Frankly ... thank God. Microsoft's .NET strategy is simply a natural progression of programming languages. They (MS) have normalized the functionality out of C++, FoxPro, VB, and others and placed it into the objects that make up the .NET framework. Looking into the future, this is a GREAT thing.

I've frequently lamented my decision to pursue Information Systems over medicine ... for one reason and one reason alone ... derivation of profits from a stable base of operations. Think about it ... the human body ... over the lifetime of a physician ... evolves very little (even though the knowledge of that body changes significantly ... but the body itself does not). This enables a physician to maintain his or her practice with a reasonable amount of additional training.

Conversely, and before .NET, programmers were forced to learn new languages periodically in order to remain competitive. With .NET, this (hopefully) is no longer the case. .NET is bringing our profession closer to the medical profession in that the controlling language itself will no longer change much (C# and VB.NET) ... what will change over time is the objects contained in the .NET framework that enable us to communicate with the computer.

I like it ... and for the first time in my programming career ... I've seen the benefit of learning a new language ... other than VFP.

If you think about it, programmers and their companies facilitate the communication between the user's problem domain and the computer itself (which accomplishes tasks the users do not want to inconvenience themselves with). This new paradigm makes learning this new skill set worth my while ... and probably ... yours as well.

Sincerely and respectfully,

C. T. Blanknensip
http://www.savvysolutions.com
(this site is brand new ... not in anyway complete ... please be patient)