>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..:)

Hi Dave,

You've certainly received a variety of responses on this subject. I'll try to be as objective as possible in my response.

VFP is NOT dead by any reasonable definition.

The product is fully supported by Microsoft. There are future versions and enhancements planned. Even though the job market for VFP is not as large as some others, there is still demand out there. Although, I am having a few problems cultivating interest from employers, but that is the subject of another thread. Since none of us can see into the future, we have to look at the past and present situation of the product. That will tell us that VFP is alive and well.

VFP will not immediately die one day.

Perhaps one day Microsoft will announce that VFP future product development will be discontinued. Here's what I see happening at that point: Microsoft will continue to support the product for a period of 1 to 2 years or more. For much longer than that, there will continue to be support in forums like the UT. There will be an influx of VFP to [insert hot product here] projects, that will require our services.

What do your clients demand?

This is an important issue. If clients won't hire you because of your development product, then you have a problem. Based on your choice of tools, it seems as though your clients are small to mid-size businesses. This is a market that FoxPro serves exceptionally well. Supposedly, these types of applications will be the targets of VFP marketing.

Where do you want to go tomorrow?

I hate to put a spin on an MS tag line, but which sector (desktop, client/server, enterprise, etc.) you want to work in makes a difference in which product you choose. For example, .NET is aimed squarely at the Enterprise/Web Services market. Obviously, products can be used for more than one sector (VFP can go just about anywhere), but there seems to be a "center of gravity" for each product and the sectors it serves best. Here's my take on various MS development tools and which sectors they target:

MS Access - Desktop, Small LAN Workgroups
Visual FoxPro - Desktop, LAN based with many users, Client/Server
VB - Client/Server, Enterprise
.NET - Enterprise, Web Services

Your skills are transferrable.

Although VFP takes a lot of work to master, I think you'll find that a large portion of your skills will be transferable to other languages, especially Microsoft tools.

Maybe this message is not so objective after all, but hopefully I've given you some factors to consider. IMO, .NET is only for early adopters right now, but there may be rewards down the road for doing that. I'm a wait-and-see kind of guy.