>So, if you were thinking about learning a new tool to jump to if it came to that, what would it be? Why?

First rule: (Why:) The development tool I use is the one that I am paid to use. When my employer says “Tom, here is a project”. I am told what tool to use and if I have to learn I do so.

My Reality – I have been doing a lot of Visual Interdev development (no DTC’s) ASP, etc. with SQL Server, along with Visual Basic. Would you believe – even cleaning up several Access projects after the developers left. The Access crap is going into ASP. That pays the bills and helps put my son and daughter through college.

Reality that surrounds me (San Francisco Bay Area) – learn Java – the vast majority of positions for software development in this area use Java. SQL Server and Oracle are important tools to be familiar with.

Only the future knows what tools will be popular and .NET could be interesting.

Tom