move to VFP7 now or wait for VFP8?

[pxw]

Hi,

I am using VFP6 which is okay for my applications. Currenlty, the company I am working for has a fund to purchase a new version of VFP. Should I move VFP 7 now or wait a while for VFP8. Someone said even VFP9 is on the way(?!). The point is I don't want to buy something which needs to be upgraded shortly.

Any comments would be appreciated.


Peter

 

[ramani]

HI

It depends on your development time and costs consideration.

VFP7 has lot of new features.. one example is intellisense. If the development time put in is a lot more, surely the upgrade cost will pay for itself. I am not only talking about the VFP syntax. If you create eord/excell/outlook etc. automation, you get to know things much more by spoon feeding by the intellisense feature. I will recommend for upgrade.

VFP8 as of now has atleast 4 to 6 months waiting time and this period can make you progress well with VFP7.

So it all depends on how much time is spent on VFP development and your costs.

VFP7 upgrade costs about 200 to 225 US$. For a commercial company, what this means in your context has to be decided

ramani
(Subramanian.G),FoxAcc, ramani_g@yahoo.com

 

[FoxEgg]

G'Day Peter

Ramani has it right... Your time is worth more than the 'muck around' time and the few upgrade dollars involved ... and your company can certainly afford the few $ required to keeps its top dog IT guy (ie you) at the cutting edge !!!

Peter.....

Just Do IT

John

 

[Scott24x7]

Peter,
Just 2 more cents in the barrell... As a general rule, it's rarely a good idea to "Wait" for a technology to be released, or made available. There are dozens of reasons for this. As for the comment about VFP9, someone is talking through their hat. VFP 8 has not been released, and to this point, I've not even seen a Beta version of VFP8 yet, and I'm an MSDN universal subscriber (we get all of the current beta and release candidate stuff from Microsoft.) VFP7 has not yet been released for a full year (I think, as I beta tested VFP7 for a while before it was released, so this is a somewhat blurry line for me, don't beat me up if I'm wrong on that one... but it hasn't been out a long time by comparison.)
VFP 7 has some very helpful additions, as Ramani suggests, which improve ease of development, for either newbies, or experienced fox developers. After using 7, going back to 6 feels like I've returned to the days of old. My advise is, don't wait for 8. You could be waiting a year or better, and companies have a way of making budgets disappaer if not used. I'd take the offer to upgrade, go that route now, make the best of the current version, and cross the VFP8 bridge when it arrives. If your company is fairly proactive (and as I said VPF7 hasn't been out THAT long), it's likely if it's warrented, they'll part with some extra scratch to get the next version. (And if that doesn't work, just tell them that it now incorporates the latest in "Flanging" technology, and you just HAVE to have it, and they'll nod, not knowing that you're feeding them a complete line.)
Cheers,
-Scott
Best Regards,
Scott

Please let me know if this has helped