I would have to agree with your remarks about finding new programmers for Visual FoxPro. However, my impression is really that Microsoft doesn't really want new programmers in VFP, they would prefer that new programmers go to VB or C++/C# (sour-grapes on Java) or Access (shudder) and SQL-Server.

I'm not sure that I would have started with VFP at all if I hadn't begun back with FoxBase....but I'm grateful for introducation of all of the new functionality (especially the OOP) extensions that have been incorporated over the years into VFP. Now, messing around with Java, I have found it to be pretty easy given my VFP experience.

The scary thing is that the learning curve to get productive in VFP appears to me to be at least that of most 3rd generation languages and much greater than Access. Given that VFP is difficult to use at the 'entry level', getting new programmers to put in the effort on VFP instead of Java or Access may be an uphill battle.

--- Larry