Allan,


>>and you think that it got that way on it's own? sorry to have to p** in your post toasties, but it actually got that way from the countless millions MS hurled at it!
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>I think that is what frustrates alot of us (me for sure). Somebody else earlier in this thread said something to the effect that the 'whining' should stop and we should accept things the way they are. I do accept that VFP appears to be the ugly stepchild in the Microsoft Development family (my perception only) - and that this will most likely remain the case. That doesn't mean that I'm happy about and it certainly doesn't mean that I won't vent my frustrations once in a while ... I'm so ******* tired of hearing that Access is the best tool to use when developing desktop/network apps with. Just as tired as I am when I utter the letters V-F-P and look at the blank faces that stare back at me.
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>Access-VB-SQL are different from VFP - not necessarily better or worse. Each of the tools has it's strenghts/weaknesses - including VFP. I personally like working with VB6 - but for the type of systems I develop, VFP is the best tool for most projects.
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>The reason VFP has such lousy reputation (i.e. very few people other than those of us who use it and know how great a tool it is) is directly related to it being the blacksheep of the MS Suite of development tools. And because of VFP's blacksheep status - the relative $$$ spent on advertising is probably less than 1% (my guess) of the VB advertising budget. No matter how good a product it, people won't buy it if the never hear about it.
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>Would VFP be more widely used if MS had equally divided the advertising budget between VB-Access-SQL-VFP four or five years ago and continued that approach. My guess it that it would.

I've been developing with Fox products for about 16 years now and you have stated very well how many folks think.

I'd add that (IMO) the very best way to overcome this is for all of us to set, work towards, achieve and maintain the very highest standards we are able to as individual developers using this product. IMO , at the end of the day it's the quality of the person using the tool, not the quality of the tool (though that does matter) that really matters. I, for one, have made the committment to use VFP to create a world-class application that will force those pointy-haired folks to pay attention.

They are, after all, supposed to be "bottom line" oriented and quality apps lend themselves to this far better than griping.

JOMO...