Good points Albert. I have no experience in Java, but I would gladly learn it if I would have the chance (C# is also on my target). I have done some C++ development in the last 3 years and while it is much more difficult to learn and use, I have learned much more about what's going on at a lower level in an application than with VFP that hides much of it. Not to mention that you have much more power in your hands, you are free to do what you want.

One of the advantages that Java and .NET have over C++ and that I find very usefull is garbage collection.

>I do VFP, Java, and C++ development with my company. Java is a great programming language. I feel that VFP programmers can adapt to Java very easily if they are adept at using the OOP features of VFP and VFP developers have the advantage over C++ developers when doing Java because we better understand the weaknesses of garbage collected programming languages. Java arrays are similar in implementation to VFP arrays, and C++ developers expect them to behave like C arrays. One of the key things to remember about Java is that Java Strings are very different from VFP or C++ strings. Java Strings are a final class and are unique in that if there is more than one String of the same value, they all reference a single block of data. The overhead of instanciating String objects is higher in Java than other languages because there is a search through all instanciated Strings for a pre existing, matching data value. This can greatly reduce the memory foot print for many redundant Strings.
>The problem is that if you are doing alot of String concatenation, this can be very expensive in regard to processing overhead. Java provides a simple work around in the StringBuffer class, StringBuffers are analogous to the VFP character data type. Much of the assertions by experienced progammers of slow Java performance is caused by their missuse of Strings instead of StringBuffers. Early experiences with Java were also colored by the lack of optimisation of the garbage collection algorithms of the older Java Virtual Machines. VFP garbage collection has been tweeked over the last 20 years, while Java garbage collection has gone through many fewer refinements. An example of the degree of improvement in Java performance is that the 1.4 JVM is supposed to be 50% faster than the 1.3 JVM in garbage collection. Garbage collection is the major reason for VFP programmer productivity advantage over C++ and Java also benefits from this advantage. Transitioning to any new programming
>language requires one to rethink old habits, I would look at the change of languages as an opportunity to enhance my resume and skill set. Additionally, Java proficiency is very transferable to C# development. Is your fear of change because you are a contractor at the company and worry about a cancellation of your contract? If I were an employee of the company, I would look forward to the change. There are many things that VFP does better than Java for data manipulation, Java is quite good at presenting data and for data entry. I have been very successful at developing Web apps with Java frontends and VFP backends. VFP is also great for prototyping and data maintenance utilities. Keep an open mind and you will find that lessons learned in Java development can also improve you VFP abilities. The Java standard library can teach you ways of gaining greater code reuse in VFP, and where the architects of Java made mistakes, you can apply your VFP experience to do a better job. As
>a VFP developer, you should understand databases, and efficient database schemas are as vital to Java as they are to VFP. You knowlege of the best ways to organize and process data will give you an edge over Java developers that are more proficient at window dressing.