>Hello all.
>
>If we didn't have Foxpro for desktop/database development, what would we use?

VS.Net if you are going to use MS products.

Having said that, I will throw in my $0.02 regarding VFP and the future of it.

SET RANT ON

Fox 2.6 (DOS) was introduced nearly fifteen years ago (I dismember the exact dates). Last year, I was contacted by a small company that was thinking - not comitted, just thinking - about moving to VFP, IF we could make it work with their mish-mosh of hardware.

What does this say? That this company is behind the times? Perhaps, but judging from the liberal application of flat-screen monitors in their office, I think not. What it DOES say is that there is life well after the marketing death of a product.

One of the facts overlooked by so many pundits is that software does not have a shelf life. Yes, it may become obsolete, and even unusuable due to improvements in hardware, but I STILL have a dBase 5 (DOS, mind you) app that I wrote for personal use that runs fine on my P4 laptop. Do I want to update it? Maybe for educational reasons, sure, but otherwise it runs fine.

My point here is that good software - and VFP 7, 8, and 9 is GOOD software - long outlasts the marketing effort behind it. Given a good business reason, companies will stick with it, and need someone to support it. Now, I'm not a .Net guru - far from it - but I've talked to a lot of developers, and while there is a lot of excitement about .Net, the majority agree there is a steep learning curve, and often not a lot of dollar-justification behind making the transition. And there's a backlash, too, of developers (and IT departments) that don't want to make the transition. Face it, .Net is a HUGE product, and not always solidly glued together.

This could spell some additional sales opportunities for VFP. It's a great product, with the ability to interface with SQL, native data-handling abilities, interactive command window, and tons more great features. OK, so it's not bulletproof. There's some funky (okay, a lot of funky) built into the core of the product that doesn't promote "safe" coding. But there's a lot of .Net that doesn't either. Regardless of what the evangelists say, as a team leader, overloaded methods and random interfaces strike me as extremely unsafe coding, and both of these are allowed - nay, encouraged - in .Net (sorry, Claudio).

Does that make VFP "better" than .Net? Is German "better" than English? Is being left-handed better than being right-handed? Nope, it is all relative to the business problem that you are trying to solve. At the end of the day, the customer doesn't really care what you code in, they just want software that works, that they can support, and that they can afford.

If not FoxPro, what? .Net? VFP? Delphi? Something Linus, perhaps? Who the heck knows? Personally, I find this an exciting time to be a developer. I intend to dive into the code waters buck naked. Just don't make me go back to Assembler.

SET RANT OFF