>>>>>>What is Python and how do you get it and learn it ?
>>>>>
>>>>>Edward;
>>>>>
>>>>>http://www.python.org/
>>>>>
>>>>>Now you are an expert! This is a language you can get wrapped up with or is that bitten by?
>>>>>
>>>>>Tom
>>>>Thanks, Tom
>>>>I'm presently into Java and JSP
>>>>I felt threaten by the non-support of the VFP language.
>>>>that's why i think we have to move on
>>>>although i am pursuing 2 lines, VB-ASP-SQLServer and JAVA-JSP-JDBC-Oracle for survival as an independent developer.
>>>
>>>Good call. What about .NET?
>>
>>Hi Jeff,
>>i've attended .NET launching here but so far no real software development yet.
>>think better jump to .NET than the VS6 VB-ASP-COM technology ?
>
>Well, VB, ASP and COM is here and now. These tools are still being used quite liberally for a large portion of software development (any company on an MS platform really). I think there will be a lag before the .NET framework is adopted wholesale by the corporate world. In the meantime, you have to be productive with the tools that are available (yes, .NET is available in Beta but it's still in a state of flux and no one is using it seriously).
>
>I'm trying to learn XML but it isn't comming very easily (unlike HTML which is very straightforward and meaningful). I'm still not seeing what the big benefit is to the new model for building data-oriented business apps. Like I said, it will be awhile before .NET takes off. Think about how long it took ASP to take hold after it was released - a good 2 or 3 years (everyone was using CGI, Perl etc. until about 2 years ago).
>
>I think VS6, VB, COM and ASP will be around for a while because it's just so handy to build web apps with these tools - .NET takes something that is very simple and straightforward and complicates it considerably. As an example, if I want to edit or fix a bug in my ASP I can simply open the file in Notepad or whatever, make the change, save it and voila the change takes effect immediatly when I refresh the page in the browser. What could be sweeter than that? With .NET, you have to recompile the damned thing - an extra step. Also, data access and manipulation are more complicated. I also don't like the way MS is trying to encourage developers to use pre-built controls for rendering HTML instead of coding the HTML directly. And you think classes and inheritance are going to make things easier? Did they make VFP easier? Nope. Just another level of abstraction to screw you up.
>
>These are complicated times and they are becomming more so. It's frustrating to be a software developer today because you're always behind the curve. Another depressing thought is where we'll be in 5 - 10 years with the wireless revolution still ahead of us. So much for building elegant GUI's! Everything's going to have to fit on a 2x3" screen or use voice recognition or something.
>
>Anyways, my advice is to use VS6 until .NET becomes unavoidable. Perhaps becomming comfortable with these existing technologies will help you adapt to the .NET quagmire a little easier.
>
>I envy VFP developers (the crusty ones who are still sticking with VFP) because their world hasn't been turned upside down by .NET (although we've got other problems).
>
>Maybe we should all switch to Java (somthing I should've done 5 years ago).
>
>Happy programming!
>
>-JT

Jeff
thanks alot for the lengthy reply but i appreciate it.
i know it came deep from your heart of what you're saying

do you know, i have a fellow programmer who's keen on VB upon graduation and when exposed to VFP, seems impressed by its repertoire of commands.
he said that you need an ADO for each table.
and to reference each is tedious unlike VFP where we just select sales
anyway, we have a project on JAVA-JSP-ORACLE and this guy says he'd like to switch to JAVA too for it seems to be the in thing among his classmates in the philippines.

we're using sun jdk1.3 JAVA2 edition and the jakarta-tomcat from apache.org for the ASP equivalent.
i'm now in the process of comparing how to do what i know in VFP in JAVA and it's a helluva lot different.

regard
ed