Al,

Some comments on your speculations.

>1. The VFP dev team at MS is fighting for their lives as you read this. They have been asked to justify the existence of VFP as a separate product past version 7.

The VFP7 team has only one requirement to MS, that is to show that the product makes more money than it costs. Right now it does, if in the future it fails to make money then it will disappear.

>2. If VB7 can successfully incorporate its new features - primarily inheritance - new VFP development will cease. That is unlikely to be announced at the VS7 release date; I would guess at the release of VS7 SP1. Hence the "dead man walking" - I speculate that VFP has about 15-18 months before being officially "killed".

There is more to VFP than inheritance. It is the VFP folks who have been saying that inheritance is the missing link for VB. Many of us have been saying that that position is short sighted and that inheritance is not all that important. For example consider containership, visual design tools, data management language built into the base product, ability to use LOCAL data storage seamlessly, and faster string manipulation for a few things.

>Clearly, the plot is thickening... < g >. Given VB's upcoming shot of steroids, what will it take to save our favourite product?

If one has their sights set on saving a product they are missing the target of developing high quality results using the best available tools. The world changes and we have to change with it.

DO I think VFP has a limited life? Depends on how limited is defined. If limited means fintie, then yes VFP has a limited life, if limited means in the next few years, then no VFP will be around for awhile yet.