Jim,

A few comments on your thoughtful response.

>Sounds like you are both right to me.

Like the old "Certs" commercials: "Certs is a breath mint. No, Certs is a candy mint. STOP! (please :-) You're both right."

>On the other hand, it is possible that all of this stuff is more akin to medical magnetics of the 20s and early 30s - sounded like the answer to all medical ills, yet where are they today?

How's this for a laugh? My wife had an abcessed tooth on Tuesday, and the dental hygenist gave her a magnet that she wore around on the side of her face all day!

>But the biggest question still seems to me to be 'how much of this stuff is actually "ready for prime time?"'. Sure, stuff *is* being done today, but it has to be quite rudimentary compared to what will really be required for all of this to work well. Seems to me that the VS7 announcement confirms this (and it, itself, is less than half of the battle).

Anyone who has done cross-browser will tell you that you're exactly right. Web Forms is a big step in the right direction, but probably just a first step (HTML 3.2 compatible is all that was announced).

>There are still many FPx2.x applications in production (working, not necessarily being developed) and a growing number of VFP apps. And while I guess that XML really is going to take off, we all have seen our share of highly-hyped things that went the way of the dinosaur before they left infancy.

Like DCOM being replaced by XML/SOAP/HTTP.

>For my part, I'm *trying* to stay aware of things but look for a little more tangible evidence before going much further. The latest feature of VB, for instance, have me seriously considering learning it to extensive detail while, until now, awareness was quite sufficient for me.

Same here.

>By the way, David, it sounds like you should be a part of the VFP marketing team.

Should I say "how dare you!" or "thank you"? I kinda think that would be a frustrating job, trying to promote a product with your hands tied behind your back.