No surprise that when I stumble across one of those rare messages in a thread like this that has an unusually high signal to noise ratio it is from you < s >

This issue came up a couple of months ago on a thread and Tamar and I were exchanging messages about what constituted a VFP developer vs. a hack (not hacker < g >) It also explained why those with "jobs" are subject to all the vissicitudes of arbitrary management decisions, pointy-haired bosses and being "underpaid" (though it is hard to see how you can underpay a hack) and those who get into it and have some interest and curiosity about what they do always seem to make a living, have fun - and have options.

I imagine this holds true in most professions, and I suppose one should not be surpised that no more than about 10% of any group are doing more than just going through the motions.



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>The main reason, IMO, is that most developers have a job, not a career. For example, I know several VFP developers who, despite my urging, have never signed on to the UT, have never read a VFP book, don't subscribe to a VFP magazine, have never attended a VFP conference, and have never purchased a VFP add-on. Why not? Because they have an 8 - 5 job writing programs. Between 5:01 pm and 7:59 am, they don't spend a minute thinking about VFP, their project, or their job. They're happy doing what they do as a job, and their only interest in a career is moving into a management role.
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>Employers aren't much better. I know many companies employing VFP developers who don't pay for magazine subscriptions, won't buy books or third-party tools, won't send developers to conferences ("we're not paying for these people to go on a glorified vacation to some nice resort"), and do nothing to encourage their developers to advance their knowledge (unless they want to do it on their own time, of course). After all, these people should know everything they need to solve today's problems or we wouldn't have hired them in the first place, right?
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>Here are some stats to back this up. Let's say there are 200,000 FoxPro developers worldwide as Ken states. The number one selling VFP add-on of all time, which several years ago was FoxFire (although this may be different now), sold less than 10,000 copies. The number one selling VFP book of all time, Hacker's Guide, sold less than 10,000 copies. The best conference attendance ever was at DevCon in the early 90's, at roughly 2,500. The best FoxPro Advisor or FoxTalk ever had was about 20,000 subscribers. So, at most, 10% of FoxPro developers spend any money at all in advancing their knowledge of the product via outside resources. In fact, I believe 10% is high, since I'm pretty sure there were more than 200,000 FoxPro developers in the mid-90's.
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>People who are active in the community, OTOH, truly love what they do. They likely come to the community in the first place to seek answers to problems, realize there's a great bunch of people here, and decide to hang out on a regular basis. Yes, we have our arguments, but based on my experience in other communities (I'm a member of several, including GoldMine, ACCPAC, and non-computer related), we have no more, and likely a lot less, bad blood between members than most communities.
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>Doug