Michael Hawksworth wrote: > <snip> > My only advise on this is to make a plan so you don't end up making > pressured decisions; look at were you want to be in x (ten?) years time > and draft out a route-map of how to get there. Maybe you may plan to > give yourself a year to decide but make sure you plan time to look at > the alternatives, use them develop a test app in each of them for > example.
> <snip> I'm afraid that I am being pulled in conflicting directions on this whole issue... what I want to do for my current job doesn't necessarily jibe with what I want to be doing when it comes to the rest of my career... <Long winded mode ON> I met the Daryl's out in FLA at devcon and while sitting down over drinks I expressed my deep concern that MS was going to dump VFP and then where would I be... Jim Kearns had the most simple answer: do nothing... he said that when the day comes, everyone is going to jump ship from VFP and leave all those VFP based apps out there with an ever decreasing developer base to support them... just because MS pulls support doesn't mean that these legacy apps are going anywhere soon... VFP apps will be out there long after I retire anyway (I'm 45 now)... Remember those Cobol programmers in great demand during Y2K? A plan I've been working on for the last few years is to semi-retire early, do technical research writing, some light programming, maybe tend bar a couple nights a week to help out with cash flow... live cheap, sleep lots... But my current situation is different.. here at BF the goal is to dump all things MS... BUT we're stuck with this Access app that runs the whole place and regardless of the language/tools used - it will be a *bitch* to rewrite... the boss has suggested that we may contract the project out - but that will be very expensive and being a manufacturer cash flow is iffy at times... Oh - and I must confess that I think I hate IT... just too many damn things to worry about and being on call 24/7 ain't my biggest ambition in this life... not to worry though - I get to ride my bike every day and dress/smell like a bum, because everyone else around here are cyclists too... <g> Other than one-offs and such, I just wouldn't feel right about doing anything big in VFP knowing that the tool is officially dead... if you were a client, would *you* want an app written in something that you know has a limited lifespan (at least that will be the perception)... So IF I'm going to be writing this thing myself, or IF I don't stay here forever (ya never know), then I'd better know how to do *something* else... being a one trick pony doesn't cut it anymore... luckily I've been using PHP, PostgreSQL and living in a Linux world the last couple years so at least I have that experience and background... But technically speaking, I'm not a developer anymore (at least for now) - I'm an IT Manager... supposedly it's not my job to do the heavy lifting when it comes to coding, but there isn't a day that goes by where I'm not asked to write something new or change stuff... So if I feel the need to learn a new trick - then what should it be? I want to get away from MS-centric technologies so I'll avoid .Net... I know Ed and Paul personally and think if anyone can do it - they are a great team to be working on DABO... I'll give it another look soon, this time on a linux box and hopefully give it a good workout and testing... Perl? Python? RealBasic looked promising and I dabbled with it a bit but (correct me if I'm wrong) it isn't FOSS so if their company went belly up, I'd be hosed... But Michael had a good point - I should evaluate each of these over a longer period of time, write something somewhat useful with each, and make a more educated decision based on that... <Long winded mode OFF> Whew.... I didn't know I had that much to get off my chest.... <g> I guess I'd better get back to herding the cats.... -- Matthew S. Jarvis IT Manager Bike Friday - "Performance that Packs." www.bikefriday.com 541/687-0487 x140 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** 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.
