>Don't forget to factor where in the life cycle VFP is. Being able to get into the front door is a factor. Even if there was a lot to learn, if I can't find work using the product, does it really matter...???
>
>As for the way you have characterized the 'art' of programming, those are good points. It is not rocket science.
>
>As for what I think people should do, they should make their own decisions. However, those decisions should be informed ones. If folks want to stay with VFP and invest in VFP, more power to them. I don't think it is a prudent idea, but that is my opinion, one that you are free to disagree with. Of course, the perceptions of the world, the world outside of VFP has pretty much written the product off. This is not news. IMO, it does not make sense to invest 1 penny more than what one has to.
>
>Of course, if you have a job and are new to VFP and it is a requirement that you get training or that you need training of some sort, as long as it is cost justifiable, I say go for it.
>
>Some will say that I preach doom and gloom of VFP. The book on VFP was written long ago by people other than myself. I am merely the messenger of a message that you don't like. Nonetheless, the points are valid. Look at the job market. Try submitting a Fox article to one of the major periodicals. If the rest of the world thinks VFP is irrelevant, regardless of what you or anybody else thinks, it is irrelevant. Of course, your individual milage may very. But, in the aggregate, if you stir it all up, you end up with a sad story.
>
>Just have a plan.... and most importantly, don't avoid looking at and investigating dotNET because some folks up here preach FUD regarding dotNET.
idle curiosity.

PMFJI - but I am very intersted in this. I just took Kevin's .NET for VFP - I didn't go there and THEN decide that I needed to go .NET, C# - but I went there because I HAD decided that was probably where we're going. We are getting ready to start four new apps and possibly two additional by the end of the year. It is really difficult trying to decide what to do them in. If it had been 12 or even six months ago - no question I would have gone VFP - we have the framework, the skillset, etc. and the decision would be easy. If we were starting 12 (or maybe even six) months from now - perhaps it would be just as easy to decide on C#. I would really like to see "Version the next" of .NET/C# before doing live apps.

But alas, here I am stuck in the middle. What I will probably do is this:
- write the apps that MUST be started immediately and will be finished in 9-12 months in VFP
- write the one web app in ASP.NET/C#
- begin writing a frmaework in C#
- make the decision on the next apps a little later

All in al, this seems the most prudent course for me. As for VFP - I LOVE the tool - wish everything else would go away - but that's no reality. For the first time, I truly believe it is on its way out the door. In previous "death watches", there was no serious MS alternatve to go to - now there is, and I think that's the difference.