>> I repeat no, Criticism intended <<

No problem. I've very open to criticism. I more interested in reading my session evals that comment on areas to improve than the ones that say "great stuff" or whatever.

>> I have always left your sessions with a renewed desire to do more with FoxPro. Things I had never even thought about, and to be honest, things that I'm not sure why anybody would think about. <<

I agree that is my speciality. I don't really do real world database applications and complex database design like most VFP programmers, I solve specific problems like tools and utilities, along with things that are data driven involving metadata, etc.

>> I have always found your presentations informative and entertaining. I hope you don't change you style too much. <<

Thanks, but I always seek to be better overall. Sometimes my energy overshadows the true content and the way my sessions are presented. For example, I'm not as good as a presenter as Steve Black or Y. Alan Griver. So I try to combine what I do well, and learn from them to do better sessions and be more "tutorial" as a go. This is why I'm very open to feedback, good or bad.

>> As far as the 80% goes, great goal, but I would be ecstatic if I come out with a 60% under standing of 20% of what you cover, because that will make me about 90% more effective that I am now. <<

I understand. Sometimes my goal isn't to have everyone understand as much as it is to have everyone know what options exist and also to inspire new ways of doing things, even if it requires more research or whatever down the line.

>> I come out of your sessions with the feeling that you have that job. <<

Yes, my job is like a hobby. I use to complain in Egghead stores about them selling dBASE IV and not FoxPro 2.x. I was once blown away in 1992 when I had only went to 2 FoxPro user groups and only knew about 10 FoxPro programmers, and Tom Rettig told me about this idea of a INDEXSEEK() function that would seek a record but not move the record pointer, and that he said he was going to call Dave Fulton about having it added to FoxPro 2.x. I was amazed that he could just call up and ask for a new function to be added. Now that I'm on the VFP team, it's a dream to be able to think up useful additions to VFP and have them added like STRTOFILE(), FILETOSTR(), ALINES(), VARTYPE(), etc. I sometimes feel like Charlie in the movie "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" where I work on making Visual FoxPro instead of chocolate. I remember the line from that movie "We are the dream makers, and we are the dreamers of our dreams."

>> You make this stuff fun, and I would like to think you for that by buying you a beverage of your choice at Dev-Con. Caffeine-Free of course.

And develoopers like you make my work not only fun, but rewarding. I'll be sure to take you up on the beverage offer, and we will cheers to knowing (not just me) that the best is yet to come.