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>I think that you miss a big point in what Denis Chassé had to say just above - that without some marketing there will be few/no NEW VFP developers!!!
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>Bingo. With no new developers and more developers leaving, there will be less demand. Those that view the world only in terms of their little corner, are going to wake up one day and ask, "Where did all these indians come from?" (The joke is that Custer said this at the battle for little bighorn!)
>I see .NET greatly accelerating this trend.

Right, and I see this as the nub of what Mike Asherman is getting at and trying to get something moving on!

The really strange thing is that the way MS pushes .NET - and we know now that the marketing is about to go into high gear over the next 2 years or so - it is as if .NET is the ONLY developer 'platform' of consequence.

You know, this does absolutely no good for the millions of MS customers who have working applications today and need to continue to be profitable and grow at the same time. My guess is that it is this very factor that has the marketplace so reticent as regards .NET. They are telling MS through their pocketbooks that they have WORKING applications that need care and attention too.

To my mind .NET represents the very first time that MS has been faced with the prospect of converting a substantial user base to a radically new direction and they simply don't know how to do that (they will learn, I'm sure). They would learn some very valuable lessons by reviewing IBM's experience and tactics in this regard because this has been their stock-in-trade for decades now.

cheers

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SNIP