Bob;

I have had the same feelings as you expressed about somehow getting a marketing campaign going for VFP, and define a list of major projects that have been accomplished using that tool. I tried asking a "major VFP magazine" about this topic and I may as well have been talking to any IT Director I have faced in the San Francisco Bay Area. That is to say they were not interested in the above topic.

My feeling is that attempting to get Microsoft or any individual attempt to market VFP will be a total waste of time, effort and money. Why? Perception! The technical community has been hearing variations of VFP is dead or not even mentioned since 1995. To suddenly "bring it back to live" is unreal.

IT Directors (etc.) do not have time for reality - they read PC Magazine or what ever and gain his/her knowledge from such rags. A point along this line is that many corporations in my area are saying they will not use .NET in the foreseeable future. We shall see what we shall see. This is one case where no amount of Microsoft marketing will change perception. It will take time and may or may not become a reality.

Any marketing campaign must be directed at the people that make decisions. Corporations set standards and developers follow those standards or go elsewhere. My use of xBase began with dBaseII in 1982 through all Fox products. As I was required to learn new languages (dataflex, revelation, VB, C, and the various web inspired acronyms and languages along with SQL Server, Oracle, and Sybase) I did so and benefited by learning more about development languages and backends. Keeping abreast of software technology is important if you want to remain a player in this game. When my company or client define what tool I will use I do so. I am not a fool and will not turn down work because it is not VFP. However, I will suggest what tool is best for a given job based upon my experience and the customers needs. No one tool “does it all”.

My rule is if you want to handle data and reduce development cost use Visual FoxPro! It is a great standalone database product or front end for the real backends. Enough said on that topic.

In our business there is always a lot to learn. If you want to be comfortable stay with VFP and neglect enhancing your skills with other technologies. I think our time is better spent trying to keep up with what is going on rather than trying to educate the world.

In a few years it is possible that none of today’s software languages or software development tools will exist. Then what will you do? Better get a marketing campaign and convince the world that dinosaurs should not be extinct!


Tom