>I would agree with you, in general, 100%. If you are ignorant of other tools, you not only hurt yourself but you do a disservice to your clients or employer. In my case, my focus on "fun things to learn" the last several months has been some of the deeper, darker aspects of SQL Server 7.0, including MSDE, and the Office object model and VBA/VBS.

I have been digging into OLE DB and linked servers lately, and I keep seeing references to MSDE (so its in the queue). In general though, I try to stay as flexible as possible, I like learning this stuff so its not really a chore :)

Having access to the conversation here helps tremendously. The Internet is a wonderful tool, and I could not have gotten so far so fast without it (I can't even imagine learning what I have without it). I think that the importance of the Internet as a learning tool is still not as widely known in our community as it could be (I work with 4 other VFP developers, and they rarely use any online resources).

>>Maybe in some zen sort of way, I am at an advantage here. I have only been writing VFP code for about 1.5 years. I feel fluent, but not expert, so I tend to use more general constructs and techniques. I read books and follow mailing lists where the developers use smalltalk, java and C++, and I often try to apply the knowledge and techniques in VFP, even though it not necessarily the "VFP" way to do it.
>
>Not a bad point. Thinking outside the VFP box is important. I have been working with flavors of Fox for 14 years but I have tried hard not to pigeonhole myself. Although my direction on this may be a bit different: To me, VFP is an outstanding launching point for learning database development that can be *easily* applied and scaled to SQL Server, Oracle, and Sybase.

No Doubt, I learned DB theory before VFP, but VFP was the first language I really tried to write db code in (I had a VB app out there, but...) but the ease of use, and the power make it a great tool to migrate to the others. Also, I still use VFP even when doing vanilla SQL Server work to look at the data, and for AS/400 data its been a godsend. I used VFP to clean bad data record by record that was choking SQL Server's DTS, and the AS400 people I was with couldn't see the corruption. It was only 3 records out of about 30,000 but with VFP and ODBC I was able to reach out, grab the records, and update them no hassles. I love this tool! I just want to stay balanced.

Later,
Bill