Do We Really Need To Upgrade Our Skills With a New Programming Language Apart From VFP? 2

[Ahmad kaj]

I vave been using Visual-Foxpro 8 For the past 15 years for developing mid scale desktop applications (single and multi-user.) Working perfectly on Windows 7,8,10,11 without issues.
Recently i started learning C# and the grammar in it is too much but i guess with time i will get used to it and get it right. my question is would learning C# makes a difference and what are the positives in learning this language? what addition it will give as an advantage over VFP?. My main concern that at a certain point WIN32 Applications might be dropped In future Windows upgrades?

 

[Dan Olsson]

What's your problem with Windows 11?

I saw your tip about the S-version, but I will make it a new thread anyway.

 

[Ahmad kaj]

I have just completed a module that allows me to export 350 daily customers accounts ( Receipts ) to PDF Format and email it in bulk to their appropriate emails with a single button click. VFP is an excellent programming language but i agree with what has been mentioned that we need to develop our skills and expand our knowledge about using more tools. my choice for now is C# In addition to VFP ( am already 58 in age ) so i guess C# is not going to fade in the next 10 years unless WWIII broke Loose and currently it rates as 5th on the Tiobe-Index!. does anyone know how reliable is the Tiobe Index?

 

[mikrom]

my choice for now is C# .. and currently it rates as 5th on the Tiobe-Index!.

Maybe you could pick Python as well, which is #1 on TIOBE Index. It's easier to learn than C# and it could also help to free you from the dependency on the Windows platform.

 

[Chris Miller]

Well, just a quote from Tiobe, taken from

https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/

today:

The TIOBE Programming Community index is an indicator of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors. Popular search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Baidu are used to calculate the ratings. It is important to note that the TIOBE index is not about the best programming language or the language in which most lines of code have been written.

According to

https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/programminglanguages_definition/,

the definition of the index is not about searching career platforms, but the search term "+<language> programming", which can include tutorials, books, community sites, etc. Believing in the self-adjusting nature of the market you get an overview about what programmers need to learn and use a language. I would say a weight is more on learning, than on using a language, but that's just my opinion.

By no means is it an index that tells you how many job offers for employees are there and which skill is most needed for freelancers to find their work. The codebase that is to be maintained also includes languages with less popularity as especially cstom made software it usually a long term investment of companies, which will be dominated by what was used in the past more than what will perhaps be used in the future and what shuold be used or what should have been used.

I see that C++ rose to the top, and Tiobe writes that rise began with the C++11 standard and it got to the top because of the C++20 standard, C++22 is in the working. I welcome that trend. Anyway, I think there is still much to maintain in JAVA and PHP, even though JAVA just dropped to place 3 and PHP is only just in the top 10.

So it also depends what you think you qualify for. As a senior developer I see you get les often hired for a job that riscs using a trend not becoming a norm, but are looked for to maintain something that has aged or matured. And that's also a reason you do find VFP projects at all.

In 2005/6 Foxpro appeared on the list, mainly because of the discussion of its discontinuation. I have friends were getting employed by banks as developers and they used FORTRAN at least up to 2010. So it also depends on how strongly dependent a sector is of software written in a language that was used long ago. If I see the fintech sector today I see apps written in Python and Javascript tough, it's not all mainframes, Fortran, Cobol and such legacies.

Chriss