> > The operative points here, I think, are that VFP is very, very good at > > what it does; that .NET is not a suitable replacement; that the > > royalty-free standard for this type of language/product is a stake in > > the ground that MS will never remove, and that not only is there a > > market for VFP, but a growing one. > > Bill, when will you pull your head out of the sand and > realize the market for VFP is shrinking, not growing? Just > because you want it to grow, and just because the people that > could benefit from VFP apps may grow, it doesn't mean the use > of VFP is or will grow.
Derek, I'm not talking so much about VFP specifically as the genre of xBase products that share these features: - RDBMS. When the day comes that RDBMS's are passé, replaced with something so good that relational doesn't make sense anymore, then I would be inclined to agree the genre is dead. - Royalty-free. Need I expound? - integrated product development system. The 10% at the top of our business can shift mindsets/languages/paradigms at will, but the majority of people struggle for years to master just one - if they can do even that. This means that most people aren't yearning for multi-product, more complicated, more expensive replacements over something simpler that works and has stood the test of time. - a core language so rich that, after a lot of years, I have yet to use every feature. There are some frustrations and limitations, but nothing that can't be fixed or improved with effort. If there were a clearly superior language/RDBMS dev system on the market, I'd have heard about it, and frankly, I would have yearned to use it, but I'm not seeing such a thing. What I do see are all the things I have yet to do, and can do, with VFP. Because MS sat on the genre (vis a vis owning it's best incarnation) for a few years, it did manage to hold it down, but it didn't kill it. The VFP team did a great job, and because other developer tool makers were led to believe that MS bought VFP to market it, thus making it too expensive to compete with, real competitors never got out of the gate. Alaska, Borland, others, were reduced by MS's clout to bit players. But now, with this announcement, I think it's fair to say the directors of these companies are going to start having dreams again. And then there's Python and Dabo, and who knows what else will emerge next? Not only does the essence of what xBase/VFP is all about still appeal to folks like us, the whole world is scurrying to catch up with the advantages of computers. There are literally billions of people out there, mostly relatively poor, with a growing appetite for machines that we take for granted. As the market extends, the favorites are going to be products that deliver the best value, and nothing on the market says "value" better then VFP (the genre). And that's just where the genre stands today. Imagine it being even better? Bill > > -- > Derek _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
