May 1996

Recently there has been speculation as to Microsoft's commitment to Visual FoxPro and the FoxPro product line. Some recent articles stated incorrectly that the next release of FoxPro will be the last. Given these inaccuracies and resulting confusion, we want to clarify Microsoft s position on FoxPro today and in the future.

First and foremost, your investment in FoxPro is safe. Microsoft will bring your applications and FoxPro technology forward. Currently, Microsoft just put the finishing touches on Visual FoxPro for the Power Macintosh. The product team is also hard at work on the next version, Visual FoxPro 5.0 for Windows. After version 5.0 ships, Microsoft will start working on the next release of Visual FoxPro. Visual FoxPro will remain a great tool for high-end database development today and in the future.

Visual FoxPro 3.0 for the Power Macintosh has been released to manufacturing. This product has full cross-platform compatibility with Visual FoxPro 3.0 for Windows. This release brings object-oriented programming to the Power Macintosh while continuing to be a performance leader. All of the great technology that users applaud in Visual FoxPro for Windows is now available on the Power Macintosh.

Visual FoxPro 5.0 for Windows will be released in Fall 1996. This version will have powerful connectivity features, the ability to create OLE automation servers, full support for ActiveX controls, an enhanced development environment, a smaller footprint, and greater performance.

After Visual FoxPro 5.0 ships this fall, the FoxPro team, in conjunction with our other development tool groups, will be working on better integration of our development tools. The integration will allow users to leverage common technologies across all of our development tools. An example of this will be the use of the FoxPro engine technology in other Microsoft development products such as Visual Basic. This is a strategy that we have talked about and outlined for the past several years. You will start to see this strategy come together in upcoming releases of Microsoft development products.

In addition to the integration work, the FoxPro team will be working on common object technology. This technology will allow Visual FoxPro developers to create ActiveX objects that can be used in any ActiveX-enabled container. Specifically, this will enable users existing Visual FoxPro investments to be encapsulated and leveraged going forward.

To summarize, we have been developing the future product plans for our development tool products. In parallel, there have been some incidents that have caused confusion in the FoxPro community. Given all of this, we feel it is important to share with our FoxPro users some of our specific future product plans. Every user should know first and foremost that the investment you have made and continue to make in Visual FoxPro will be supported and brought forward. We believe that the combination of ActiveX control and server creation along with integration of our tool set will create the best possible development environment for application developers. Visual FoxPro and the FoxPro development team will play a central part in making this vision come true.

Tod Nielsen - Visual FoxPro General Manager
Bob Muglia - Vice President Internet Platform and Tools Division