Denis

Here is an actual example for you...

I developed a very large (now 650 gigs and growing (yes GIGS)) data warehouse solution for the EFT/Banking industry. When I was learning about the Business some 10 years ago (1993-4) (not learning programming but the EFT industry) I naturally wrote the first system in DOS FP 2.6. The screens were kludgy (because of me) the interface not so pretty (again me) However the Management LOVED it, Because it did what they wanted quickly and cheaply... ( took a mainframe job that took a complete day of processing (no kidding) to about an hour on a 486/66) and as the PC's Got faster the Pentiums and the like the processing time got shorter ;)

Skip ahead a few years Started my own company Created completely new program based on my expiernce in the Industry. time frame (1995-6) VFP 3.0 / VFP 5.0
java (97ish)comes out I freek because of the total lack of marketing by Microsoft using VFP. But java is a 1.0 product looking for a reason for being (is server is it client???) Read many messages by Dr. John Ryan about
the problems he is having with both VFP (marketing) and JAVA 1.0 product decide to stay with VFP. 1999 land a HUGE customer beat out Oracle, EDS, E-funds and other multi-billion companies for the project still in VFP...

Skip to today new manager at company questions VFP the next day (thank GOD) the slammer worm hits Bank of America (not my customer) and trust me although the questions have'nt stop nore will they ever stop, If your product does what the want they will hand you wads'o cash for it


today...
For me learning Dreamwever MX, Mere mortals for both VFP and .Net and will look into a back end probably DB2, Oracle and maybe if they get there act together SQL-server 2003 but most importantly I will decide when to move when it is time to move not because a customer requests the move (if they offer to pay maybe sooner)

The toolset (VFP) for a small shop (1-2 programmers) is unbeleivable and with West-wind, SDT the productivity is great. Customer is happy somtimes ;)

I use the fox until there is something better and not a day longer...


jp






>But that's the thing what does a guy should do when the money is tight and he's alone to cover it all.
>
>I'm sure that the description I gave you applies to many Fox developers.
>
>>PMFJI
>>
>>I, like yourself, was questioning this a while back until I noticed something that should have been clear for everyone to see, but unfortunately wasn't, and that is you have to accept that VFP isn't in the "long-term" plan for Microsoft, .Net is.
>>
>>I'm not sure what position you are in as an employee, but I am fortunate in that if my company decides on a new language, I will be re-trained and allowed time to pick up the language.
>>
>>As it goes, we are moving away from Fox, very slowly. We have MSDN subscribtions now and they are definitely worth it IMO, there isn't much you can't get your hands on, giving you masses of freedom in the language you choose or the tools you wish to utilise.
>>
>>I'm still continuing fox development with VFP8, and will do until the day comes that I work on a .Net app, but that could be years away yet.
>>
>>After using VFP8, you know by now it's pretty awesome, and is more powerful than it's ever been, if I was given the choice to go with technology or my existing preference (VFP), I would choose the latter, the advantages to be gained from it are un-equalled as far as I'm concerned.
>>
>>Kev
>>
>>
>>>>>I'm questioning myself and apparently you <g>, where do VFP fit?
>>>>
>>>>This is really a question for you to answer and decide yourself. The direct answer to this question is, get MSDN Subscriptions and use the tool(s) for your development needs.
>>>
>>>Thanks a lot for that very highly clarifying answer. Oh and by the way I'll make sure that I also get all the development tools for linux (that implies learning Java) and also I'll get all the script languages for the web (just in case) like PHP, JavaScript... I'll also get Oracle, MySql... Who knows what I'll need in the future.
>>>
>>>You can't be serious. This is the worst I was expecting from you. I'd expect an answer like that from someone who does'nt really care about something because he's on his way out of a given place. Is that the case? Where are the answers to the other questions?
>>>
>>>To me this is a clear sign that VFP is a dead end choice. It really does'nt look good when someone in charge of marketing for a product can't find answers to some basic questions.
>>>
>>>Perhaps you just gave a VERY CLEAR beginning signal that NOW is the time to leave VFP.
>>>
>>>Is that really the way you want to end this thread?