>
>Recommendations enter into the picture, sure. At least here in North America many developers (myself included) go to the new-version dog&pony shows and user-group meetings to see for ourselves. You don't have to own the product to get an idea of what new features have to offer you.
>
>Alex was bemoaning MS's loss of revenue due to piracy. You're not answering my question...

I can't give you an answer to that question because I don't know the answer. You'll have to ask someone from the Fox team.

>
>
>I fully agree that if there is one feature that looks like it should be worth the upgrade, it's Intellisense. And yes, it appears to be useful to novice developers and to developers of all other levels.
>
>Can you name any others?

Shortcuts, bookmarks, tasklist, Document view, Object Browser.

>
>I would bet money you are in a very small minority in your experience. You're not addressing my point - unless you'd care to share your "proper architecture" with the rest of us.

Do everything through Views, Buffering, and use Transactions. By doing so, you'll greatly reduce the chances of corruption.

>
>Sigh... I didn't say MS would necessarily kill VFP itself, simply that some have argued that they might (have already?) "de-emphasize" the native data engine. As for MS Executives being interested in growing the market, well, duh... it *is* MS...

Nope. Three years ago I heard Bill Gates say that MS was not interested in growing the Fox market, but maintaining. That has changed today.

>
>The very name "Intellisense" comes from another product (VB). I already addressed the "breakthrough" issue above. As for not using the product - well, Craig, we're not all privy to betas like you; bear in mind the product has been in the retail channel for about 5 weeks now.

The Intellisense in VFP *IS* a breakthrough as it does things that no other MS product does. Here are some examples:

- When you add a reference to a COM component in VB, VB instatiates it in the background. VFP merely opens and reads the type library.
- In VB, Intellisense doesn't expand past a parenthesis (for example a specific cell in Excel). In VFP, it does
- Intellisense in VFP is totally extensible. You can add your own functions, methods, command, and shortcuts. In VB this is not possible.

Why do we need a breakthrough in every release? We already have the best product out there and one that has old features that today are impressing people.

Anyone has a chance to get on the beta. Send your request to betareq@microsoft.com and make your application. Beta1 was totally open. Anyone could have gotten a copy. Every attendee at DevCon and Whilfest last year got a beta copy.

>
>Looking back on your original message, I can't fathom why you'd write it in the first place. Do you have inside information on how (very) early sales figures are going at MS? You don't appear to work for MS - or do you?
>
>>
>>I guess what you are saying is that you want only things that you can put in YOUR apps. You obviously don't care about the many productivity tools that will make your job easier. I recommend you go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/fox7help/html/newwhats_new_in_visual_foxpro60.asp and find one...just one... new feature that you can use today. If you can't, you are doing your clients a disservice by keeping them on old technology that their competitors have long since abandoned and are gaining a competitive advantage.
>
>Is that your opinion, or is that straight from MS's marketing materials?

The link is from VFP documentation..not marketing. The stuff about your client's competitors is standard business sense.

>
>Out of how many? What is the trend? In the Vancouver area I can think of only 1 developer under 30 (and she's got to be getting pretty darn close).

The VFP market, and age of developers, varies from place to place.

Now, instead of you griping about things that you want MS to do, why don't you show your support of the product and go out and upgrade.