Slides from Southwest Fox 2006 Presentation

1. Where Do You Want to Go
Today?
Mike Feltman

2. About me
 President F1 Technologies
 Working in Xbase Languages for the last
19 years

3. Not a Hater
 Work in Microsoft products all day, every
day
 Use all MS operating systems
 Love VFP, Frontpage, SQL Server
 Many friends & contacts at Microsoft

4. Agenda
 VFP’s Future Is Limited
 Extending Opportunities for VFP
 Pros & Cons of Various Other Languages
 The Job Market for Developers
 Other IT Jobs

5. VFP’s Future Is Limited
 Microsoft is not making significant
investment in development
 Microsoft is not making any investment in
marketing
 A product not marketed by its own
manufacturer cannot succeed long term
 Job Opportunities are limited

6. Extending Opportunities for VFP
 Keep your current customers happy
 Vertical market software
 Get into web development
 Participate in VFPX
 Increase your exposure
 Sell business solutions, not technology
 Be willing to do maintenance work

7. A Language is a Language
 Most business needs can be met in any
programming language
 “Religious” wars are silly and a waste of
time
 “Advocates” have ulterior motives
 Many (maybe most) features often go
unused

8. Where do YOU want to go today?
 .NET C# & VB (Microsoft.com)
 Java (Sun.COM)
 C/C++ (microsoft.com, borland.com)
 PHP (php.net)
 PERL (perl.org)
 JavaScript (http://www.mozilla.org/js/)
 Python (python.org)
 Ruby (ruby-lang.org)

9. .NET Pros
 Definitely where Microsoft wants you to go today
 Like buying IBM in the 80s
 Big Job Market
 Lots of Opportunity
 Cross Platform (Linux workalikes?, .NET compact
framework)
 Highly capable, tons of features
 Lots of tools, frameworks, publications, etc. available
 Can Interop with VFP
 Desktop & Web

10. .NET Cons
 Steep Learning Curve
 Constantly Changing
 Little Regard for Backward Compatibility
 Steep Competition for Jobs
 Geared towards teams, not individuals
 Not as productive as VFP
 Immature 3rd Party Market
 Shrinking Job Market?

11. Java Pros
 Backed by Big Companies such as SUN, IBM &
Oracle
 By Far the Largest Developer Job Market
 Growing Job Market
 Lots of Opportunity
 Cross Platform (Linux, Unix, Phones, PDAs)
 Lots of tools, frameworks, publications, etc.
available
 Highly capable
 Mature 3rd Party Market
 Backward Compatibility
 Desktop & Web

12. Java Cons
 Steep Learning Curve
 Most development is not on Windows
(Unix, Linux)
 Steep Competition for Jobs
 Geared towards teams, not individuals
 Not as productive as VFP
 Desktop apps are generally slow, Java is
primarily geared for the web.

13. C, C++ Pros
 Makes learning anything else easy
 No limits
 Lots of opportunity
 Cross Platform
 Cross Vendor
 Lots of add-ons, frameworks, toolkits, etc.
 Desktop & Web
 Not going away

14. C, C++ Cons
 Steep Learning Curve
 Low Productivity
 Not really for business apps
 Makes your brain hurt

15. PHP Pros
 Open Source
 Cross Platform
 Backed by large vendors such as IBM & Oracle
 Tons of tools, frameworks, publications, etc.
 Widely Supported
 Cross Platform
 Rapidly Growing Job Market
 Easy to Learn
 Backward Compatible
 Commercial Compiler available

16. PHP Cons
 Open Source
 Smaller Job Market
 Most development is not on Windows
(Linux)
 Not as robust as .NET or Java
 Low Priced Competition for work
 Web Only (at present)

17. PERL Pros
 Open Source
 Large, Growing Job Market
 Cross Platform (Windows, UNIX, Mac,
Linux)
 Tons of tools, frameworks, publications,
etc.
 Easy to Learn?

18. PERL Cons
 Open Source
 Older Technology (around since 1987)
 Not as robust as .NET or Java

19. JavaScript Pros
 Hot! Rapidly expanding job market
 Cross Platform
 Lots of tools, frameworks, resources, tools, etc.
 Cross-Platform
 Standards based
 Needed for most web application development
 Will probably “never” go away
 Backward compatible
 Generally needed for any web project

20. JavaScript Cons
 Limited OOP Support
 Quirky
 Web Only
 Client-side only, runs in browser
 Not for enterprise applications
 No major vendors pushing it forward
directly, up to browser implementations

21. Python Pros
 Open Source
 Easy to learn
 Growing Job Market
 DABO (dabodev.com)
 Cross Platform
 Desktop & Internet
 Fair # of Tools, Frameworks, etc.

22. Python Cons
 Small Job Market
 Limited Opportunity
 Not widely used for business applications
 Fewer Tools, Frameworks, etc. than many
others
 No major corporate backing

23. Ruby Pros
 Growing Job Market
 Exciting Possibilities
 VFP Like (& Beyond) Productivity
 Cross Platform (Mac, Windows, Linux)
 Ruby on Rails is rapidly emerging
 Easy to learn
 Totally free
 Open Source
 Internet & Desktop

24. Ruby Cons
 Open Source
 No large corporate backing (although it’s used
heavily by Google)
 Seems that most developers are on Macs
 Very new
 Job Market is very small
 No real IDE & Limited Tools (although that’s part
of the appeal)
 In its infancy for desktop apps

25. The Job Market
 Studied available positions for the last 6 months
in various technologies
 Programming Languages: C#, VB, Java, PHP,
Delphi, Coldfusion, Ruby, C++, Javascript,
PERL, FoxPro, Python
 Databases: SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL,
Sybase, DB2
 Based on Dice.com, CareerBuilder.com and
hotjobs.com

26. The Programmer Job Market
Language Jobs Share Growth % Growth
C# 10,109 9% (866) -9%
VB 7,223 7% (3,958) -55%
Java 39,546 37% 4,927 12%
PHP 4,166 4% 1,001 24%
Delphi 546 1% 49 9%
AJAX 2,654 2% 1,502 57%
Cold Fusion 1,465 1% (299) -20%
RUBY 666 1% 203 30%
C++ 16,605 15% (2,787) -17%
JavaScript 10,295 10% 931 9%
PERL 11,659 11% 1,154 10%
FoxPro 305 0% (16) -5%
Python 1,965 2% 103 5%
Total 107,204 100% 1,944 2%
.NET 17,332 16% (4,824) -28%

27. Database Jobs
Database Jobs Share Growth % Growth
SQL Server 23,127 34% (1,384) -6%
Oracle 41,425 61% 3,264 8%
MySQL 3,253 5% 649 20%
Sybase 3,870 6% (333) -9%
DB2 7,365 11% 706 10%
Total 67,805 100% 2,529 4%

28. Other IT Jobs
 Project Manager
 Network Engineer
 Systems Architect
 CIO/CTO

29. What am I doing
 Working like crazy in VFP – really no end
in sight to my VFP work
 Doing JavaScript, AJAX, DOM, CSS work
in conjunction with VFP
 Learning more and more SQL Server all
the time
 Keeping my eyes on PHP, Ruby & .NET

30. What You Should Do
 Make a business decision
 Where will you get the most ROI?
 How can you deliver the most value to your
clients?
 Start to learn other technologies now
 Read
 Get Tools, especially frameworks

31. Don’t Be a Hater!
 You’ll Go Hungry
 Employers & Customers like optimism
 Make Informed Business Decisions

32. Summary
 It’s possible to be gainfully employed in
VFP for a long time
 There are opportunities in a lot of other
technologies
 .NET should be given very strong
consideration, but it’s not the only thing
out there.
 Make decisions that are right for you

33. Thank you!
Remember to fill out your session
evaluation.
Session slides, white paper, and code
samples will be updated.