Hi Craig,

Wow! What a great article! I'm a little behind on my FoxTalk article reading.

Jacci

>Go read Whil's editorial at http://www.pinnaclepublishing.com/FT/FTMag.nsf/0/88A14E9A0110A6C585256A1B007CE140
>
>VFP is NOT dead.
>
>
>>Hello everyone,
>>
>>Well, I've been doing a lot of soul searching for the past couple of weeks. I'm at the crossroads as to whether or not I should continue with the new version of VFP.
>>
>>To begin with, let me say that I appreciate the power, flexibility, and sophistication of VFP. There is not another product that I know of that allows such tight and flexible data integration. If I had it my way, I would want Microsoft to continue to evolve VFP and give it the public attention that it deserves.
>>
>>However, I keep hearing rumors that VFP is dead and that Microsoft is going to eventually drop it. Well, this puts me in a bit of a dilemma. I love the product, but yet I don't want to continue learning VFP if it's not going to continue to evolve and be supported. As far as my circumstances, I have not been programming professionally for very long. Three years ago, I started off my business developing MS Access applications. About 1 year ago, I began using VFP for many of my projects. I've been trying to learn more and more about VFP ever since. As of now, my business services offer either MS Access or VFP development.
>>
>>My goal is to continue to grow my application development skills, and gradually explore new ways of integrating the Internet with my applications. My question is this: Will it be a waste of time to continue learning VFP? Would It be wiser to spend time learning Microsoft's upcoming VB.NET language instead of VFP 7? If I continue with VFP 7, will I end up being an expert in a technology that is no longer supported and not compatible with the latest operating systems and components?
>>
>>I've read many of the postings on here about this issue. I know that a few of you have indicated that it would be wise to forget VFP and learn another product. Does everyone share this viewpoint? Is this a majority viewpoint? I know that Microsoft has given reasons for it's strategy to drop VFP from Visual Studio. Their reasoning sounds encouraging and plausible if you believe it. And Microsoft claims that VFP will continue to evolve. I really want to believe this, but should I?
>>
>>From what I read about VB.NET, it sounds very interesting. I'm not sure that I understand the whole Web services concept, but it sounds promising. At this point, I would probably buy the product if it was available, but it's not coming out for quite a while. So now what do I do as far as my professional development? Do I sit here and wait for VB.NET to be released, or should I put my energy into continuing to learn and grow with VPF 7.0? I suppose that I could learn both VB.NET and VFP 7.0. But again, my question is whether learning VFP 7 is going to be a waste of effort in the long run.
>>
>>I would appreciate any comments, recommendations, or insights into this. I know that there is no one answer that is set in stone, but I would be interested to hear everyone's feedback.
>>
>>Dave..:)