>Is there such a thing as a printed manaual for VFP 7? Fox was part of the core reference set for Visual Studio 6.

They used to sell the VFP Programmer's Reference separately than the core reference set for VS6. I purchased two copies.


>As far as MS Press is concerned, it bears emphasizing that MSPress is distinct line of business.

That is a very convenient excuse.

> It will only publish titles for which there is a demand. There is no interest in Fox titles. I know because I tried many times to pitch books to MSPRess. There is not significant demand for VFP titles. Why do you think 3rd party publishers have pulled the plug?

I understand that there is no demand. My point of view is that MS purchased VFP to eliminate a competitor and the only reason they haven't been able to kill the demand totally is because the community has held together.

>As far as product docs are concerned, my guess is that the product teams have to fund that cost. Perhaps this is a cost-savings measure the Fox team has employed?

You know that the commands are almost the same as VFP 6.0, so MS should keep it available, if only as a service to their clients.

>There is no need for Bill to say 'Hide VFP...' VFP is already hidden. The only people that give pause for notice are those that already use the product.

See above.

>And no, you don't have a cause of action that would make a suit valid. If you did, couldn't the VB 6 folks lodge a claim? From a policy perspective, we don't want companies to have the threat of lawsuits hanging over thier heads when it comes to improving and replacing products.
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>About all you can reasonably expect is that companies will support a product for a reasonable amount of time after it has been discontinued.

You are probably right that I don't have a case, but I see the whole purchase of Fox as a conspiracy to eliminate competition.

>My suggestion...start investing in learning something new. If you invest anything else in Fox, will your sitation be any different?

Well, I did invest in learning something new. I purchased two licenses for VS.NET (over $1000 each) and took a week training in C# (total cost with travel from overseas to Chicago almost $3000), spent about 3 months learning .NET, and hired a person to continue the learning.

After evaluating the situation and looking at *my* return on investment, I decided to forge ahead harder with VFP and give .NET another look when version 3 comes out. (MS usually gets it right in version 3). So I purchased two additional licenses for VFP 7, and now I am looking for the VFP 7 manual.

Alex

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>>Tried to find a manual for VFP 7.0 in MS Press and not only could I not find one, but the search did not even come up with the Programmer's Guide for version 6.0, a book I know exists because I have it.
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>>I believe the directive from Bill is, hide VFP and all products other than .NET from all but the most determined programmers. Eventually they can stop development because "there is no interest". Cheez! I wonder if those of us that have invested a lot in learning this wonderful tool would have a case for suing MS for afecting our livelihood.
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>>What do the lawyers here say?
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>>Alex