Joe,

I feel that VFP6 was a dud from a 'new functionality' point of view and said so at the time.

I agree that some later SPs did deliver some good stuff but this carried two problems:
1) some were in the form of unofficial 'add-ons'
2) none were documented within the standard VFP documentation.

VFP7 offers more, that's for sure. Developers clamoured for an Intellisense capability and we got one that (apparently) blows any other out of the water.

Database events are doubtless the result of developer's wishes.

An OLE-DB Provider was certainly a BIG wish by lots of developers and has been delivered.

Developer's wishes for multi-line grid headers were answered.
Developer's wishes for updateable SQL-Select cursors were answered.
Developer's wishes for a smarter ASCAN() were answered.
Developer's wishes for better control for incremental search during typing were answered.

There were also lots of things done, also no doubt the result of developer requests too, to make many commands and functions consistent with other existing commands.

Finally, there were a whole lot of new features and capabilities that, we are told (and I have no cause to disbelieve) are essential for the future deployment of VFP applications in a .NET world.
It is my guess that it is the VFP Team itself, probably aided and abetted by a core of VFP MVPs, that decided these things.
I know that I'm going to be buying the Hentzenwerkes VFP7 book to try to understand their utility/application in my little world. Hell, I can't even figure out the practical/sensible way to make use of the new "Task Manager". I have ideas, then I read/hear of something that may make that idea a poor one.

BUT. . . your average developer has been asking for many many many things, for years and years, that have never materialized in any VFP delivery since 3.0!
We typically "get a bone" (a few things that are heavily demanded) to placate us.
It has been so bad that MS chooses not to make their "working" wish list available for review/scrutiny by the VFP community. And by "working wish list" I simply mean the list of wishes that they use as their record of customer wishes.

I believe that it is in the best interests of botht the VFP community and the MS VFP Team to fully expose both the "working wish list" and the "acknowledged BUGS list" to us, the VFP community.

The current UT Toledo Wish List now has over 120 entries. This in less than 2 months! Sure, many are poorly done and need clarification/enhancement/consolidation, but nevertheless they represent the wishes of average Joe and Josephine developer and it is high time that the VFP Team address these in a major and very significant (numbers-wise) way! These represent an outcry that "VFP needs to be hugely more functional".

I think that we would all be AMAZED at the numbers of additional wishes that would be forthcoming if the VFP Team provided some form of feedback to us.

This ranks right up there with the need for widespread promotion and marketing of VFP throughout MS and the business (not FoxPro) community.

Jim Nelson


SNIP

>
>I was wondering the same thing...while I agree that upgrading for the sake of upgrading is not a smart thing, I haven't really heard anyone say something they think VFP needs to be hugely more functional...
>
>I snipped the rest, as I pretty much agree with what you are saying, and I think Ken has done a remarkable job in a short time...just waiting to see what he comes up with next!
>
>JoeK