DevBlog

Every year at this time, news organizations list their top ten news stories of the year. I thought it appropriate to list the top news stories in the Fox world from the previous year. The rankings are purely my own.

1. Drew Speedie dies tragically.
We all knew Drew and his son Brent. They were fixtures at Fox conferences around the world. They both tragically died in September while hiking and taking pictures in Yellowstone.

2. Randy Brown leaves Microsoft.
As another Fox MVP said to Randy, "I thought you'd be the one to turn out the lights".

3. Microsoft announces Sedna and the VFP Roadmap.
Yes, VFP will live on in the Windows Vista world, thanks to Sedna, the next update to VFP. Microsoft also

4. Microsoft ships VFP 9.0.
With huge improvements in the report designer and better stability, this quickly became the "must have" update to Microsoft's best kept secret.

5. Whilfest returns!
Earlier this month, Whil Hentzen announced the return of the Great Lakes Great Database Workshop. It'll happen in April. I have no doubt that it will live up to past Whilfests.

6. Microsoft announces LINQ
Wait! Isn't that a .Net technology? Yup, but "team Zorro", made up of members of the Fox Team made it happen. LINQ takes great data handling ideas from Fox and brings them into .Net.

7. FoxPro not an endangered species.
That's the headline in Mary Jo Foley's December column on Redmondmag.com. She prognosticates a bright future for Fox with Sedna scheduled for 2007.

8. VFP Moves up 31 spots in the TIOBE rankings.
As if Mary Jo Foley's predictions aren't enough to spur some interest in VFP, perhaps Fox's ranking in the TIOBE Programming Community Index will get some interest, as it moves from 51 to 30 in one year.

9. John Koziol leaves Microsoft.
My good friend left the fold in June with a very public departure that left many wondering just what was going on behind the scenes of the Fox Team.

10. New in Nine.
After apparently stopping publication of new Fox titles, in February, Hentzenwerke releases New in Nine: Visual FoxPro's Latest Hits. It didn't stop there. In October, the ebook Taming Visual FoxPro's SQL was released. I can't help but think there will be a new Hentzenwerke title for Sedna.

11. Mike Stewart leaves the Fox Team.
OK. You get a bonus item. Some may think there is a pattern with three well known members leaving the Fox team. Mike left just after VFP 9.0 shipped. It's common for a Microsoft team to have some changes after a release. Last I heard, Mike was back at Microsoft, but not on the Fox Team.