Shedding Some Light

Over on the Southwest Fox blog someone asked the following question in the comments for our post announcing the Windows 8 keynote:

Why have MS promote their products when they don’t care about developers? MS discontinued VFP.

Comments often get lost, and sometimes people read the posts without looking at the comments, so I am going to post my answer here.

It is a good question. This is not about promoting Windows 8, this is about educating Visual FoxPro and Xbase++ developers on a new operating system their customers are eventually going to consider and use in their businesses. You need knowledge to help guide your customers and users. This session is going to help you learn the advantages and pitfalls of Windows 8 and how it is going to affect your customers’ business.

Jennifer is not a marketing person, she is a developer and has lots of good information to share with other developers. This keynote is about helping developers get past the pundits and press, and down to the nuts and bolts of the next OS developers have to consider when deploying applications. Plain and simple.

What is one of the most common concerns about the future for VFP developers? Answer: will my applications continue to run on the next Windows?  Xbase++ developers want to know new features their applications can work with too.

We have more reasons for you to attend Southwest Fox and Southwest Xbase++ 2012:

This year’s keynote address will be given by Jennifer Marsman of Microsoft Corporation. She’ll talk about “Industry Trends in Windows 8”. See http://www.swfox.net/sessionsswfox.aspx#Industry_Trends_in_Windows_8 for a description of this session.

All Southwest Fox attendees receive a free PDF version of the latest VFP book, “VFPX: Open Source Treasure for the VFP Developer,” by Rick Schummer, Tamar E. Granor, Doug Hennig, Jim Nelson, and Eric Selje, courtesy of the German FoxPro User Group, dFPUG.

All attendees receive a free one-year subscription to CoDe magazine, courtesy of EPS Publishing.

Add these to more than 40 different regular conference sessions (http://www.swfox.net/sessionsswfox.aspx and http://www.swfox.net/sessionsswxbase.aspx)  and these concurrent conferences provide an opportunity you shouldn’t miss.

Register today.

Someone on the ProFox listserver asked the question:

For many years, I have wanted to attend a conference such as the SW Fox 2012. For me, this is a very long trip, and airfares alone as substantial.  In your opinion, are these conferences worth while.

So I responded…

As you might know, I am one of the organizers and speakers of Southwest Fox so my opinion is a twisted and biased one. Buyer beware.

It is my belief that conferences are for a lot of people, but not for everyone. Those who do not learn from listening to others speak might not benefit from the conference. If you don’t learn things by reading a white paper you might consider skipping the conference. Those who do not benefit from networking should not come, after all it is like a forum or listserver or Twitter, but live and in HD. That bothers some people. If you prefer learning about vendor products by reviewing a Web site instead of talking to a sales person in person, then a conference might not be for you. If you prefer to eat alone, and not talk shop at every meal, then a conference is not really a good idea.

On the other hand, if you want to learn more about your craft, hear of tools that integrate with your favorite development platform, expand your mind past your normal comfort zone, and meet like-minded people, there is a good chance Southwest Fox might be a perfect fit for you.

Early-bird deadline has been extended until September 5th, so we can save you $50 for use on your bar/food bill when you are out networking with some of the finest people in our community. If you are going to sign up, I’d suggest learning to the FoxShow teaser interview with the SWFox organizers for a special offer.

I hope to see many of you in Gilbert in 45 days!