<<
So answer me this, John, if MS aren't going to promote VFP to non-VFP developers, then why continue until VFPx, and then (if I'm right on this) drop a bombshell? Why string it out so VFP developers stick with Fox, only to be told one day - "Sorry! No more fox". Why don't they give any indication that this is what they want?
<<

Good question. It is a question I have asked for a long time. As I see it, I think MS thinks it is doing the dev community a service by protracting things out, by making incremental improvements to the product. I think this is a bad thing because it introduced ambiguity, it leads to a false sense of hope. I don't see people becoming that much more productive with the product. IntelliSense (which was 5 years too late), IMO, represents that last big productivity gain for VFP developers.

MS has a direction. Lets cut through the BS and lets get a clear, unambiguous stance. MS believes that developers should have the freedom to make up their own minds. I believe this is how things should go. But, in order for developers to be able to do this, they need to be fully informed. In the past few months, you have seen tough, brutually honest talk from MS and particulary Ken. I have lobbied a long time to see this and have recommended this course of action for 3 years. It is nice and refreshing to see.

I don't think MS has to come out and say "Hey, thats it folks...." I think the message is pretty clear as to what the long term direction for Fox developers is. If you want to stay with and concentrate in Fox, you can do so, but you do so at the risk of an ever shrinking market. If you want to go to .NET, MS will help you bridge the gap.

Fox is not going away anytime soon. Its market OTOH, has been evaporting for quite some time. If this were not so, then MS would aggressively market the product. Is it the dog wagging the tail or the tail wagging the dog? I don't know and I don't care. I look at what is. And what is , is this... the VFP market in the aggregate is down, there is a new tool from MS that MS has staked the company on, and that tool is not Fox. Finally, MS has continually repeated the mantra that Fox is not the strategic focus of the company and that marketing plans do not include taking the product beyond the current customer base.

How much clearer does it have to be?