Franco

>I am also very interested to know the difference between the two, but please, talk with a "technician" language :)
>I've seen a lot of words and "way to say" on other threads that I didn't understand because of my poor "spoken" english.
>I think that the people who will compare the tools must be a competent person (now, here there are a lot of competent on VFP, but on .NET?) and
>must talk without personal feelings about the one or the other.
>
>The first thought goes to what you have to do with the development environment.
>Personally I develop desktop apps with VFP since the 2.5 version (Win 3.1!) but in the last years the web development is improving it's percentage (I've used WWC, ASP, and now ASP.NET), and last, in the next future (probably) I'll have to develop an application for the Pocket PC (which will be a "sub-set" of a VFP application the users must use on the streets for the data entry).
>I don't have a single application I sell in hundred of copies, instead many little apps.
>VFP is perfect because for the dbf's, the OOP, ecc. (all we know this :))
>
>But, my experience is that, at the end, a VFP developer (pardon: me! :) ) MUST learn a .NET language, isn't it?
>The question that I make to myself in these days is:
>
>"Is VFP so better than .Net in developing desktop applications?", because I MUST use a .NET language for the others kind of application.
>I really DON'T WANT to use something other than VFP, but VFP doesn't do all kind of applications!! I have no choice!
>It's very comfortable to have a single language to use to develop: desktop application, web sites, mobile applications, ecc. as C# or VB.NET developers has, isn't it?
>If VFP was in the .NET world, how good should be have the possibility to choose what kind of application we wold create?
>I don't know if to spend my time learning a .NET language or the next versions of VFP.....

My view on things is that applications shouldn't be singled out as "desktop" apps, "web" apps, "mobile" apps. If .Net was used as it should be used, you will be writing n-tier apps which can be used for "any" type of application, whether it's web-based, windows-based etc. This is the key, IMO, and full-blown OO programming can really help in this area, it's a touchy subject and there is a very steep learning curve though.

I feel that if you write the application's "core" first with all the intended functionality in-place, you can worry about what front-end it's going to support later on.

Which kinds of leads me on to who .Net would suit, if you are really, really keen on getting into OO programming, I feel .Net is the place to start, however, if you have deadlines, you want to get an app up and running quickly, then VFP is great - however, that doesn't mean you can't write n-tier apps in VFP, you can, but you will have to put up with some limitations, and these aren't small when you're half-way through writing an architecture.

Kev