Thoughts and comments

re: Thoughts and comments

Larry — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:43:56 GMT

First, I wish the entire VFP team at MS the best. After all, this isn't about technology before people, but people first. That said, all of us out here using VFP as a bread-winner tool are people too and I hope we'll make good choices.

Second, talking about Fox 2.6 apps and linking them to current VFP apps comes across to me like "Enjoy the embers of a dying fire." The reality was there all along. I will spare myself the searching for reasons to keep it alive. The people paying the bills are opting for the mainstream and that is NOT VFP: period! If any one of you can continue to milk the goat, have fun and good luck.

Third, what intrigues me is the path towards .NET as a VFP developer. Mostly, this is true because I need to make a living and I see a richer, greener landscape with .NET or Java, so what sort of no-brainer is this? Nevertheless, there are very cool points about having both items in my toolbox (VFP and .NET).

This third point (for me) is the pathway forward. Skip whining about MS, the past, the heresay and emotional hyper-spin of it all. What is important is how to leverage what I have towards where I can do my best for the folks around me (my clients and business partners): for me that is the mix of VFP and C#.NET (ASP.NET).

I do like how folks have coded so many fine VFP functions in C# and VB.NET already. Reading the code actually is a great learning tool for my learning transformation towards .NET. Honestly, I would like to see more of VFP ported this way in to .NET as I can see "sculpting" already very fine conceptual work in VFP to an even stronger OO platform.

I do like how Sedna is coming along, but to be honest with you it seems like there is this notion of, "We'll code what you see in .NET in VFP and prove we still have value and matter!" I am not saying this is the entire motivator. All I am saying is, "Keep what works, what makes sense, stay flexible and use the right tool for the right job." If the right tool is in the .NET box, then use it. If it's too low level, write it once as a class and REUSE! (somewhere I thought that was what OO was all about?)

Finally, I will be sad to see VFP sunset, even if that sunset is still 20 years away. Given what I have seen of Vista and .NET 3, the paradigm shift is in progress. The final call is: Change and ADAPT! We ask it of our software, perhaps it is time to ask it of ourselves!

re: Thoughts and comments

Franklin Garzón — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:49:40 GMT

It is incredible that MS leaves to die to a product as good as VFP, I remember when I initiated my studies with FoxDos, not think that would come this just moment when I am to half of my life and this it happens.

Much we have worked for this and MS stabs us for the back like that are rates for that we beg when MS wins for the indirect buys as windows, office, sqlserver, exchangue, etc etc.

Now it will be able only of another form that make plans of migration of VFP to JAVA and of windows to linux, and of office to open office.

I believe that after VFP's world to the whole VFP's community we still have to go away for the code source opened, just now we are in meetings to give training to other companies on this type of technologies and new trends of the code source opened and the famous GNU.

We have hundreds of interested parties worldwide that us will support in VFP's step Java and from SQLServer to MySQL.

For all those companies that want to choose this way we give them the welcome to the new world of the opensource with Linux.

Even we have the hope of which MS will extract a VFP10, but we it see very difficult that this passes, for what we continue with the plan of Windows to Linux.

re: Thoughts and comments

jlw — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 22:03:55 GMT

Ok, so there is essential intellectual property in the VFP code base, which you admit to being as old as 18 years. So, over time the ip value should go away. Also, I believe the VFP core will need rewriting for the 64 bit world.

Would MS entertain the idea of open sourcing the core at a future date, say 3-5 years from now?

This may keep the community with MS for a long time.

re: Thoughts and comments

Goran Zidar — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 08:57:45 GMT

It was Alex Feldstein who blogged about the continued existence of many thousand old FP DOS applications...

http://alexfeldstein.blogspot.com/2007/03/visual-foxpro-sedna-goes-open-source.html

I can't remember reading that anywhere else but I can confirm that there was a session by Lisa Slater Nicolls on migrating FP 2.x apps to VFP at the recent OzFox.

re: Thoughts and comments

cyborgii — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 10:49:18 GMT

I feel like left alone out in the rain.

Reading this blog makes me feel even worse.

Mr. Griver has talked to 50 different companies?

Well maybe someone should have told him the world is bigger

and the VFP users consist of a lot more than 50 companies.

One of the good sides is, we are free to go where we want to.

Even Mr. Griver has approved this for us.

Anyone interested in trusting a company and in people behaving like

this?

As it's for me..... no way.

I did not expect MS giving the source code away.

It's just so obvious. We are all to stupid to understand the source and

the entire community has done nothing towards the development. MS has

always shipped a perfect version without any bugs.

I would feel so guilty by killing thousands of jobs.

Instead of acting like we got something to celebrate.

This is so disgusting.

re: Thoughts and comments

Kana — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:41:56 GMT

Use F# from microsoft

http://research.microsoft.com/fsharp/fsharp.aspx

interactive scripting like Python

has traditional command line interpreter for F#.

Suitable for data intensive application

ISV using FoxPro - no more new versions - but Codeplex to the rescue

Eric Nelson - Development for .NET Framework 3.0 for ISVs — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 13:50:38 GMT

We have some very successful ISVs in the UK using ... drum roll... Foxpro very successfully. I spotted

re: Thoughts and comments

Steven Jansick — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:14:54 GMT

I became very excited for just a moment when i was reading my Slashdot RSS feed. It said that FoxPro was in the process of moving to open-source. I was hopefully excited for 2 reasons.

1.) I have become very familiar with VFP and by it becoming open-source I would have a good opportunity to better my resume.

2.) Our version of FoxPro performs horribly slow on Windows Vista. By looking into open source we might have an opportunity to find glitches which make it sooooo slow.

Good luck!

re: Thoughts and comments

Cy Welch — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:01:38 GMT

What verion of FoxPro are you running under Vista? I am running both VFP8 and VFP9 under Vista and except for some visual weirdness under Aero both perform just fine. Of course everything runs slightly slower on Vista on the same hardware VS XP, but I can't say it's horribly slow, and frankly no worse than anything else, and actually maybe just a little better.

re: Thoughts and comments

YAG — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:16:10 GMT

FYI - I emailed with Steven and they were running VFP5 or 6 (don't recall offhand). They are testing this on VFP9.

yag

re: Thoughts and comments

Garrett Fitzgerald — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 07:27:28 GMT

I know I'd be willing to re-learn C/C++ to dive into an Open Source Fox dev effort. What if MS open-sourced the Fox26U code? I would think that would minimize the Microsoft-original IP, as opposed to the purchased IP.

re: Thoughts and comments

Mark — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:24:55 GMT

YAG why dont you quit talking to your friends that WONT sign the petition and talk to the "real" VFP community. You all should be disgraced by your actions.

re: Thoughts and comments

Mark — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:37:26 GMT

I see a theme here you cant release the source because we "the VFP community" are not smart enough which echos some VP at MSFT [SOMA'S] comments that the vfp programmers are only upset because we dont want to learn a new language. I guess you are only a real programmer if you work at MSFT.

You guys just dont get it.

WE NEED A SUITABLE REPLACEMENT FOR VFP AND MIGRATION PATH AND THE TRUTH WHY MSFT DROPPED VFP!