To all of you on the UT:

Thanks so much for your tremendous response to my original question regarding the future of VFP and career advice for this one student. Although the discussion was quite lively at times <g>, the thinking based on your expertise and experience was extremely helpful.

My original post was (my response follows):

>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.
>
>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..."
>
>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.
>
>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?
>
>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.
>
>So that’s one student’s opinion. I would love to hear from all of you what advice you would give folks like me.

My very humble opinions based on your responses:

1. Announcing the death of VFP is premature, but for someone like me, putting all my investment in that stock would not be wise. The shadow of .NET does loom large.
2. Microsoft’s intentions for VFP’s future remain unknown to me.
3. The future of .NET is not absolutely certain (but it will likely be a major force).
4. There will be applications for VFP in the future. I am in the health-care businees, and Cindy Winegarden’s comments about health-care and security rang a bell for me.
5. There is a lot of value for me to continue learning the principles that VFP will provide; the investment in time will not be lost.
6. It’s important to be flexible in this business, and to continue learning.

Therefore, my game plan is:

1. Continue to learn VFP. It will allow me to build on some previous work, and the technology to be learned from VFP will pay off.. I really like VFP. Besides, I have too much invested in Hentzenwerke to give up now!
2. Keep tabs on the .NET movement, and begin learning about that.
3. Learn another language (e.g., C#, Java).
4. Cut down on the amount of sleep I get so I can accomplish 1-3.

Thanks again to all of you