John;

More people have agreed with your position (as I have) than have disagreed. Those that disagree have been more vocal and have expressed a greater passion. That is what happens when emotion is involved and not intellect. :)

Tom

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>You remind me of one of my heros, Rush Limbaugh. Controversial but thought-provoking. < bg >
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>I was talking with a friend last night, and the concensus is that I am the Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern, G. Gordon Liddy of the VFP community.
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>Of course, there are some who accuse me of not being a friend to Fox - of not being part of the community. IMO, I am one of Fox's best friends. I have been loyal for a long time.
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>I consider myself to be the brutally honest uncle in the family - the guy you can go to - to get the straight objective scoop. There are those who feel that I am attacking Ken and as a consequence, attacking the team. The fact is, I have simply stepped away from the party line and have openly disagreed with certain public policies as well as characterizations of the policy by several well known public figures.
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>I have asked some tough questions here. Of course, the important ones are always tough.
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>On one hand, I think patting the VFP community on the back and treating the community with the respect it deserves is a good thing. FWIW, it is about 5 years overdue - and sadly, about 3 years too late. This of course is not to disparage the previous staff that has worked on the product. I have always thought - and to some degree have known, that VFP, like every other product must operate within certain parameters. It just so happens that VFP's parameters are very narrow and constrained.
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>As I said, I think pumpiing up the VFP community is a good thing. However, when it leads into thoughts that VFP is part of the future, part of some long term commitment, that is where I see the disservice to the community. IMO, the best service and message to the community is one where the strengths of VFP are recognized - but the future is in .NET - and that a migration path needs to be made available for VFP developers. This should not be a forced thing. Rather, it should simply be made available and for those that wish to partake -will.
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>On a personal level, I have had to deal with this conflict. I had a VFP 8 book deal (contract in hand). The book was with a major publisher and quite frankley, took a lot of work on my part to sell the idea. When push came to shove and I had to look at things from something other than a technical arena, I realized that a business case could not be made out to justify the expenditure of time and resources - either to myself or the publisher. For that reason, I nixed the deal. It was a very difficult thing to do because on an emotional level, I believe in this product. I owe a good deal of my career to this product.
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>But, it can only go so far...
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>My loyalties are to my family, my career, my clients. My primary loyalties do not rest with a product or a specific community of developers. I know there will be people - both here on the outside and in MS on the inside that will take great offense to this. To them I say - 'Get over over it!' I am not sorry for the way I feel nor for what I have said over the past few weeks. I have received several private emails voicing support for what I have said.
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>The primary difference between me and many in this community - I am willing to take the heat to get a message out that I think needs saying. The fact that only a handful of people have pounced (and several of them have backed off...) says that many agree/concur with the message.
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>Now that I have been ex-communicated from the family - there is really nothing left to lose..
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>Regards,