Hi Ken (and Neighbor down the road)..

You are caught in a difficult situation. Bascially, if you invest the time in new VFP apps today, will you earn the investment back? Couple that with thte fact that you know VFP has a limited future at best. Couple that with the fact that at some point, you need to get experience, as does everybody, in writing dotNET apps. As I see it, you have to square the risk of both staying with VFP and earning the investment back to the risk of going to a new tool, namely dotNET.

Some questions to ask: what does dotNET's upside look when compared to VFP's upside? How about the downsides? dotNET has them too as does VFP, there is however, differences in the downsides. IMO, the downsides in VFP are systemic. i.e., the reside largely out of your control. The downsides to dotNET I believe are more in your control. For instance, there is the downside of having to invest in learning and making mistakes. Fortunately, the marketplace is going to be open to you with dotNET. The same cannot be said for VFP. And of course, if you invest bucks in VFP now, will you have to throw those dollars away only to have to rewrite in dotNET.

My advice is to find the simplest app or to take a vertical slice of an app and with the knowledge of dotNET you have, take a crack at it. Don't get frustrated since the mistakes will be plenty. You know you learn more from making mistakes. Because I am close to you geographically, I would love to assist in your efforts.

Taking Kevin's class was a good investment. I am sure Kevin gave good coverage to the framework, which is the most important piece. If there is one area that I think will present stumbling blocks, it is data. ADO .NET is definitely more complicated. But you know what, when you strip a lot of stuff away, I found the following to be basically true:

DataSet = DBC/DBF

In many ways, and ADO .NET DataSet is like a DBC and associated DBF's. This also holds true for me:

DataAdapter = Middle/Data Tier

If you have embraced n-Tier development, you will find that the DataAdapter Object is just like the middle/data tier components that have been presented at numerous devcon sessions.

IMO, the only material difference are the terms and phrases used. The basic concepts of how we use and interact with data are the same. Remember, no matter the setting, there are only four things you can do with data:

Query
CReate
Update
Delete

You have taken perhaps the first and most difficult step. We all love VFP. But love for a tool does not translate into economic viability.

On another front, I would caution against not considering VB. Kevin is prejudiced toward C#. Not to take anything away from C#, there is nothing wrong with VB .NET. Personally, as a Fox developer, I think you will like VB more. The reasons some are giving for choosing C# IMO, are flawed. In the end, it should be the developers choice. The MOST important thing is to learn the framework. The langauge is secondary. Still, comparing the productivity, which IMO is often discounted too much, I think VB is more productive. With/EndWIth IMO is a flat out requirement. The other advantages Ken Levy outlined are others that have caused me to gravitate toward VB. Of course, 8 years of VB programming didn't hurt either...

Ultimately, if C# works for you, go for it. I would also check out Kamal's VFP Toolkit for .NET


One last thing, thanks for posting this. This is the type of discussion I was hoping to foster. Thanks again. If you don't mind, could you extend this discussion on another thread. Or perhaps Michel could move your message and my reply here to a new thread.

Thanks again and best of luck,



>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.