Forum Etiquette?

[wjs2]

I think there has been a misunderstanding here and I would like to clear it up.

Last week a question was asked about whether or not Microsoft intended to continue to support Visual Fox ( thread184-227667 ) I've seen the question several times on this forum and it does seem to upset people here for some reason. I'm an independant contractor and this question does have relevence to me personally. Not so much whether Microsoft is the company that supports Visual Fox but that it remain a viable product. Obviously, I have a investment in Hardware, software and personal time.

The handle of the person that asked the question was not known to me so I checked for other posts. I wanted to know if this could be considered a ligitiment question or somebody just trying to jerk a chain or two. It appeared to me that this person was not new to programming but new to Visual Fox. I responded in a manner I deemed appropriate given that situation.

If I transgressed the etiquette of this forum in my response, I would certainly like to know about it, and, I would appologize. If there is moderator here, and, my response was inappropriate, I would like to hear from them now.

 

[chpicker]

wjs2,

I don't think the boards are *actively* moderated. If you look at the bottom of every post you will see a link to Red-Flag that post. If anyone reading your post thought it was inappropriate, they would click that link which sends a message to the board moderator to take a look. The moderator would then contact you.

So, if you haven't heard anything from the moderator, I would not worry about it. )

On a personal note, I thought your post was just fine. In fact, I laughed out loud when I saw this part:

Think for a minute of Visual Basic running an application using Access as the DB. Put 15,000,000 records in it. See how many programmers will laugh just thinking about it.

Ian

 

[wjs2]

chpicker,

Thanks for your response. Guess I got a little paranoid. Being not real bright sometimes, I thought of the 'Red Flag' as meaning the question was posted to the wrong forum or something. I got concerned about the 'Troll' message. I have two of those things hanging on my refigerator and they are not pretty. Anyway, thought maybe I put something in there (I will watch my language a little closer) that was going over my own head.

If you catch me at something, come on back quick. It is not my intent to be a problem.

Thanks
WJS

 

[GriffMG]

Personally, I think MS would like to drop VFP, it is very hard to integrate it into .net. oh, and it is quite quick.

Still it is a very nice revenue stream. release a new version now and then... no real changes... a bit more oop...


I'm biased, I think VFP is PDG

griff

(where is the ouzo?)

 

[fluteplr]

I was the one who posted the troll note.

I am just soooooooo tired of seeing this about once a week in one or the other VFP forums I frequent.

Keeping my tongue firmly in my cheek.

Fluteplr

 

[rgbean]

wjs2,
Just to supplement Ian's comment, I think the "troll" reference was likely to someone suggesting you might be "trolling" (like in fishing) trying to get a heated discussion going. On the newsgroups, it's a common practice for a Visual Basic "bigot" to come into a FoxPro forum and either pose a question like yours, or suggest that he'd "heard" MS was dropping VFP. Depending on who's foolish enough to respond, then the troller will just continue baiting the discussion - often not a pleasant thing for 3rd party lurkers.

One reason that I think VFP will continue to be around, is that it's always been a bit of an experimental product - a testing ground for things new. Part of it is because the FP community is both smaller and more 'sharing' than the other developer groups.

VFP 3.0 was the not only the first non-C OOP implementation, but it was the first Win95 certified application! It was actually released before Win95 and Office 95. The FoxPro Rushmore index optimization has been incorporated into both the Jet Data Engine (Access) and SQL Server. While VFP was "late" getting Intellisense, with it's advanced configurable implementation, it's been suggested that it is being studied for addition to the .NET IDE components!

Just my 2 cents, for what it's worth.

Rick

 

[Scott24x7]

Wjs2,
I think your question was right on target. It is unfortunate for some, who are impatient, that they tire of seeing this question. In that case, I am reminded of a quote from George Carlin, which (parapharsed, as he was refering to hearing something on the radio you don't like)... "You have several options when you see a post you don't like. You can choose to leave a nasty message, or there is this great button on your browser called "Next", or another called "Exit", or imagine this... you can even turn your computer off..."
So, my point here is, your question was legitamet. My advise to those who are annoyed by such a question, move on to the next question...
Best Regards,
Scott

Please let me know if this has helped

 

[metron9]

I was the poster, I was reading the CA-Clipper Tek-tips and the question was real. Here is the full post I read with the name of the original poster and date of post.
I originally left out the name of the poster. His bio looks like he is not a newbe so i thought there could have been something to this as I am new to foxpro but not programming.

ORIGINAL POST

GAstrada (Programmer) Nov 22, 2001
VFP6.0 is a great choice, but, you know, Fox was purchased some years ago by Microsoft, and inclouded VFP in his Visual Studio. But I guess that Microsoft is going to "kill" VFP, and enhance his Visual Basic and other components of Visual Studio.

So, Alaska++ seems, there, in EEUU, to be, at least, an independent software house.

What do you think, guys ??

 

[DEDMOD]

One problem with programs which have been around a while, like Fox, from the owner's prospective is that he's in competition with his own products. Microsoft could stop producing Foxpro, but there would still be all the existing copies of earlier versions out there. And if they stopped supporting them while there was still a market, there'd be lots of 3rd parties coming along offering this add-on and that bugfix. So you have to have something superior to offer. And that's where Fox is a problem for Microsoft. They don't have anything superior to offer in the VFP niche. So I'd expect FoxPro to continue until something better is available from Microsoft or elsewhere. Dave Dardinger