>>Since when did we juxtapose technical articles w/ marketing literature?
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Thats what I'm trying to figure out. You went from saying that there is nothing new and interesting to write about in the VFP language, then you said in order to write somethign new and interesting, it has to increase the market share of teh product. Correct? I'm not following the transition.
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I think you are paraphrasing and munging here... The features we are talking about have to be really useful and novel. So much so that it is worth writing about. I would contend that they would have to be so useful to turn the current trend around. Auto incrementing ID's, moving tabs around in a pageframe, etc are not the type of features that will do that. Yes, the will be new, but they are by no means intriguing. FWIW, those features have been around a while in other tools. They are good for the guy who wishes to stay in the Fox Box. I think that is an important thing to do because many will want to stay. And if they can stay and make a living, I say more power to them. I would also call those people either fortunate or lucky. In any case, it is territory that is several years old and has been covered many times.

As far as writing is concerned, most if not all topics get rehashed. Occasionally, you will find a fresh topic, but not often. Take office and outlook for example. We may be in the 3rd or 4th. incarnation of that material. Look at the articles in the past few months in FPA or FoxTalk. For the most part, it is the same old tired stuff: with the exception of Dan LeClair's nice summary of new VFP 7 features and Mark's Palm articles. The rest of it is pretty tired. Is stepping though the form events or knowing how to sort data a certain way or integrating IE in a VFP app or how val and eval work new and exciting? I don't think so. When the new VFP version is released, there will be fodder for some new articles, but not much IMO. Again, if there are dramatic new features, then I will be mistaken and happily so I might add. But I would not bet the farm on it.

Intrestingly enough, I don't see much in the way of working with SQL Server. It is too bad because that is something that would be of value. Unfortunately, you end up dealing with topics that talk about simulating .NET stuff in VFP... If you think there is something interesting to write about, then why don't you make a contribution? My guess is that if you try something too cutting edge for either of the Fox periodicals, it will be met with some resistance and perhaps a little befuddlement < bg >

I did not mean this be a rant on Fox publicatons per se. Still, it does go to show just how stale things have become and how unlikely it is too change.