Cecil,

See my comments interspersed...

>I have to say that I love the development tool, Visual FoxPro. My enthusiasm is high and I am always eager to learn something new each day in VFP. I am grateful to the FoxPro MVP's and also Ken Levy for their enthusiasm for this product. There are still many things all of us can learn in regard to Visual FoxPro; it was, of course, not this vast in its early days when FoxBase was nothing more than another DBASE clone, although an improved one. Back in the early days, early 1990's, I once thought that I heard Ken Levy state that FoxPro was his religion. I may be mistaken, but,... <g>

It's a pretty good religion for someone who is agnostic.

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>Truly, Visual FoxPro has come a long way over the past decade. It is no longer a DBASE-like product; it has matured into a fine development tool, reaching far past its early roots. Corporate clients are not, for the most part, aware of how powerful Visual FoxPro is in its performance and capabilities. Many are actually surprised that VFP is still alive, as they had heard that it had either, died, or was going to die.

I was told the same thing about COBOL twenty years ago. Many are shocked (or scared) when they hear about the COBOL tools that exist today. Visual, OOP, and RAD are some of the words used to describe many modern COBOL tools. There is even a COBOL .NET.

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>I don't remember the man's name, but there was a man who predicted that FoxPro would die and this article was written into a major magazine that IT managers read faithfully, so, many corporate IT departments decided to opt for other tools, i.e., VB with SQL Server, MSAccess, PowerBuilder, Oracle, Delphi, or any other number of development tools. Whoever that man was, he did a lot of harm to our VFP developer community, causing a loss in hope to the many people who had invested their time, talents and energy into learning this great product.

It as an article in InformationWeek (Weak).

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>Here we are in 2004. FoxPro is NOT dead! We are also looking at a free release of the VFP 9.0 BETA this next month. This is fantastic! This next release as well as the 8.0 version have made major strides to place Visual FoxPro as one of the all time best development tools.
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>It seems though, that we have a competitor in a manner of speaking; that competitor for marketing dollars and corporate emphasis is .NET. Microsoft's direction for their long time devlopment is .NET. So, what does a company do who produces two fine products? Well, they look at what they consider to be their best development tool and pour the money into that one priority tool and a little into the other. Why would they consider competing with themselves?

General Motors does this. Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, GMC trucks, and their investments in "foreign" automakers. Ford does the same. Would it surprise you to learn that Mazda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Astin Martin, and Volvo are all really Fords?

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>Years ago, and many of us remember this, corporate sales and marketing people from Microsoft would trot out Visual Basic before ever mentioning FoxPro or Visual FoxPro, if it was ever even mentioned. It has been this way ever since FoxPro was bought from Fox Software, Inc. (Perry, Ohio).

Perrysburg, Ohio.

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>The direction of Visual FoxPro is set by Microsoft; they have placed their bets heavily on .NET. So, why aren't all of the Visual FoxPro developers abandoning the VFP ship and heading over to .NET? Well, some are going into .NET, little by little. Yet, there still remains a loyal group of worldwide Visual FoxPro developers hoping that their product of choice can withstand the test of time and continue in the market and even improve its performance and capabilities. What has caused such a loyalty to a single product?

The community is one big reason.

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>So, we all have choices to make. FoxPro can continue and may for some time, but our question is this: "Will Microsoft continue Visual FoxPro long term, or will it eventually die the slow death long predicted?" How many of us will stay with Microsoft products in regard to developing software for our clients? Will we go to other vendors? Will we learn .NET and still used VFP?
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>I was excited about ColdFusion at one time, but that excitement abated and I came back to FoxPro. Why did I come back to FoxPro? I'd have to say that I have not seen as good a development tool as Visual FoxPro; it just keeps getting better and better.

There are many products that have had their 15 minutes of fame. Where's PowerBuilder at today? At one time it was the "next great thing".

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>In spite of a seemingly dismal portrayal of events, Visual FoxPro's immediate and future outlook seems to me to be brighter and brighter. Yet, the reality is that .NET is here to stay and will continue its growth as well. I don't think anyone can accurately predict Visual FoxPro's future. There are literally thousands of loyal VFP developers through the world who would love to see VFP be the one shining star. It is an easier product to learn and to get started with. How about .NET? Not as easy to start with, but not terrible either.
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>VFP developers actually have an easier time learning .NET over VB 6.0 programmers, since they have had exposure to the OOP concepts since VFP 3.0. The VB developers are still trying to grasp that one concept, Object Oriented Programming.

I was saying this when .NET was first announced. I even proposed that MS get some VFP developers to help train VB people.

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>Many of us, excepting notably VFP MVP's have been signing a letter to Microsoft which states some of the things I have mentioned in this article. Who are these people? They are people who love to develop software in Visual FoxPro. Their livelihood now depends on Visual FoxPro's continued development by Microsoft and future existence. However, we may all at some point have to learn more than one development tool. That's reality and maybe reality isn't so bad after all.

Why do you think that MVPs aren't signing the letter? Some will say it's because our views are stifled by MS. This is not true. MS in no way censors my thinking or my right to state my opinion. I think that MVPs aren't signing it because we understand the issue better. We understand the effect the letter will have. We understand that MS already knows the issues.

In truth, the best thing that people can do for VFP is to upgrade to the latest version. It would be interesting to see how many people that sign the letter are not using VFP 8.0. The numbers that MS will see best is not how many people sign the letter, but how many upgrade.

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>Each person over the next few months and years will have to come to terms with what he or she will do. Will you learn a new product, although you still love VFP? What will that additional development language or tool be? Will it be .NET? I think personally that .NET has a great future. I think also that Visual FoxPro will not suddenly die, but that there will still be work to do in it. But, my friends, the reality is that .NET is the Big Kahuna from Microsoft, not Visual FoxPro. I plan to keep learning and writing programs with Visual FoxPro, but I also intend to spend some learning time on .NET as well.

Good for you. I too am learning .NET.

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>I am indeed grateful that Microsoft continues to support and further enhance Visual FoxPro. I am grateful to the staff at Microsoft, starting with Ken Levy and many others, including the many FoxPro user groups, VFP MVP's, etc. for their continued support of this product.

And I know that MS appreciates your support of the product.

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>For what it's worth, these are my opinions.
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>Cecil