>Hi Craig,
>
>One thing about this thread that has bugged me is people who think that part of the problem lies with the "marketing VFP". Specifically, I get the impression that the posters have the opinion that there are unlimited funds available for this purpose. This, probably, couldn't be further from the truth.
>
>Now what follows is speculation, however, after 30+ years is business, both from the management and employee side, I probably think that there's more than a "little" truth in what I'm about to write.
>
>Robert Green, whom I believe is the director of the VFP team (at least as far as marketing goes), doesn't have unlimited funds to "play" with. He can't simply wake up one morning and decide, "You know, I'm going to flood every major weekly and monthly publication with ads about VFP." If anything, he probably wakes up and says, "How can I get the most bang for the bucks I have to work with?" This is probably because, Microsoft, like other major corporations, allocates an amount for marketing and he has to live within that budget. If he doesn't get enough "bang", he has fewer bucks to work with. If his stategies are successful, he gets more. End of story. So before, criticizing the "marketing" of VFP, one should be aware of what the fiscal realities are.

Robert Green is the Product Manager. This means he is, among other things, responsible for marketing of VFP. And you are correct. He has to live within his budget. When Robert was here (in Salt Lake City) last February, I had about 90 minutes one-on-one with him. One of the things we talked about was exactly what you have said...he has to maximize the use of his budget. I have known Robert for many years...going back to before he started work for MS and we've developed a good relationship. He has been very open and honest about things. Our conversation gave me good insites into his job and what he has to deal with. Because of the chat I had had with him, I know much more about VFP marketing than most of the posters in this thread.

>
>Back in the 1960's we had a saying (that I've posted here before). "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem." Let's turn part of that that into an acronym, "YPOTP".
>
>I've seen compliants here about "bugs" in VFP. If you don't report them, then YPOTP. My experience is that when replicatable bugs are found, they get fixed.
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>I've seen complaints here about documentation errors in VFP. If you don't report them, then YPOTP. My experience, again, is that when you report an error, it's passed on to the documentation team for correction.

I totally agree with you on this.

>
>Now, I'd be happy to admit that I'm not completely satified with the ways things currently are. I ddon't like the fact that in its "Case Studies", MS hasn't included VFP in the solution. However, one person, seeing this did, John Koziol. He got together a team and started to remedy this situation. Unfortunately, John couldn't bring this to fruition. Part of it wasn't his fault. However, as being on the mailing list for the project, I don't believe any of the "complainers" here were on it. In order to be part of that project, all you had to do was volunteer. I do know that not one of picked up when John asked for someone to take over. All I can say is to each one is, YPOTP.
>

Yes, I was on that case study too. Unfortunately, I got really busy at that time and couldn't follow along like I had wanted to do.