I've been a lurker on this forum for some time (trying to learn a thing or two), but not a contributor because I'm still a beginner at VFP. But I can't resist putting my big toe into this very interesting thread.

I've been a programmer for a very long time and have mastered more languages than I can remember. There never has been much of a problem going from
language to language, even when there was a paradigm shift (with one rare exception).

Most recently (a few years ago)I mastered FPW. Now we have OOP and VFP. With this transition there has been a learning curve with a positive slope, but
it's not been a steep one. Not because of the paradigm shift; but because of the dramatically increased functionality and nuances that interrrupt the learning process.

With my history, I offer three opinions: (1)Programmers have always had to learn new languages, and always will; (2)Programmers don't have a lot of choice about this -- new technologies and powerful corporations will decide this. (It used to be IBM, now it's Microsoft); and (3)Most programmers I've known in my career have found these transitions challenging, but exciting and fun. I don't see my learning VFP a burden -- it's a lot of fun, and I plan to tackle some other languages real soon (and look forward to it)!