>1. Are you using VFP?

Yes.

>2. If your answer is "yes" for question 1, which are you use VFP at?

With Oracle (primarily). Prior to that, with SQL Server exclusively for 7 years.

>3. What do you think VFP should mainly for?

This is a hard question to answer generally and in a few words. I would say that if there is a short term task that absolutely has to be done and the skillset of the shop is in VFP - then it should be done in VFP (so long as the short term benefit outweighs longterm costs).

In years past, I think it was easier to quantify a presumptive advantage for VFP. Today, the rest of the world has caught up - and IMO - VFP does not have a presumptive technical advantage in any aspect of applicatiion development. There indeed may be an advantage due to having a certain comfort level with the tool - but this is a matter of preference - not technical advantage. Rick's latest post - as all his posts - are instructive on this point.


>
4. Should I keep investing on VFP, or move? If move, what language you prefer?
>

You can stay in VFP with out investing in it. IMO, the over-arching question is not whether you stick with VFP, the question is how long do you stay out of the managed code sandbox? The folks at MS - at PDC - are telling people that all innovation and support is shifting toward managed code. VFP is not in managed code. So what does that tell you?

My advice has alway been this: leverage your VFP skills while honing skills in emerging technology.

As for which "language" I would choose - I think that is the wrong question. The correct question is which platform(s) to support? Are you going to be a windows-only developer? If so, .NET is clearly the best choice. OTOH, one needs to take hard look at Linux. In my shop, we are running Oracle on a Linux cluster. If you don't want to be tied to windows, then you may want to look at Java. There is also a plethora of open-source tools out there.

Which language to choose IMO - is putting the cart before the horse and represents how issues were tacked in the 1980's and 1990's. Today, it is about the platform. Decide which platform(s) you are going to support and let that drive your technology. Once you have decided the tehnology, then you can start to make choices about language. The language is not even secondary anymore - it is tertiary at best.


>Something I feel so curious are:
>1. From the 1st day I join UT (5 years ago), I can "see" you are not support VFP. You always suggest us to move to VB, becuase you think it is the "future" development tool. However, I can see you always participate in VFP thread.
>

Is this were the argument begins??? < bg >..

Seriously, I have never suggested that people "move" to VB wholesale. Rather, I suggested that people learn VB. Look...it was important enough for Whil Hentzen to have conference talks on it and it was important enough for FoxTalk to publish articles by me on it. And, it was important enough for YAG to write a book on VB.

I contend that those who embraced VB as part of their toolset are fundementally better prepared developers today as compared to those who did not.


>
2. Before this, you "think" VB is future development tool. Now, VB is "obselete", because no more VB7, but VB.NET. AFAIK, both are different technology, and not backward compatible. Instead, VFP3 is fully backward compatible and keep upgrading. So, what do you think about your previous messages?
>

You realize that you are putting forth an argument here - don't you?

In light of your "argument" - I stand 100% behind my previous messages. 100% backward compatibility is not the great thing you think it is. For one thing - it constrains what you do in the future.

And FWIW, VB 6 and VB .NET are VERY similar.

BTW, and this is only one non-scientific example, if you go to monster.com and type in FoxPro - you get 141 hits. If you type in VFP - you get 5. And, if you type in VB - you get 2666 hits.


>3. How could you know .NET is future development tool? Any sucess story?

I look at all the activity, the third party support, my personal experience, and the experience of others - .NET will be around for a while. Forever? No -nothing lasts forever.

>
Thank you for your attention. My english is not good, so pls forgive me if my message make you feel uncompfortable.
>

Me uncomfortable???? Never!!

Hope I answered your questions to your satisfaction.