Hi Kevin


....I'm not bashing Fox - it's a great product. But promoting it for an entire 5 year technology plan is potentially tantamount to professional negligence.....
I would tend to concur with most of your sentiments but I think you are going a bit far with this one.


Regards,

Gerard



>Gerald,
>
>1) Even if VFP will be suppported, .NET will be innovated. That is an important factor for a five year plan. The downward trends for VFP exceed the upward ones, and the reverse is true for .NET. Microsoft has declared VS.NET as their strategic development tool. Some major names in the VFP community have moved on (and/or have invested heavily in .NET).
>
>The other consultant could bring up any of these points: what would be your response? A letter promising 'support' and some case studies?
>
>2) John Petersen and I have a common client in the Southeast PA area. This client has a number of 'legacy' VFP applications. He's stated before (so I hope he won't mind me saying so) that the client was impressed with him because he didn't pay lip service to the technology they'd used for years . He was very candid that he hoped the client had a long-term goal of moving into more sophisticated technologies for distributed computing. In other words, he didn't tell them what some people might want to hear. (And John can correct me if I've misquoted him, but that's my understanding).
>
>3) I realize you can't move to .NET overnight, or even in a few months. It can take 6-12 months, or even longer. (It's easier now to transition than it was 2-3 years ago, because the on-line knowledge base is so huge).
>
>So you might want to think about a transition plan. But if you plan to promote VFP as the key tool for an entire five-year technology plan, you will eventually find yourself defending a position that went contrary to many business and technology trends. If your client is mapping out a five year plan, and knows the industry trends, odds are good that if you try to sell VFP ahead of newer technologies over the long haul, you run the risk of not being on the client's map in five years.
>
>That's why a few individuals on this forum have stressed the necessity to become proficient in the tools that MS is actively marketing. It makes business sense and is often the responsibile thing to do in the long run.
>
>I'm not bashing Fox - it's a great product. But promoting it for an entire 5 year technology plan is potentially tantamount to professional negligence.
>
>Hope this helps,
>Kevin