vom: 03.04.2003 von: Jürgen Wondzinski woody@prolib.de
Neuigkeiten zu VFP8  
Ken Levy (ProductManager VFP) hat gestern folgendes Statement abgegeben:


Microsoft has released Visual FoxPro 8.0 and is currently working on the next version of Visual FoxPro, codenamed "Europa". For more information about Visual FoxPro 8.0 including standalone pricing information, refer to the announcement at http://www.universalthread.com/VisualFoxPro/News/VFP8Release.asp . The VFP 8.0 documentation is now online at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_foxhelp/html/vfp8_vfp7startpage.asp .

There will be new content and announcements around VFP 8.0 coming over the next few weeks. There are currently no plans to have Europa be based on or use the Windows .NET Framework nor integrated into Visual Studio .NET. The plan for Europa is to be primarily based on FoxPro developer wishlist feedback and remain a direct upgrade to Visual FoxPro 8.0 with backwards compatibility. The features and expected release date for Europa are not announced at this time.

We encourage developers and companies to obtain Visual FoxPro 8.0 through MSDN Subscriptions, which includes Visual FoxPro 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0 (full versions), Visual Studio 6.0, Visual Studio .NET, various versions of Windows, and more all near the same price as VFP 8.0 full version. Refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/prodinfo/levels.asp for more information about what is included in the various MSDN Subscription levels. There is a free Visual FoxPro Toolkit for .NET and other related Visual FoxPro with Visual Studio .NET resources at Microsoft's GotDotNet.com developer site at http://gotdotnet.com/team/vfp .

Visual FoxPro 8.0 is supported by Microsoft until 2010 in the developer tools lifecycle support plan. See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;obsoletedevtool for more details.

Ken Levy
Visual FoxPro Product Manager
Microsoft
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro
http://foxcentral.net

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Danach hatte er noch auf Fragen geantwortet:

> 1. Can you tell us something about what MS is doing to improve VFP marketing?

There will be a few additional announcements coming soon from Microsoft within the next few weeks, and following that the press/media outlets will be contacted and what they choose to print about the release of VFP 8.0 is up to those print publications. There is a special issue of CoDe magazine just completed with 30,000 copies printed, and the latest issue of FoxPro Advisor is dedicated to VFP 8.0, more in upcoming issues. The result of these efforts will be more that what was done for the launch of VFP 7.0.


> 2. Are MSDN purchases by VFP developers counted the same as VFP8 box purchases? How so? (is there a registration card or something in MSDN?)

It is better for the VFP team to have people obtain VFP 8.0 through MSDN than through VFP 8.0 upgrades or stand alone. We do multiple surveys that are very accurate that tell us what percentage of MSDN users use VFP and what percentage of VFP developers obtain VFP via MSDN subscriptions.


> 3. What is the MS count of VFP developers worldwide?

We don't know the exact amount of VFP developers, probably about 125,000 which includes all versions of FoxPro and VFP as well as people to did not obtain VFP legally. It appears about 10% of those people are active in the community in some way (mainly online or user groups and conferences).


Ken Levy
Visual FoxPro Product Manager
Microsoft
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro
http://foxcentral.net