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A new effort by VFP developers world wide, known as VFP Revolution, is anything by revolutionary. In fact, it drudges up many of the same old arguements people have been making for years about a lack of VFP marketing. Yes, people are signing the letter, but let's look at where the letter and logic posed by its authors is flawed.

Due to a question of unworthiness and ideology, we feel motivated to try to do something to revert the tendency which has been predominating for some time; this tendency is not a result of VFP's lack of quality, but speculative manipulation of the market.

Now, the argument here is that the lack of marketing for VFP does provide a negative manipulation. However, EVERY company with many products will ALWAYS push one in favor of another. They'll even drop entire lines, as General Motors did with Oldsmobile and Chrysler did with Plymouth.

Dear Mr. Ken Levy

Ken can do nothing to change the realities of VFP marketing. He is given a budget and a direction from people much higher up in the company.

The International community of Visual FoxPro (VFP) Developers and Users asks for an open communication channel.

There IS an open communication channel. Microsoft has stated several times that the amount of marketing given to VFP will be in relation to the number of users and that .NET is the developer product that will get the attention. If the statement means that the signers want to have an open communication to Microsoft, they don't need to. Microsoft executives, from Bill Gates on down, are fully aware of the concerns the letter raises.

Our wish is that VFP continues to be developed with the commitment of a long life perspective.

Microsoft just isn't going to do this. VB was once the "darling" language of choice by MS and it was dropped like a hot potato when .NET came along. VB .NET is not VB.

However, what we have noticed over a period of time is that due to a strategy - or lack of a strategy – inside Microsoft’s corporate marketing, there has been a reduction in the employment market for VFP Developers.

Is it Microsoft's job to maintain or grow the employment market for VFP developers? No.

We all know that VFP has been improved dramatically, but we feel that its own manufacturer has inhibited its sales and marketing. We not only believe in, but invest in this powerful tool. Nevertheless, we see ourselves as a rare species on the verge of extinction: a Microsoft fatherless child.

Once again, I point to VB 6.0. If you doubt there is a problem there, seek any any number of VB developers, including many MVPs. Once again, Microsoft has never promised that the tool would be around forever. In fact, Microsoft has, on many ocassions, encouraged all developers (not just VFP) to improve their skills so they remain marketable.

There does not seem to be a true marketing effort on Microsoft’s part to bring new enterprises to VFP. It is only being used by the companies who insist on it.

Here, the letter is dead-on, but Microsoft will not change what they are doing. .NET is and will continue to be the tool that gets the marketing efforts.

Large corporations do not invest in a development tool, which the owner/manufacturer does not advise its use, even though it may be more productive and have better performance than other development tools. It is a paradox that everyone seeks for the qualities which VFP offers, but very few ever get to use it. One of the main causes for this situation is that there is an uncertainty about VFP’s future. No one knows how many versions Microsoft will support. Will it stop at Version 10? Will it go forward? For how many more years will Microsoft support VFP?

The term "does not advise its use" is a bit disturbing. Doesn't GM advise it's customers to buy one vehicle over another? Of course it does. All the time. As for how long Microsoft will support VFP, this is information has been published.

Academics simply are not aware of VFP; it is unknown on campus. When someone talks about it here in Brazil, everyone thinks it is like CLIPPER. No one knows that it is a Microsoft product. And the worst is that they do not know how powerful it is.

There are still millions of Computer Associate-CLIPPER users who have not found out about VFP. Millions of potential customers are being lost.

Did marketing efforts by Microsoft to push VB get these same Clipper developers to switch? How about Delphi? or Powerbuilder? or Java?

All of us have seen some, or many, of our colleagues leaving VFP, trying other tools such as Delphi, Java, etc. This is a pitiful situation, because it is a matter of survival. A few days ago, we had an event in which Les Pinter, a VFP MVP, finished his lecture by advising us that if we do not adopt .NET, that we will have to become Taxi drivers very soon. His words started quite a commotion among our VFP users.

Les is stating his opinion. Being an MVP in no way means that you can't state your opinion. Don't take what an MVP says as gospel...it's his opinion. Oh...and yes...I'm stating my opinion here on this blog too. I'm stating an opinion contrary to that of the letter writers, since the have chosen to only allow those who sign the letter to post a comment there.

We believe that Microsoft is not including certain new technologies into VFP, because this is their intention.

What new technologies?? If you really want Microsoft to listen and do something about it, be specific. I read this as .NET, but I can't be sure because it isn't listed. Assuming it is .NET, it wasn't a decision by Microsoft to not include VFP in .NET, it was a decision by VFP developers. I heard Microsoft ask on several occassions and in multiple forums if VFP should be included in .NET.

We feel that VFP integration into web development can be much better. If others Xbase can, Why not VFP?

Sounds like a good wish for VFP 10. Why hasn't it been added in previous versions? It's a matter of man power and priorities.

I have elected to not sign the letter, just as I did not sign a similar letter a couple of years ago. It is a battle that can't be won.