fP modernization

[Mike Schwartz (PC Support)]

> Although this is likely a prejudiced audience, I know that many of us
> have wondered where/if fP is going anywhere. How much longer before fP
> 
> Larry S. Weaver, President

Here is my stock answer:

[snip]
     I don't know if I would say that any of us developers are necessarily
biased.  If there were better tools out there, we would be using them.

     Most of my customers prefer to stick with filePro because of its ease
of programming use.  For example, the last major filePro sale where I had to
compete for the contract replaced a Business Basic installation that was
costing too much in program maintenance fees.  The customer evaluated
Oracle, SQL and other options in addition to filePro.  They selected filePro
when they saw how easy it was for their managers to "rough in" reports and
screens, leaving the programming work to people like me.

     Personally, I support over 20 businesses that depend HEAVILY on the
programming work that they have invested in filePro.  Since we can now use
tools like OneGate, fPcgi and Tomcat to put filePro apps on the web and use
fPgi to create a windows-like interface, these customers are NOT interested
in migrating to anything else.

     (Yes, occasionally I hear moans from programmers who wish filePro had
multi-dimensional arrays or transaction rollback or some other feature, but,
personally, I have always gotten filePro to do everything I needed.)

     If filePro ever "goes away", my customers will have to rewrite millions
of dollars in applications, so I don't think filePro will ever "go away".
Somebody will always be willing to bite the bullet and buy the company out,
even if filePro is not a profitable company, just so they can protect their
programming investment.

     If you are one of the people who really needs something that filePro is
not providing, like ODBC compatibility on a Unix box, then I really feel
sorry that you have to switch programming languages.  

     If you are NOT in that boat, then I don't see any reason for you to
switch, just because you hear unfounded rumors that filePro is "too old".  

     So, speaking for these 20+ businesses, they all have enough confidence
to stick with it for the foreseeable future.  And I say that with little or
no bias.  Personally, if I could talk them all into switching to something
else, then I would have all the overtime I wanted right up until I retire,
reprogramming their applications in the language they choose!
[/snip]

Thanks,

Mike Schwartz