Hi Jim;

No, I'm not feeling defeatist at all. VFP seems to have survived the last five years of doomsayers and in the business world I get the sense that solutions matter more these days than tools and in the places where I work VFP is not laughed at nearly as much as before.

Besides, not all my clients care what tools I use as long as the job is done and the price is fair. VFP has always been a good choice for that!

I don't know what Mr. Green is up to these days. I sort of think keeping VFP out of .Net might be a good thing for us!


>Hi Bob,
>
>Well it sounds very defeatist to me - I won't bother to add my name to a list because I know what the answer is already.
>
>I'm glad that the whole world hasn't always operated this way. We'd still be building fires from the original flame!
>
>And to call the vast majority of businesses in North America (and the world) a "niche" is highly presumtuous in my humble opinion. I have been comfortable for a while that Mr. Green and his pals would welcome more marketing dough but they seem to have trouble getting their hands on it. I don't see how a "vote" can hurt the efforts to get at that cash.
>
>And while I have seen Mr. Green here recently, I am confused as to his current role at MS. Last I saw he was now in the VB side of the .NET effort. So is his participation recently pertinent to his job (where he makes the decisions) or is it just to calm the troops? Do you happen to know?
>
>Regards,
>
>JimN
>
>>Hey Jim;
>>
>>Just wanted to make my own little marketing comment. I pretty much agree with most of what has been said here. JVP has been right on and Erik as well.
>>
>>I remember back in about '95 I was at Foxteach in Toronto and I spoke to Robert Green when he was still working with a company I think out of Chicago. He said to me, "Foxpro is a product that Microsoft would never have created if they didn't already own it." A very perspicuous statement by the man in charge. However, he was very right then and the statement is just as true now.
>>
>>That's not to say VFP doesn't have its niche in the MS world. But it's a niche we have created. As JVP has noted, it is not a tool MS endorses for the Enterprise, but it doesn't make it any less powerful of a tool.
>>
>>Anyway, with dedicated VFP'ers, I think this tool will be around for a while!