Cetin -

Not sure if I ever responded to you on this -
but -
since HOPE publishing put out the book, and I was fortunate enough to find it IN PERSON in BeiJing in 1999 - I would hope that any developer serious about VFP would have found it as well..


In my numerous trips back to China the past 3 years I have not used the book at all in the PRC - but have mentioned it, along with the ISBNR #, and told many developers where to purchase it. I HAVE used it with Chinese developers in the US - Chinese VB gurus who wanted to learn VFP - so far it's been 'checked out' more than 35 times since I've been based in Dallas - by developers here in Dallas...

Ya - it was childish of me to suggest about the book some time ago - BUT - if a developer is serious about VFP and they are IN China, then I have to make an assumption that they have access to this book. If they don't - then I cannot use them on any spec'd project that my firm is paying for.


There are other ways for me to tell how 'good' a developer is - and my practices are a bit different than most - when I am IN China I talk about the book, of course - but only in passing... I also conduct a very sweat-draining technical interview. I DO HAVE OTHER criteria to determine whether a developer is 'versed' in the technologies I want to use - yes yes - you ARE RIGHT that I would never use 'just the book' as the ONLY criteria.

In another vein - have you had a chance to look at 'An Introduction to Database Systems' by C.J. Date ?? He's the GOD of SQL - and this one is a text book. I've loaned this one to over 100 developers now - I had bought a case of this book about 2 years ago. I also talk about this book when I am interviewing developers... It's been considered the bible of SQL by all in this field, written by the God Of SQL himself.



I guess one bottom line for YOU, Cetin - is that I would never ask you 'the same question' for your reputation is well known to me and others.. When I speak with Chinese developers about database 'stuffs' - I always want to find out if they are a neophyte, alcolyte, or card-carrying bishop of the VFP church - and really - in essence -

the question of 'the book' is ONLY one of about 120 questions I ask...
---
now then - along the same path -
Cetin -
if a turkish developer sent me a resume for a project that I have going on in Turkey.
and... if I could not find him listed anywhere on UT, VFUG or even yahoo.
then I would d*mn sure ask about the turkish version of this book [which I must say sits proudly next to the Chinese version] and keep on with the rest of the questions in my interviewing portfolio..

--
In summary - I really think you mis-understood me the first time - and I know I didn't provide enough background and info for you to know what the heck I was on about..

mondo regards [Bill]

>>>How popular is Foxpro in China? When I was in Nanning in 1999, I found Foxpro for DOS books in simplified Chinese in a small bookstore.
>>---
>>Marie -
>>When I was in BeiJing in 1999, I bought a VFP6 Programmer's Reference Guide with CD. The CD was a VFP6 installation set, codepage = simplified Chinese.
>>I never installed it, but used the book when we got in resumes from developers in China - I'd go to some page, and fire off an email - "what's on page 219 and why is it important?" if i didn't get any response, then I felt the developer was full of bull...
>>mondo regards [Bill]
>
>Bill,
>I think it's not a fair way of deciding how good a developer is. If say you bought a book in Turkey and asked me the same question I wouldn't response too simply because I never bought a Turkish book on computing :) Should I be considered as knowing nothing about Foxpro ?
>Of course if the job is way important to me I could go and buy one but in that case too I wonder if I would understand a Turkish version Fox documentation at all though Turkish is my mother language ( you know what I don't use and understand Turkish Windows or Office and first translate to English to get what it's trying to say in a dialog :) Probably I would request you to ask the same question with location on MSDN online help.
>Cetin