And in the future, I expect that we'll need to know more than just the language and features of any given product. In the future, the underlying language will matter less. Existing technology already allows systems to share components that have been developed using different languages.

If people like Steve McConnell and Betrand Meyer have their way, we'll all identify more in the future with terms like "software engineer" and less with terms like "programmer" or "hacker" <g>. As with many C++ development environments, the methodologies, libraries, and objects that we use will become more important and the underlying language such as VB, FoxPro, Java, or C++ will become less important. Mature implementations of object oriented programming still hold promise for being used to push development deeper into the use of quality, resuable components.

I do think that FoxPro developers should be growing into other areas. I'm stretching to try to do that myself. For more than a few years, more than a few FoxPro developers have moved away from FoxPro to work with a variety of other products. I'm sure that those of us who continue to develop with FoxPro will continue to move into new areas of expertise by a variety of paths. Our career development will likely depend upon our ability to take advantage of opportunities to move into new areas.

The new version of VB is supposed to support object inheritance but I've heard now that VB inheritance will apply only to non-visual objects. Visual FoxPro will still provide a useful OOP environment with advantages over VB however the advantages will probably be fewer after the next release of both products. Like it or not, VFP carries a heritage as a one-tier, file server database. FoxPro is still excluded from sentences like "using any of the Visual Studio tools such as VB and C++". FoxPro has a great heritage. Great systems have been built using FoxPro. It's great how Microsoft has moved FoxPro forward so that FoxPro can be used in new ways. However, the products and technologies that we use in the future are likely to change as more development moves toward OOP, Web and n-tier models of development.