>>Thats the way it has been, whats your point?
>
>My point is that VS 6 is about COM. .Net is not. VFP fits nicely in the VS 6 world. It does not fit into the .Net world as nicely. It will not share the IDE. The application and data models are different.
>
>The exams for VB 6 and VFP 6 follow the same model. Now fast forward to VB 7 and VFP 7. VFP 6 and VFP 7 are 98% the same product. VB 6 and VB 7 are 2 % the same product.
>
>My theory is that the .Net exams will be focused on building .Net applications -something VFP is NOT positioned to do. Yes, VFP can participate in .Net applications. The primary languages of .Net however, are VB and C++.
>
>The current MCSD exams are about 2 things: building desktop apps and building distributed apps. In the 6.0 world, whether you are building desktop or distributed apps - and whether you are using VB or VFP 6 - it is about 90% the same.
>
>If MS decides to change the MCSD track - to focus on building .Net apps - which in all liklihood - MS will do - the old MCDS track retires.
>
>On one hand, you could make the argument that for folks who took the old MCSD track predicated on VFP, their certs should stay current. OTOH, you could argue that if you are going to do that for VFP developers, you should allow it for all developers. In essence, have an old MCSD cert that stays alive forever and a new track going forward. Then again, this smacks in the face of what MS has done in the past. Part of the encourgagement - or coercion - depending on how you want to look at it - is how MS gets you into the new stuff. If your cert is going to expire - you are going to upgrade - assuming of course that certification is important to you. Then again, for most people, certification is important to him/her.
>
>Personally, given the disparity between VFP 7 and VS.Net, I don't see how VFP can fit into those certification exams - assuming that is what MS is going to do.
>
>I have not seen this issue raised and discussed. Given the time and expense people have put into certification - particuarly the VFP camp - it is a discussion worth having. Or, maybe it is not...
>
>That is my point...< s >...
>
>< JVP >

John,

All this is well and good but what I'm more concerned about is the future of ASP. I made the switch from VFP a couple of months ago into full time web dev using SQL+ASP (includes VBScript and JavaScript) and Visual InterDev as my HTML/Scripting/ASP editor. Things have been great - lot's of new work and exciting projects and the quality of the work has been much better as well.

Let's face it. As a VFP developer, you're not going to see the same amount of new design & development (not to mention market share) as with VB/ASP - something very important to me. All my previous (4) VFP jobs turned out to be dissapointments because of this fact. I became disallusioned and decided to make the switch, regardless of the "use the best tool for the job" philosophy etc.

Anyways, now that I'm satisfied with my work again, I'm wondering where I'll be heading with .NET comming around. I'd love to get MS Web certification but am not to clear on what/why MS is trying to do with Webforms, Biztalk, SOAP, CLR etc. I'm currently MCP certified with VFP but would much rather be on the course to MCSD certification with SQL/ASP/VB (and even XML & Java). It just doesn't sound like I'm any better off as far as MS is concerned. Industry-wise, I'm a hell of a lot better off. And hey, when I need to do something fast and heavy-duty, VFP is right there at my disposal. And yes, I'm still doing VFP work occasionally (especially in my consulting business).

Anyways, just thought I'd get your take on this crazy .NET thing and where I should play my cards.

Regards,

-JT