Hakme
>System Analist
>Brazil