As we all were expecting, Microsoft decided not to develop and deploy version 10 of VFP. Despite the efforts on VFP 9 SP2, Sedna and all the other projects as Sedna X, it's with particular sadness that I see my development database tool for years to be killed. I don't mean for now but looking at the future, with 64 bits applications, further developments on DotNet and new trends coming, new ways of doing things. It is as if suddenly I was developing on FoxBase+ and watching the endless new things appearing in all the 32 bit Operating Systems, 95, 98se, Me, 2000, XP and now Vista. What can I do NOW in these systems I will be unable to within a couple of years or so with new Operating Systems.

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I don't know that I was expecting Microsoft's announcement, but I certainly wasn't surprised.

I'm sad that many developers will now have no choice but to abandon FoxPro. I'm not one of them. Since I specialize in apps that are used for heads-down data-entry, DOS works just as well as Vista (if not better). Although I enjoy using the latest version of FoxPro for development, I still use VFP6 to deploy my applications. This allows them to work on every Windows version since 95.

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What are you folk talking about? " .... my development database tool for years to be killed." Who said anything about it being killed? " ... no choice but to abandon FoxPro". Why?

Microsoft has said that there will be no VFP 10. Does that mean that VFP 9 will suddenly stop working? Where did they say they are withdrawing support for VFP? If VFP was the right tool to use the day before Microsoft's announcement, why is it the wrong tool today?

Let's keep this in perspective. VFP will continue to be supported at least until 2015. Even after that, it won't stop working. So Microsoft doesn't update it to support new technologies. But FoxPro has always been a highly extensible product, and third-party vendors do an excellent job of filling the gaps that Microsoft creates.

If any of you want to ditch VFP just because of Microsoft's announcement, well that's your choice. Personally, I feel that VFP was a great database development tool last week. Nothing's happened since then to change that.
Mike Lewis

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It's a matter of future extensibility. Mainstream Support ends in 2010, while Extended Support ends in 2015. And that's the end. The end. After that, there will be no bug fixes. No updates. Yes, you can still use a FORTRAN compiler today, and get working code, and I'm sure there are some awesome FORTRAN features that I'm missing out on. But it's dead, Jim.

VFP is already far behind other languages with respect to the language itself (exception support stinks, arrays suck, no real multithreading, no native UI, etc, etc), and with no new versions coming, it will never catch up. Python, .NET, Java, and so on, are the future, and unless you have applications that you intend to discontinue within ten years, VFP does not make sense anymore. I'll miss using the Fox database engine, but that's about it. It's sad, because VFP has so much potential, but it will remain that. Potential. -- Peter Crabtree

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Now its just much harder to sell my apps.... As if it wasn’t a big enough problem already.

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Exactly! this is the main issue about abandoning VFP. In small size business, customer doesn't care about what programming tool was used to build the solution they are buying, as long the thing works as expected. In mid-large size business, those who invest thousand of US$ for a software solutions (ERPs, CRMs, etc), they DO CARE about the technologies involved in the solution they are investing. In the past, we had a hard time selling VFP as a mature, reliable and current technology for software development. Now, it will be almost impossible to convince someone to invest, let's say, 100K US$ in a software solution based on a technology that is officially discontinued, no matter that MS will continue to support it until 2015. Victor Espina

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I completely agree with Mike, there's no way I'm going to give up working with VFP. Ben Stanfield

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Well said Mike! John Harvey said it nicely too over on Pro Fox, " ... M$ might not even be a company in 8 years. Only babies said Google 8 years ago!
Garry Bettle

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Who died? Nobody! Get a grip folks, this is not a funeral, it's a retirement. Time to party. How many people you know that retired and started lookin better than ever? Same thing can happen to the Fox, especially with Sedna / Code Plex. Stay tuned, there's more good stuff still coming.
Randy Bosma

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