May I have a soap-box, please ...

Foxpro is not a language for infra-structure developers, certificate worshippers or corporate benchies that make an entire career off two pages of code.

If you think about it: The nice thing about infra-structure development is that management (for political or production reasons), can simply fire the no-namer they have issues with, and move another no-namer into that position.

Fox is best [probably/mostly] for misfits that develop vertical industrial and commerical applications. A tool for independent contractors. The people that [seem to] have the most success with fox are those that write full life cycle systems, or commercial shops with a "shrink wrapped" or turn key solution. To get [or create] that kind of work takes more than a certificate, or a six month reference from a catalog supply house.

Making the decision to build large, complex, vertical bean counters is a career path frought with peril. It's not easy. Many fail before they realize they don't have the "huevos" for it. You have to create a market. You have to hammer the phone. You have to be sure of yourself.You have to give up weekends and sleep. You have to want to be the best foxpro programmer on the block:-)

There are other skills that are seeded [maybe required for] by this kind of work. Proposals for Specifications, Requirement Analysis, User Guides, Marketing Brochures, Requests for Certification (when regulators need to approve your measurinment [bean counting] methods) [even] Busines Plans!

If the thought of doing all that stuff [on your own] excites you - if you have a setup.exe you can send a prospect of a system you wrote all by-yourself, and the phone number of a user that will tell that prospect they can't live without it - then the VFP is where you want to be. You can't make it into this market by taking years to do it in C or showing up with a team of 20 no-namers that will also take years to write a clunker-infra structure solution.

Another thing:) Wine, Open Source - VFP on Linux - that's exciting. Right now there are just a few players, making lot's-o-bucks, selling MS n-Tier services (C#/.NET/etc). Open source will open up a new market and level the playing field for those of us that don't have the resources to compete against the MS-nTier big boys. Have you noticed: Most of the guys pitching against VFP are typically vested (some, sadly, without equity) in the n-Tier service industry.

VFP may not be perfect for those who are looking for a job. But, it is good for those that want to create jobs.

What I am trying to say is: If your fox prospects don't look good - then do something else. However, for the first time in 15 years, the market is going through changes - I think good fox skills will translate to these changes. I do not know how important MS n-Tier skill sets will be, or how saturated (eg low pay no-namer jobs) that market will offer 5 years from now. Remeber, MS's sucess has been as a market follower - I cannot remember them ever - [truely] making a market. MS equity has not faired that well. Share prices might correlate with MSs' attempts to make [create] an infra-structure market. I don't know. The future is still open.

SET RANT OFF

>>>>instead here are 20 positions (from JobServe.Co.UK) that mention FoxPro and have appeared during just the last 7 days.
>>>
>>>Is this the best you can come up with??
>>
>>Personally I prefer to give myself more than a week to find a position - but if that's your cup of tea.
>>
>>PS. I feel obliged to thank you for my sense of job security!
>
>Glad I can be of assistance, there is nothing wrong my job security though, the only point I'm trying to prove is that there is less of a market for Fox now than there was before.
>
>Kev