Great to see another article on Visual FoxPro Mary Jo. The more developers and customers that know about Visual FoxPro and what it is capable of (runs circles around most anything when it comes to data-centric applications) the better.SednaX is a VFP Community driven project that anyone with an interest in creating Visual FoxPro's future can sign up for. It's currently hosted out on the GotDotNet CodeGallery site (http://codegallery.gotdotnet.com/sednax) - the link in your article is correct as well, but that domain is for additional stuff that SednaX will be providing in the future. As you clearly stated SednaX is NOT a Microsoft initiative -- it's much more than that. It's 500+ Visual FoxPro developers that believe in this product and the value it provides strongly enough to volunteer time and resources to further Visual FoxPro in ways that Microsoft isn't.Visual FoxPro and the Community behind it is definitely on the move. While Visual FoxPro is currently the best development platform that Microsoft has for data-centric applications (LINQ won't bridge that gap for Visual Studio in case you were wondering), I assure you... you haven't seen anything yet. Visual FoxPro's future is so bright the Fox logo needs a pair of shades!

I am glad this article expressed the following: "While Microsoft doesn't state it quite so bluntly, Visual FoxPro's foremost competitors are Visual Studio, Microsoft Access and SQL Server." This is why, for years, the Foxpro developer community has had to fend off underhanded comments from others who somehow believed the language was antiquated or otherwise deficient, while major Foxpro applications were actually used in the financial industry and even in Desert Storm, due to the power of the database engine, the robust programming language, and the fast development time. At PSS East in the early 90's, I recall some people suggested M$ only purchased Fox Software in order to get their hands on the Rushmore technology to speed up another so-called "database" product (did it really do any good?), and perhaps even intended to dump it afterwards. However, not unlike Trekkies, Foxpro users stuck with their language of choice, and again like Trekkies, spawned a whole evolving product line. Now, the language is object - oriented similar to Java and even contains SQL. Will Sedna change public opinion? Will this be The Search for Foxpro?

Quit sniffin clue Mary.There has NEVER been hundreds of thousands of FoxPro developers. Heck I'd bet that theres never been more than 30 books in the world printed on Foxpro. The UT use to have a page to enter FoxPro book sieghtings!

Form your opinions after you learn to read and write. And think. Dumbass.

To the person who had this remark about hundreds of thousands of VFP developers.You tell me then how it is that VFP is on position 16 on the tiobe index (http://www.tiobe.com/) coming from 51st place last year march? You are the showcase of light tarvelling faster than sound, a man an appear smart... until he opens his mouth...

It is very frustrating that Microsoft has produced probably one of the best programming languages ever created, but because it competed with their exiting products of VB, SQL Server and Access. M$ has done their best to blast their own product to obscurity.Ultimately VFP will die at the hands of its own creators in a death not to different than that of VB6: HTTP://tinyurl.com/q579l

How I hate to hear comments from young students in universities that VFP is obsolete. For what reasons?

Can you call it as obsolete if many companies are still using my VFP applications? Can you call it obsolete when a new VFP Sedna is about to be released. Do their instructors had developed good applications for big companies using VB or other programming tool?

Oh boy! what a funny comment. Isn't it?

It is great to see any article on VFP and I congratulate everyone in posting their comments. It makes me feel that the FoxPro community is alive and growing. With that said we should look at what we all know that Microsoft has down played VFP 9 and has tried to stop any book from being written about it. We also know that Microsoft has finally managed to strip valuable code from VFP and now use it in their other software including VISTA and LONG HORN the server version. They even tried to make VFP 9 more like Access and SQL Server.

Now let's really take a look on what make FoxPro so powerful. It was designed to have a programming language that works best with data tables. It even out performs SQL Server in speed and flexibility. It is great at producing desktop apps even better than VB, which as we know was meant to be basic to start with and never grew out of that. Microsoft will kill FoxPro, there is no if and or but about it. It will be a Microsoft Loss. As long as the FoxPro community continues to use VFP 9 and produce the add-on components that make it work for what ever version on Windows, or MAC, of Web environment, it will continue to go on.

My only recommendation to Microsoft is for them to give their heads a shake then take all that development of FoxPro and turn it into a language that best interfaces with SQL server and other data sources. If Microsoft did this FoxPro would live on, maybe under a new name, maybe as a replacement to the dreaded and lacking VB, or maybe as a front end to SQL Server, which in my experience as a programmer for over 20 years, it seriously needs one. It is way past time that Microsoft should wake up and smell the profit it could make in years to come.

I have been using FOX since the 80's. Have allways marveled at the stubbornness of Microsoft line of downplaying VFP for their less capable VB, SQL Server and let's not forget Access(Rushmore made it usable).

With all the talk of Open Source, Microsoft should give VFP to the community and allow it to run on any OS the way it did when it started. (Just Free us from the EULA, we will do the rest).

I am sure that many of us would devote time and effort to keep it alive and make it thrive.

To paraphrase another post, like Trekkies, we have lived long( a lot longer than MS anticipated) and prospered. May we continue to do so.

It is always comforting to know that VFP lives even after all the effort of Microsoft to kill interest on it. Let?s face it, VFP is one of the best programming tools that Microsoft has ever developed till date. VFP is at home with data tables and out perform Access and VB in speed and flexibility. I am yet to evaluate Sedna and I hope that it will understand all VFP codes and features and run current VFP programs. It has been Microsoft dream to kill Foxpro even from when they acquired the product. This has not been possible because the product is in used in visually all aspect of business, education, government and the military.

My suggestion to Microsoft is to make VFP more responsive and more suitable as the main programming interface with its SQL server. If the goal is to stabilize on a single database engine which is possibly the SQL Server, they should also develop the VFP programming interface to best fit the SQL server. To that end they can reduce their DATABASE development to just one the ?SQL SERVER? and give us the programming flexibility in the VFP codes which is superb.

Microsoft please let VFP programming tools and codes serve as the main front end for your SQL Server. If you do this, you will be beating all other competitors to both stable database engine and good/reliable front end.

Thank you for great article on Visual FoxPro! Indeed, I got hooked on this product which was used to develop a Banking System for the bank I worked in immediately after graduation in the early 90's.

Microsoft can downplay FoxPro all they want but FoxPro lives on. At a recent demo of our educational MIS Package (built with FoxPro) to the Addis Ababa University, the MIS manager pointedly asked why we wouldd create such a great a product with an obsolete tool? At the same time, the competing Visual Basic .Net Apps were no match for our offering nor could the MIS Manager answer why an 'Acclaimed Vendor' like Microsoft would create an obsolete tool! Since then we have delivered licenses of FoxPro for Microsoft and there is money to be made!

Many suggestions have been made that VFP could become a greate interface to M$ SQL Server and indeed so! What Microsoft is not doing is what other groups like Sybase with their new Advantage database Server are doing - providing native support to FoxPro 9 tables in their new Advantage Database Server 9. Any one listening at M$?

Microsoft Should kindly open source the product so that the developers who love the product so much can continue its development or Microsoft should give us a brand-new VFP 10! Incase if microsoft is not listening, VFP Developers can be quite tenacious!

Many thanks to the many members of the Visual FoxPro community who have taken time to publish their comments here for all our benefits!

Here's a typical small business EDP/IT history of thier software usage ranging from 30 to 50 station and why MS software gets so popular ( NOTE: This is just my observation), because foxpro run smoothly on windows platform, everything they want is MS products, but now the light dims and the spirit of everything you need is on windows platform are gone.

-------- 80's

Dbase,clipper //Custom accounting application
//
*MS DOS // Station stand-alone
Wordstar // Office
Lotus 123 // Office

-------- Early 90's

*MS FOXPRO 2.6 for DOS //Custom accounting application
//
*MS DOS //Station
Novell //Server
Wordstar //Office
Lotus 123 //Office

-------- Late 90's

*MS VFP 3 //Custom accounting application
//
*MS Windows 95 //Station
*MS Windows NT //Server
*MS Office 95 //Office

-------- Early 2000

*MS VFP 5,8 //Custom accounting application
//
*MS Windows ME //Station
*MS Windows 2000/3 //Server
*MS Office 2000 //Office

-------- Late 2005-2010

*MS VFP 5,9 //Custom accounting application
//
*MS Windows XP //Station
*MS Windows 2003 //Server
*MS Office XP //Office
*
Linux //Familiarization with new OS

-------- 2015 << When Fox dies, they need some alternatives of course ;))

* MySQL,Sybase,DB2,Firebird,Etc.. ( Custom accounting application )
//
* Linux // server
* Linux // station
* Open office // Office

Well I hope and crossing my fingers MS will do something about the fox
before 2015 till it's not too late.

Common MS, there's no harm on telling, yes we said,
there will be no visual foxpro 10, just like there is no
visual foxpro 4 but there will be visual foxpro 11/F#/VFP.NET
or tell us something new about the fox.

we are here at the Philippines where using Visual foxpro 5,6,7,8,9 we are looking for new visual foxpro and we are using the foxpro for business and government application. more than 1 million programmer are using visual foxpro here in the Philippines , since 80' up to present because its so powerful database. in our daily usage of database. i hope visual foxpro will not end. will continue until end of the world. we would like to the foxpro community to have any seminar or workshop on the visual foxpro specially the new programmer . go go fox community .