Hi Stephen,

Here I feel forced to comment...

>I think that the editors should be monitoring what is here, cis and msnews just to get ideas and then farm those ideas out to talented writers.

Let me asure you that I do monitor those sources. I check CIS constantly, and I'm quite often here on the UT, as you easily can find out when you look at my profile. Also, I download the headers from many different VFP newsgroups each day...

The UT is the ONE AND ONLY of the three sources you mention where ADO/XML/ASP are considered as important as JVP makes it. If you look at the topics in the MS newsgroup through the last 2 weeks, you hardly find any questions about ADO (I found 5 messages in the VFP.Web group), there's almost nothing about XML (3 messages) and ASP returns 0 hits when searching the subject line.

OTOH, searching for "2.6" bring 83 hits!

I see the same in many other sources, except here of course. If you look at the Advisor forum, most Client/Server questions deal about ODBC, not about OLE-DB. Many questions are submitted to Advisor for the Advisor Answers column, and you won't believe how many questions deal with FoxPro 2.x or with simple VFP issues as they are asked here day by day. Again, In the last three months, I counted one ADO question. Local views are what people ask about, not Remove Views or SPT. People ask about the Windows API, not about COM servers.

I won't say that we should only cover these types of questions and articles, and we don't. You don't find much about FoxPro 2.x in FoxPro Advisor anymore. Advisor can't only cover the latest technologies, because it mainly serves two purposes:

a) Give answers to questions and problems VFP developers have NOW.
b) Give an overview of technologies that they have to face in the distant future (maybe next 2 years)

I'm with you that we should move into the direction of new technologies in Advisor, but what recently has been brought up here looks as if Advisor should ONLY cover data access via ADO/OLE--DB and such topics. And that's obviously not the right strategy.

As for handing out things to writers... There are NO professional writers working for FoxPro advisor. All authors are VFP developers that have an idea or a topic about which they want to write. They make their money by writing VFP applications, consulting, and more, not by writing articles. There's no pool of experts waiting around until we come and ask for an article. In fact, many people rather prefer to write about their own ideas, than getting a topic and the order: Write an article about this topic and return it in 2 weeks.

Christof
Advisor Contributing Editor