Jim,

>What I am asking for is some sort of assurance that you are still committed to your original framework. In good conscience I can’t recommend Mere Mortals to my boss or any of my many colleagues if I don’t think the framework is going to evolve and keep pace with the continual improvements made in VFP. If you are discontinuing support, or phasing it out in favor of .NET, this would be perfectly understandable, but I need to make an informed, intelligent decision and go with it.

We do plan to release a new version of MM VFP for VFP 8, we've already got quite a few changes in place, but there is definitely more work to be done. One of the biggest changes involves using the new cursor adapter class for data access from business objects.

>Sorry if this message offends or hits too hard at home, but your website says you are committed to brutal honesty and integrity, so I figure you can handle it and respond in kind.

No offense taken! And while we're being brutally honest <s>...

We are obviously concentrating more on MM .NET than MM VFP. The reason for this is two-fold...first of all, although VFP still has a place in the developer's toolbox, the VFP market continues to shrink. If you talk to any VFP third-party tool vendor you'll hear the same thing...the bottom has dropped out of the FoxPro tool market. Unfortunately, the writing is on the wall! I realized this fact about 18 months ago and was depressed for weeks! Even Whil Hentzen, the sole publisher of FoxPro books, has realized there's not much of a profit in VFP books anymore and has announced that he has shifted his focus over to Linux books. I know others have said this isn't true, and everything's still rosy, but I'm in a unique position having both a VFP and .NET product. I get phone calls and e-mails on a daily basis from VFP developers who are on the move!

Secondly, I believe in .NET. It's got its warts and hiccups like any other MS product (including VFP) but it's a fantastic set of tools and technologies. Personally, I'm having a blast as are many of the VFP developers who have expanded their tool set or completely moved to .NET. Right now we're completely filling our .NET classes and MM .NET continues to sell well. Hands down, .NET is a great product and it is the future of software development at Microsoft. I highly recommend that you look seriously at expanding out into .NET along with your VFP development.

When you think about it, the same logic you are applying to Oak Leaf versus F1 Technologies can also be applied to FoxPro versus. .NET. Each product team within Microsoft is like its own company. Look at the amount of resources and marketing the .NET "company" has compared to the FoxPro "company". The Fox team is extremley limited in what they can do...although they can add some similar features, their resources and the very nature of FoxPro dictate that there is no way they can keep up with advancements made in .NET...and there are some VERY cool things on the .NET horizon.

Long story short, I'm still a FoxPro fan and always will be, and for that reason will continue to enhance and upgrade MM VFP, but we focus on MM .NET and highly recommend that Fox developers in general do the same for the sake of their businesses and programming careers.

Regards,