>Hey Rick,
> First: I heard you cut your hair....

Shhhhhh!!!! <g>

> Second: Do you think that VFP developers should move to VB.NET (or another .NET languge of choice ) ?

I think developers should investigate .NET, but not necessarily move to it.

There are good reasons to stick with VFP - speed of development, proficicency in the language and environment, ability to build 'free-standing' desktop apps and a reliable environment that has the ability to build applications to almost any scale. Moving to C# or VB.NET and get to a decent point of productivity that is similar to that of the average VFP developer with VFP is easily half a year if not more in my estimation. And even then I'd suggest that you wouldn't be as productive in .NET as in VFP. .NET is unlike other languages you learn in that you don't just learn syntax of commands, but object frameworks (meaning lots of things require a lots of code that is repetitive instead of single commands), which is much more difficult to memorize and be 'natural' with for coding. I feel comfortable coding in .NET for example, but I constantly have to look things up and cut and paste - I still can't even think about saying that I can code from memory for the most part.

But there are definite benefits in .NET. Full access to all of the CLR, full advanced functionality (threads, events, Services, *easy* Web Services etc.) and a platform that is guaranteed to be around for a while to come (ie. a skillset that will be in high demand).

I also think that .NET is overhyped right now - there's much talk but very little real development going on as companies evaluate, play with and learn .NET. Just ask some development companies that do .NET where their money is coming from even now that .nET is released. Chances are the main dough is still coming from non-.NET development.

It'll take time before .NET is a serious contender in the mainstream (not just the bleeding edge) and even now we're still waiting on the nasties that await us from deploying and upgrading .NET applications and dealing with the strict security environment (which is a killer for shrink wrapped desktop apps). For Web apps, .NET makes a lot of sense, for the desktop - it's questionable IMHO.