>>>Tell the technical manager to look at www.surplusdirect.com. This is one of the largest sites on the web and is Fox based. VFP makes an excellent C/S environment. The tech manager needs to stop listening to marketing hype and start listening to the people who really use these tools.
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>>I've tried that tactic in the past. The response is generally along the lines that if he calls MS (we're an MS Solutions Partner) and asks what to do in this situation they say "VB and SQL Server". If Microsoft won't back me up (and they don't) then I look like an idiot.
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>>In essence, anyone who suggests a VFP solution is a wild-eyed idiot because Microsoft doesn't back up VFP.
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>I felt that I was labeled a "Flame Troll" here when I first came to this forum to lament the lack of support from MS concerning VFP. All the MS Solution Providers and professionals in Northeast Florida recommended VB/SQL Server to me. Understand that I am the manager of a small I.S. shop for an insurance company. Although the current systems run in FoxPro 2.6 (DOS), the underlying code is really DBASE III; the original designers never implemented any "real" Fox functionality as they upgraded from DBASE to FoxPro 2.0 (I introduced FoxPro 2.6).
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>But now I struggle with the decision to rewrite the existing systems. I see no point in recompiling XBASE code with denormalized tables and hardcoded PCL reports. Should I rewrite the system in VFP? As a manager now, I am reluctant to do so.
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>Look at from the manager's perspective. When was the last time that you read an article about VFP in a mainsteam computer publication or trade magazine? Sorry, FoxPro Advisor does not count. Also, MS Marketing can't get things straight. I have seen MS Access advertised as the first 32-bit database engine, but VFP 3.0 was released prior to the development of JET 3.0. Then look at the ability to leverage VB knowledge across all the MS products--VBA and VB Script (used even in VC++).
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>I am impressed by the effort that MS puts into VFP, but I still doubt their long term commitment to the product. I think that VFP developers also ignore the contribution of other MS products to VFP. We often point to Rushmore and RDO in JET/VB as VFP technologies, but Access had a much better data dictionary with rules, triggers, and visual design prior to VFP. The new VFP debugger comes from VC++ as well as the color syntax in the editor (minor but helpful on the eyes).
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>I think the inclusion of VFP in Visual Studio is an attempt to get all of you excited about Bill's real vision. He wants VB to be the core development language of Windows. Look at the growth of VBA in non-MS products. Look at the favorable articles posted at Microsoft's site for VB as compared to VFP.
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>If the best tool or technology always won, Apple would rule the PC market. NT would not be making as much ground as it is networking. And Microsoft would push VFP for all LAN based, data centric applications. In fact, the official Microsoft position on JET vs. Fox is that they are similar in features and performance (MS paper on selecting the right database engine). Why would a manager not go with the most "popular" tool?
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>Jack Mendenhall
>Manager, Information Systems
>Reinsurance Management, Inc.


Does an article last year in Dr. Dobbs count??? How about every Visual Studio ad? Everyone mentions VFP. How about the new "Windows Architecture for Developer's Training" from Microsoft? VFP gets as much mention as other products.

I think you need to take a closer look at hoe Microsoft advertises products, and VFP in particular. At DevCon 96 in Phoenix, Microsoft publically admitted that they had screwed up their marketing of VFP 3.0 and we would see changes, which we have. They also stressed the new marketing team's background. Both had long history and ties to FoxPro. They also said that lots of their time was spend marketing VFP internally. I've also seen improvements in this area as I talk to Microsoft sales people regularly. Things are getting better. If you still feel the way you do, then go ahead and move over to VB/SQL.