Hi Tom ---

>I have a BS in Finance and an MBA in Quantitative Analysis. The problem
>I find with some VFP programmers is that they know the bare minimum and sell
>themselves as programmers.

It's funny, back in the pre-VFP world I would agree with you but it seems that professionalism and expertise with VFP go hand in hand. I remember being involved in an email thread with several Fox people of merit during the VFP3 beta and the general conception was that VFP was gonna separate the "men from the boys" insofar as amateur coders were concerned. I guess that came true but not in the expected fashion; the fact is the Fox world lost 70,80% of it's developers and the rest have to struggle against VB and other ills.

>VFP is an easy language to use. That is both a positive and negative.
>Too many fools out there that are selling their services as professional
>when they are anything but professional. That is probably why certification
>whether good or bad does indeed have a place...

VFP coded = easy. VFP architecture = HARD. Honestly, I haven't seen too many completely sh*tty VFP apps out there; not like the FP days. And, believe you me, the next cert tests are not gonna be for the timid.