Charlie

You prove my point.

>> but here in Maryland there is very little VFP work

For some of us there is no such thing as "VFP work", just products or services we sell. Those products could be written in Delphi, VB, VFP or whatever. The clients sometimes show interest in the tool but it is the product and above all *the firm* they pay heed to.

For others there is just "web work" where they bid for internet contracts supplying shopping or data apps. Clients are very interested in the COM and NT aspects but more interested in the *price* so if you can do it using west wind for half the price, well they are very interested in that.

I agree about looking ahead. But not too far. There are people in this forum who, if you had said a year ago that MS was going to redo the basis of its tools, depreciating COM and moving to a common runtime for VB and C++, would have scoffed and laughed at you. Today, of course, they are full of the good news of the day and think it is a marvellous idea to upheave again.

When people ask about VFP I just say that tools change every 18 months, I point to the changes between DAO and ADO and now to NET and observe that making big changes are the norm in IT these days. I tell them the reason why they get such quality for the price is because we do not jump every time a new toy appears, we only move when we see the value for the client. If and when it is time to move from VFP we will do it, it is likely to be to something that does not exist today because if there was something advantageous today we would have moved already. I also tell them that having made a "big jump" once to Java, we have a bit of wisdom learnt the hard way and know better than to go changing everything around on them just to be "modern". In the interim, our service and products are available today, tested, stable and ready to go, and we've proven our ability to innovate and lead in the last 9 years of business. Squalling from competitors about "VFP will die! We use CLR! We are cool!" looks a bit silly if you convert the argument to client needs and business understanding rather than geek concerns.

Putting market aside: I've looked at NET and I'm waiting for somebody to tell me a *technical* reason why (for example) a West Wind user should seriously contemplate abandoning all that to make the move to a CLR-compliant tool just to get the CLR.

Regards

JR