Thanks you very much Albert

It's just that in the director mind, VFP doesn't have Microsoft support. Microsoft is just keeping it alive for the small VFP community, that there is no future for it since they drop it from .NET and since he think it's doom, he want to phase out and replace all VFP development.


I would like to integrate JAVA where ever we would need it. It would be a great experience for me.

I'm convince that if Visual FoxPro 8 would be called VFP .NET we wouldn't be having this conversation....



>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.
>
>>>Luc,
>>>
>>>Has the new IT Director shown the overall strategy s/he wishes to adopt and the reasoning for it?
>>>
>>
>>His main reasoning is that JAVA is in vogue and all the respectable company
>>are using it
>>
>>>What kind of work (in the general sense) does the company do?...Are there plans to get into web-type stuff?
>>
>>Galileo is a Bio-Tech company, it is very secure and really not web oriented because of company secrets
>>
>>>
>>>Was the previous director replaced? If so, was it because the company was not happy with that person's delivery/style/?
>>>
>>The last director resign, she got an offer elsewhere
>>
>>>Does the new IT Director code, or plan to code, in addition to "directing"? Does the new IT director have some clear bias AGAINST Microsoft?... Against VFP in particular?
>>
>>He come from a box that was using DB2 with JAVA. He says that VFP has no future that Microsoft will phase it out. I thing that's because of the decision that was taken with VFP7 concerning getting it out of .Net
>>
>>
>>>
>>>Does the new IT director know that there is a VFP8 to be delivered early next year AND that some features for VFP9 have already been demonstrated? This should help against the popular "VFP has no future" that sticks like glue to us despite so much proof to the contrary.
>>>
>>Yes I told him but there is no commitment from Microsoft
>>
>>
>>
>>>Does the new IT Director know that VFP8 has TONS of new features designed for BOTH developer productivity and improved END-USER experience/flexibility?
>>>
>>
>>Yes I try to show all the new advantage in FoxPro 8 specialy the cuursor Adapter object that would be very usefull for us because we are cross plateform with MsSQL and Oracle.
>>
>>
>>>The new IT Director may be thinking that the "legitimate" alternative from Microsoft is .NET and s/he may not be too happy with the state of affairs around .NET at this time. IF that is the case, then what's wrong with waiting it out, continuing with VFP in the meantime??? I take it that moving to JAVA means wholesale replacement of staff with JAVA-competent developers. Can that really be good for the company?
>>>
>>From his point of vue yes, because it is really hard to find a Senior VFP developper.
>>
>>
>>>As regards the availability of VFP developers... that may well be a problem, but surely not an insurmountable one! Any competent programmer should be able, with some guidance and supervision, to learn VFP reasonably quickly. One person here has even described how their department (a state agency) asked interested staff to take a basic aptitude test and trained them from there.
>>>
>>I agree with you 100%
>>
>>>Anyway, I wish you good luck. A Director with a "vision" can be very hard to deal with. Sometimes that's good, but more often that's bad.
>>>
>>I know that with a small VFP team we could get the job done in less time and better than JAVA but I have to backup from Microsoft and I think that this is the main obstacle here...
>>
>>>
>>>>I'm currently working for Galileo Genomics inc, they just hire a new IT director that want to change all Visual FoxPro developepement to JAVA (J2EE).
>>>>
>>>>Did anybody ever do a business case on what would be the best programming tools to work with databases (SQL and ORACLE back-end)? Why would somebody promote JAVA over FoxPro when the entire compagny is running Microsoft product (Back Office suite, Office suite and Visual Studio).
>>>>
>>>>Galileo is not a Web oriented company and need to produce result fast. I really don't understand why JAVA could improve
>>>>-Performance
>>>>-Developement speed
>>>>-Connectivity with Database
>>>>-Cost
>>>>
>>>>The only arguments I can find against VFP is Scalability of Microsoft Back Office and availability of Visual FoxPro resource.
>>>>
>>>>Need any feedback on this topic...
>>>>
>>>>Thanks