Hi Ken. With all due respect...


>To create a VFP .NET language, you would lose the VFP data-centric commands and functions since .NET languages are built around ADO.NET and other .NET Framework classes

That puts the cart before the horse. You dont *have* to have it built around ADO.NET. Thats a choice. For me the single biggest selling point for VFP is that it has its own native, royalty free, database engine which works the way it does, ie. not a database server. I suspect for many VFP developers this is the case.


>you would lose the native database engine since that is not part of .NET and something like MSDE (soon SQL Server Express) is used instead if not SQL Server

Same as above. Thats a choice. You could allow a VFP.Net to access native database but choose not to. Thats not a reason it "can't" be done. Its a reason for why it *won't* be done. Its a stumbling block that exists for business reasons, not technical reasons.


>and you would also lose the VFP IDE in place of the VS IDE shell.

Same comment as above. Delphi has its own IDE but can produce .Net apps. Whats the IDE got to do with it? Thats a business choice, not a technical one.


>So you lose the VFP database, the data language stuff, and the IDE. What do you have left from VFP to put into .NET?

Its a strange argument. MS choose to remove critically important things from the possible convertion process and then say "there is nothing left worth converting?". Well obviously!

If MS are saying it is not technically possible, then fine. If MS are saying we dont want to because we want to sell something else, thats also great. But to arbitrarily say we won't convert x,y, and z and therefore there's nothing left worth converting is a non-starter.


>We have decided that what customers want and need is VFP like feature added to the VS shell, .NET languages, and .NET Framework.

Well clearly this is not what (some) VFP customers want :)


It would be much better if MS simply said we don't want to convert VFP to .Net, period. We dont want to market it anymore, period. We like the VFP users that we have and dont need anymore, period. At least thats simple and straight forword. But to say we will not convert certain parts of VFP and therefore there is nothing left worth converting makes it a non-starter.


Apologies to DenisC again :)