It won't die the way DOS doesn't die.... people will go in using the last standard release for years, but useage will tail off exponentially until only a few are using it. My predicition is that VFP development will cease sometime between 5 and 10 years from now, if not sooner, probably about the time the next WinOS comes out. Longhorn, isn't it? The new OS will be so different that VFP won't fit in at all. To use VFP folks will have to stay with XP or Win2K or Win9X, something that MS is forcing people NOT to do by means of 'security' patches. data format changes, etc..., or update to .NET compatible languages and interfaces. By then all the 3rd party links to .NET will have gone beyond the embrace and extend mode, and into the extinquish mode, leaving .NET developers totally in a pay per use licensing scheme.
Microsoft's commitment to VFP can be measured in their whitepapers advocating VFP as a business solution, the size of their advertizing budget, and the targets of their VFP PR campaigns. So far, the principal target is the VFP community, which is a way to appear to advertize and not spend much time or money on it.
From my POV their efforts with the VFP community are such that they are treating the VFP community as geriatrics and the UT forum as a 'nursing home', attended by some big name nurses, where some patients will die and others will move to .NET & C# (get well). That is what CoDe is all about too.
I estimate we will be using VFP 6.0 in the development mode for maybe another five years, and in the support mode for five more years. By 2012 VFP will be history here, if not sooner.
JLK
JLK
