DD,

Lice ?

Other than that, I agree ... except, in reference to a "better time": there are still some / a lot of companies that think "junior programmers" with 2 years experience and who are willing to work for peanuts are the answer; fortunately, some companies also think that "boomers" may have something to offer ... I feel empowered as I walk thru the department and there are a lot of "shiny heads" in view ... particularly since I still have most of my hair ...

>Gerry,
>
>>Jess,
>>
>>There is life beyond VFP and ".NET".
>>
>>After 10 years of FoxPro, I now find myself developing multi-threading application servers in Mercant (formerly Micro-focus) COBOL under UNIX (AIX), communicating with other application servers using IBM's MQSeries messaging services, referencing multiple Sybase and Oracle database servers via imbedded SQL, pushing information to numerous Remote Intelligent Terminals across North America, and interacting with a Visual Basic presentation layer (formerly SmallTalk) under Windows 2000 Pro that talks to the application layer via TopEnd transaction processing middleware.
>>
>>No VFP, no .NET. I've been at it for just over a month ... VFP, and Microsoft in general, now seem light years away. And the money is better. Maintain a can-do attitude, and they (the recruiters / interviewers) won't even penalize you for having used VFP.
>>
>>(There is no longer a "standard toolkit" ... It's attitude that sells).
>>
>>All the best,
>>
>>Gerry.
>
>Your response reminds me something others have said in one form or fashion in this and other discussions. The real issue is your ability to think, adapt, learn and understand complex issues, lice and learn in the real world of providing answers to problems.
>
>Gosh.. Was there ever a better time to be doing what we do?