>>Neat John, and very true, at least in some installations that I have worked.
>>
>>The other side of the coin though, seems to me to be... look at the turmoil you put your competitors through IF your organization truly has developed something innovative and you make it widely known (say, through advertising).
>>
>>They have to mount a project just to match it, disrupting all active projects and just to obtain this "result".
>>
>>Geez, I'd make sure (as the original innovator) that I publicized even marginal improvements, just to keep thier disruption going.
>>
>>I wonder how many companies consciously employ this as a competitive tool.
>>
>>Thanks for the light read
>>

>Good points all, Jim. You're looking at the flip side: I dunno how much that applies to VFP developers....usually we're playing catch up.

Are you sure? This filtered optics is what creates Murphy's laws. I remember quite a few instances when others had to catch up with Fox, like... remember the RDDCDX? It was a database driver, allowing Clipper to use .CDX files and Fox-style .FPT memos.