Robert- A while back, we decided to get heavy into web development, using VFP as the middle tier. With that in mind, I really only have to worry about browser compatibility, which really doesn't involve VFP. And, if I'm hosting the app, which is what we do most of the time, we control that infrastructure platform and can keep it as old as we like ;)
On the other hand, seven more years is a long time to prepare for change. Vista itself will be supported beyond that, so VFP 9 SP 2 should run at least another good solid 10 years, which is plenty of life time for any software project. I also believe that, with so many existing users on a variety of OS versions, virtual machine support for "legacy OS's" will be a booming cottage industry, especially for smart folks like yourself, enabling us to go even longer. The only real downside is just finding good talent. However, that is a problem in all software development areas, even .NET, and it is a problem world-wide. I think that we will be investing in training folks more and more as time goes on. To me, .NET is unproven. They haven't put two versions out in a row that are compatible with each other. Performance is slowly improving, but the framework lacks basic functionality that VFP developers have relied on for many years; LINQ is a step in the right direction. Again, it's like anything else, you have to be ready to invest quite a bit of time and money, and take on substantial risk, in switching horses. I have personal experience trying to get managed and unmanaged code working together, and it was disastrous from an investment point of view. I can't comment on the two compiler products you mentioned; I don't think they would be attractive to me because (1) I already have a compiler and (2) I control the VFP platform OS to a great extent. The bottom line: there are no sure things, no guarantees, right? If you suddenly invest $1M over 5 years in .NET, what happens when they replace that, as they surely will? Microsoft's revenue goals are at odds with developer's revenue goals; Microsoft makes money on "tool churn" and we make money building long-lasting stable business solutions. I think your question to Microsoft (or LAMP or Dabo or ???) should be: OK, <tool-du-jour> sounds great, but how do I sell that to my customer, who, by the way, loves what I've already built them (not to mention the fact that they already paid for it)? Dave -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert Jennings Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 1:35 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Another life after VFP thread? Dave, What happens when VFP will no longer run on Windows? You can't expect users to run old and unsupported Operating Systems. The Bean Counters will never allow it. Ditto to the Big Number point. I think I've been rather conservative too! :o( You certainly have taken your hand to many area's and the awards are well deserved. We are concentrating on a part of the market that the company was founded in and key members of staff have many, many, many years in that area. "Know the user, know the task!" (boy does that saying keep rattling around in my head!) We will have to migrate somewhere as we want to be around providing our customers our unique products for many many years to come. Each system we sell has a possible 20-30 year lifespan! If I can keep everything in VFP then I'll be very happy but I just don't think that is possible. However, can these provide a ray of light? http://www.etecnologia.net/ http://www.vulcandotnet.com/ Surely keeping the status quo with my software and compiling into a .NET app surely is the least painful path? This will ensure I can spend time providing solutions to my customers with the Fantastic Tool that is VFP. Regards Robert Jennings Development and Computer Services Manager Marine Software -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dave Bernard Posted At: 02 April 2007 17:56 Posted To: Profox Archive Conversation: Another life after VFP thread? Subject: RE: Another life after VFP thread? Robert- What a well-thought-out and well-written email. Many folks have recently focused on what particular language/tool to which they "need" to switch due to recent events. Your focus on the business issues at hand is refreshing and right on target, IMHO. "There are no technical problems, only business problems." Your $400K number is very similar to the $500K number I've had as a working cost to bring our development capabilities in .NET up to par with what we can already do in VFP; and I truly believe that is a conservative number. We're a small company, and that is a big number. I can speak very clearly for our company; there will be no "conversions" to .NET with existing products and services because it makes no business sense (for us). Period. While we do occasional .NET work, we are paid for every bit of it. Same with LAMP work; same with C++ work. But most of our existing work is with VFP, and will continue as long as it makes good business sense. We have won multiple awards in the last 12 months for our work (see the news on our site) which is underpinned by VFP throughout. We will be sponsors for two VFP conferences this year (FoxForward and SWFox) and continue to grow our staff of VFP developers. Dave Bernard The Intellection Group, Inc. http://www.IntellectionGroup.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert Jennings Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 12:30 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Another life after VFP thread? Hi all, I don't often get time to read the profox list as I'm busy with my head in code, providing solutions to problems posed by customers. I think that the thread has certainly brought up many thoughts and discussions of languages. It may be fine for a programmer who goes from company to company to pick up lots of languages and write software in them (Which is fine) but my problem is that I have applications that I have out in the Market, we have over a thousand sites/ships using our software. Prior to 2000 the company had software written in Clipper running in DOS. VFP was the natural progression to provide the software on the Windows Platform. (yes a rewrite was required from the ground up) Saying that, it took 2 years to Migrate 1 application from Clipper to VFP. <snip> [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ 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 Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED]@comcast.net ** 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.
