>My personal goals are to get my programming/software knowledge up-to-date, and as a former FPWer, I decided to pursue VFP. Compared with other languages I’ve learned over the years, I get very excited about VFP. Rarely a day goes by that I don't remark to myself "Hey, that's pretty cool!" So I come to the UT boards with that background and interest, and run into this VFP - .Net debate.
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>In a previous post, John Petersen said to George Tasker: "On a pure technical basis, many arguments can be constructed that validate the feeling that VFP is in an enviable position. These arguments are mostly klinged to by people from the inside. For the most part – the business - and quite frankly the technical world as well - are not ruled by "technical" concerns..."
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>This hit home to me. I don't care how great VFP is technically. If
>businesses and students (like me) PERCEIVE that VFP isn't the future, businesses won't support it and students won't learn it.
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>So, I've been rethinking my pursuit of VFP. Can I better spend my time learning something else? What will be best for my future?
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>Microsoft's confusing marketing/support of VFP casts doubts, whatever their intentions may be. Even the VFP community of experts, are obviously confused/concerned/doubtful. Microsoft appears to have some kind of plans for VFP – they are planning v.8. They are clearly marketing .Net. But I haven’t heard from them a clear statement as to what application, role, or niche VFP will have in future.
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>So that’s one student’s opinion. I would love to hear from all of you what advice you would give folks like me.
Pete,
I've been using FP since foxbase+ and like it, love it. OTOH honestly I myself not sure I'll be doing VFP as much as I do today next year. I code in VFP to support my earning and spend time on learning .NET (and SQL server, VC++ as much as I can). If I were starting to learn a language today probably VFP wouldn't be at top of list but that's what I know best for now (though I'm aware I even don't know VFP to its full power).
Cetin