Hi Jay,

Walter will speak for himself, of course, but I'd like to offer my perspective on the matter...

First, there is a difference between someone who already has deep skill in *some* language and someone who has not. For a person new(ish) to development - or possibly still developing on a way-back platform like DOS - then going for the latest and greatest only makes sense. But for someone who is already productive in a language that is STILL under development itself then awaiting "maturity" makes great sense. It is also worth remembering that ".NET" is far far more than just 'a language' and so demands far deeper learning of far more functions than simply one language.

John Ryan has described one experience where all the hype was swallowed and it nearly cost the company (as regards JAVA if I remember correctly). It takes some time before the promise of a new language/platform materializes in fact. Apparently John's experience might well be a different one TODAY as the product in question is now more mature. He would have the benefit of reviewing numerous real-world experiences and be able to decide if it was even worth trying in the first place RATHER THAN jumping willy-nilly into the fire based solely on hype.

I admire those who have taken the early plunge into .NET, and I know that one day I will be most thankful for the efforts they made toward identifying shortcomings and recommending remedies. It **may** be, for instance, that this background talk about some form of a local 'data engine' for .NET is a result of such work. It may be that source code security will become a real issue and dealt with much more appropriately than some after-thought 'obfuscator' that seems to be the (interim) fix. Who can say?!

Finally there is the question of the installed user base. This is an issue that MS is facing for the first (real) time in its history and it remains to be seen if they will deal with it in ways that are attractive enough to the installed BASE that moving to .NET is a good thing to do. It presently looks like most that do move to .NET do so for its web features which, of course, had a much smaller installed base to start with AND had facilities that were themselves rudimentary to start with.
With MS declaring that their target is companies that have 8,000+ employess there remain countless companies that **may** not need .NET styled features any time soon but who nonetheless need to have applications to keep their businesses running. You can be sure that most of them will be watching to see how .NET matures rather than simply jumping in and risking their companies at the whim of MS.

Jim

>>It depends. I don't think .NET strategy is a hype either. However everyone jumping the technology right now, IMO is. It makes more sense to let the tool mature.
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>Walter,
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>I never understood this philosophy. If I had waited for Foxpro to mature, I would have missed the first 3 versions and all the experience that went with it. I would not have the deeper understanding of VFP if I had waited for all the versions to mature. I feel the same way about the .NET technology. What does it hurt to start using and develoloping in it? If it totally takes-off then I'll be in the middle of it and that's not necessarily a bad thing. If it doesn't I don't think I've lost anything.
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>Just my thoughts on it.
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>Renoir