I've mentioned here several times that I also saw the writing on the wall about the 1996 timeframe. I was jobhunting sometime in '96. Prior to that particular jobsearch, whenever my resume went out, I had no problems getting positive callbacks.

In '96 was the first time I started hearing from recruiters that many of the Foxpro calls they were receiving were for help supporting an existing app while it is being rewritten in another language.

I think it's great that many people here have discussed how they had great success doing something in VFP to help a failed Java, VB, etc. app. However, I've never received a call from the places I know of that were rewriting from Foxpro. So there must be some success cases out there of porting to another language from Foxpro.

I think folks here could learn alot from studying some of the technological battles that have taken place throughout history. In the VHS/Beta battle, I never once heard someone argue that VHS was the superior platform for tape. I know that in the entertainment industry there is still some Beta being used because it's a superior platform. There has also been the Dolby Digital/DTS sound format battle for DVDs. Here also, I heard many arguments in the beginning that DTS was a superior format. Many DVDs, such as the extended version of Lord of the Rings, that want to show off their sound have a DTS soundtrack. Yet Dolby Digital is the standard for DVD.

PF

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>I think your analysis is one of the best I've seen posted here yet. I believe that VFP's downfall is it's failure to fit in the enterprise structure. This has nothing to do with Microsoft marketing.
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>I don't totally agree with this statement. MS has always viewed VFP as being in the xBase segment. MS purchasing Fox was a hedge in the off-chance that market took off. Given VFP's ability to create COM Components - MS could have marketed/postioned VFP as an enterprise tool ala Visual Basic. MS chose not to do this. Given 20/20 hindsight - it is clear that VFP in relation to the enterprise market is like the square peg into the round hole - insofar as it relates to what I/T decision makers are using as criteria.
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>VFP is a legacy language. It has served its purpose well. However, much like the technical jobs that have gone overseas, never to come back, many of the VFP jobs that have disappeared will never come back. Because when the hiring begins again, it will be for a different language.
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>Here is an interesting question: I wonder how much VFP work is in India? My guess is that there is not a lot. Indeed, in the pantheon of languages, like it or not - VFP is a legacy tool in the minds of many. That is the perception and that is reality.
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>>I have trouble understanding the resistance here on this board.
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>It is actually quite simple...VFP is the langauge many here like, use, and most importantly, depend upon. The knowledge of programming of some here is so locked into VFP that to think of a world sans VFP is unthinkable. I believe that many hoped (and prayed) that things would be different. This all was foreseeable as far back as October of 1993. By 1995 - it was pretty certain where MS was going - and it was not going to be Fox.