Hi Gerry;

In the 80's we had the PROGRAMMER, the PROJECT ANALIST, the BUSSINESS ANALIST... With positions/functions very well defined. Today after the coming of the PCs/Windows, I believe the most important changes are in the necessity of have a team with true empathy about the users needs...

>The simple fact is: nobody writes programs from "scratch".
>
>If anybody ever wrote a program from scratch, it was only once. After that, it's all cloning, copying, cutting, pasting ... even for new development.

;-))

>(And many people can "read" a "language", though they may have a bit of difficulty "speaking" the language).
>

If the subject is the English Language, I am the guy..:-))

>I agree Claudio: I think I "know" FoxPro; but I always start a new program using one of my (many) existing programs as a base.
>

The developer does not need to be the scientist that discovered the gunpowder, but a scientist that know how to do it best use..

CLAUDIO