Ed

May I ask you a question. When you switch on the light in the morning, do you use your finger, your thumb, or some part of your hand? Whatever you use, how is it that your "thought" to turn on the light is translated to a complex movement of your hand to achieve the effect? Which muscles are used? Which nerves cause it?

In context of your need, it hardly matters. For a hand surgeon, it matters quite a lot.

Both viewpoints are valid. Only a very silly surgeon would say you are not as good as he at turning on lights because he knows and you do not.

In the same way, that VFP can and always has "encapsulated" underlying complexity is not necessarily a bad thing. Agonising over "how it works" may be a distraction if it does not matter in terms of your needs.

For example: Web apps.

I would contend that a VFP person who neither knows nor cares about threads, handles or API calls but has achieved competence in West Wind can be just as good a web backend developer as me, and (dare I say it) probably you. Their apps are fast, they can product them disgustingly quickly, and the apps are stable. Sure they may not have apartment threading for MTS, but if clients always judge the apps are fast and efficient enough, why should that matter?

That such a person does not know about threads is not a liability, it is an opportunity for them to improve and learn if they are so inclined. But if there is no business reason to do so, perhaps they won't bother. Maybe they'd rather spend the time throwing sticks to the dog, or educating themselves another way reading Grant's anatomy about the flexor muscles in the forearm/hand.

Regards

JR