>I'd like to toss out another explanation for VB's supremacy over VFP at the moment.
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>VFP developers generally are *real* programmers. That is, we value our time highly, we hate to do anything twice, we enjoy a tool that allows us to turn systematic plans into reality. We worry about things like maintainability, scalability, error trapping, robustness, etc.
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>I was taught most of what was important about programming back in a high school PASCAL course. The ideas were: document your work, plan ahead, use structured languages only (that's back when we were using GOTO's at home in our TRS-80 BASIC programs), make subroutines out of commonly used code, etc., etc., etc.
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>I am astounded at how many programmers come out of school these days and appear never to have heard of any of this. Of course VB looks great, it has such a short time-to-first-form, no planning required! Of course, what Mom and Dad taught still holds: if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. Something that appears to make large jobs possible without planning is selling a deception about one of the basic facts of life.

Hi Kenneth,

I believe that there is something to be said along these lines. However, it should also be noted that, for years, VB has been a "hobbyists'" language as well. Naturally, without a background in programming pricipals, it's difficult, if not impossible, to write sound code. Couple this with the large number of VB programmers, it's easy to arrive at the impression that, as a whole, they're not as technically skilled.