>Yes! of course, SO much easier to do, when you are an employee, and not an independant consultant. I'd love to have someone pay me to invest my time into learning new and different skills...as it is, I pick them up when I can/as they're needed, etc.

Jill;

I spend a lot of my free time at home learning new things - and when my employer wants me to do something with a different tool, chances are I have used it and the learning curve is not too steep. I find the greatest amount of support for Microsoft tools and when something new is introduced I learn it - at home. Sometimes I will go to training sessions for VB, SQL Server or whatever. It is amazing how I will then be asked a few months later: "Can we do this"? Having done it at home I will reply: "Sure"!

My point is if you have Visual Studio 6.0, be sure you have used all the tools available in some way - get your feet wet if nothing else. Define a number of things that can be done - not just what you have done and what your customers have asked for. You will soon have a large "bag of tricks" and a better understanding of how Microsofts development tools can be integrated for the best possible solution to a customers requirements.

It is amazing (perhaps not) that VFP programmers can easily learn to use new tools. Anyone within the VFP community should be well equipped to learn what other tools do, how and when to use them.


I also do consulting on the side and between "permanent" jobs. For such jobs I use what I consider the best tools for the job. No employer I have worked for has asked for these tools. I have spent my own time and money to attend training classes for this purpose and it has paid back many times over.

Tom