>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(...)where with our limited resources can we make a difference?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Virtually nowhere.

As a follow-up, though... is that so terrible? Put aside for a moment the desire to have someone walk up to you at a cocktail party and say "you're a VFP programmer? That is SOOOOOOOOO cool." It sounds as if you have a lot of skills, OOP and otherwise, and you get to work in VFP a fair amount (which sounds like your favorite language). Are things so bad?

My own career path is not too different from yours though it started later. dBase and Clipper in 1990, FP starting '91, a few Novell classes the next year, a detour into SAS and stats work for a few years, and a plunge into Object Orientation and Object-Based design in '94 with VFP and VB. In the last couple of years, some SQL Server sprinkled in, a lot more OOP design theory in my head and in practice, and a lot more VB. I expect similar amounts, or probably even more, of career/language bouncing around in the next ten years.

Or, to put it another way, do you really expect to be coding primarily in VFP 13.2 Service Pack B004 in the year 2010? It's doubtful. There's too much change in this industry. On the other hand, who knows -- as I have said, VFP is a niche product, and niche products do have a habit of sticking around. Either way, I expect you (and me, and most active UT participants) to be gainfully employed and fairly happy with the work we are doing.

As for "trying and failing rather than not trying" and all those other sentiments, I guess I would ask -- is it so important to wage what is clearly a losing battle? Wouldn't your time and energy (and mine, and others') be better spent on other career-related endeavors? Isn't choosing one's battles as important as the somewhat more diffuse impulse to fight back against the forces of time and marketing?

(On an entirely different note, thatnks to your sig line, I'm about to pull out my old vinyl copy of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars.)