>>Renior;
>>
>>That would be a good idea except in this case I am not allowed to have VFP at work! I would have to wait until I get home and that will be late tonight.
>>
>>Tom
>
>Get out! Don't have it or can't have it? Why? You spend a good amount of time here helping out - I assumed that you were working with it during normal business hours...
>
>Renoir

Renoir;

No, I use Visual Interdev for web applications development. This forum helps me to retain my sanity! I was hired for my experience with Visual FoxPro. For my final interview for my present position I was asked to give a demo of a Visual FoxPro application I have developed. I did and I got hired. By the way it is a cool app and runs a California Water Department.

I have been here for a year and a half. After showing how VFP can save time developing web apps and is a solid product I was told we cannot use VFP in our company. It is a management decision. I have gone through hell trying to resolve this but it is not worth the effort. Discussion of this topic leads to events similar to Star Wars battles!

First I was asked for a budget for VFP when I requested it be installed on my machine. I explained VFP is a part of Visual Studio 6.0. They did not understand that. Then I was told we could not use anything but VB and Visual Interdev. I asked about VFP. NO! What about VC++? NO! Why? Management decision! Sometimes I use VC++ for COM objects. It depends upon what needs to be done. Well, not here!

This was a FoxPro house until the company hired Access "Experts". These “Experts” convinced the company to stop using FoxPro. The next management regime stuck with Access until things started to fall apart.

We now do web apps with VI 6.0 (not a good tool) to do some very complex things, with SQL Server. Access does not have the reliability required for our work. ASP is flaky and not reliable – that is a documented fact. Otherwise, why would Microsoft be going to a new technology? VFP is a solid product and if used as a front end with SQL Server as a back end, I can think of no better combination.

If I was not 59 years old and had a son and daughter in college, and there was a job market, I would be out of here! If a good VFP position comes along I will leave.

For my consulting business at home I use VFP, and VMP.

The younger developers come to me with VB and Visual Interdev problems. So I put up an Intranet to include the questions they ask and the solutions. With 80 developers and over 50 servers we do have fun. One minute of down time costs $10,000. You do not want to make a mistake. By the way we build cars and trucks for Toyota and General Motors.

So I am frustrated and come here to see what is cooking in the real world. Sometimes I get to help someone and that makes me feel good. When I go home at night I just play my flamenco guitar and forget about the corporate world with decision makers and all that goes with it.

The corporate world sucks! I was a Engineer/Supervisor of a Calibration/Metrology Laboratory. We had corporate rules what to do in case of… We were in Sunnyvale and corporate headquarters was in Redwood City. This was a corporation with about 20,000 people at the time – now they have 60. The company name is Ampex.

A corporate handbook required in case of a medical emergency you follow five steps including calling the Redwood City office and talking to the chief of security (who was never there) to get permission to call 911. None of the steps required giving assistance to the victim. One of my friends and fellow workers had a serious medical problem (heart attack).

My secretary screamed and I ran from my office to see what happened. I gave CPR to my friend and had the secretary call 911. I sent other employees to guide the emergency crew to the scene (hard to find us in the back of a large factory building). To hell with corporate procedures! I helped to save this mans life. The parametics were there in less than 5 minutes!

Later the security chief gave me a bad time. I told him where to go and how to get there. My friend recovered and was put on medication. I did away with the corporate handbook. Common sense works better than some dork sitting in a vacuum dreaming of how to establish his/her empire and control the world!

I am not a rebel but I am not a fool either. When the opportunity presents itself I will be there regardless of corporate decisions. It is nice to be employed while you are looking for the right job!

Tom