Thank you Andy
I was reading through new entries in the blogs I subscribe to tonght and I came across a post by Andy Kramek that points out the TIOBE Programming Community Index for December 2005 (sometimes referred to simply as the TPC Index). If you look at the bottom of the Top 20 languages in the list you'll see Visual FoxPro which has made a serious leap in the last year. Here's a quote from that page...

"Rising star this month is Visual FoxPro. It jumped in one year time from position 51 to 20! It is interesting to see that there is a whole bunch of "new" programming languages (such as Visual FoxPro, ColdFusion, Ruby, D, and ActionScript) trying to get in the major league, but none of them is capable of holding a top 20 position for more than a couple of months."

Why the increase?
I attribute much of the increase to the explosion of online activity by the Visual FoxPro Community. If you look over the last year at the blogs, forums, screencasts, podcasts, etc. that the Visual FoxPro Community has produced, it is little wonder that an index that is calculated using popular search engines would show Visual FoxPro as a rising star. Couple that with a few mentions of FoxPro by Microsoft around the time they were announcing LINQ and a few new third party vendors that have come on the scene in the last year and voila! We have a significant increase in Visual FoxPro exposure online.

New Years Resolution
OK, so we've managed to get our beloved tool into the top 20, but the TPC analysts are fairly convinced that we'll only be there for a couple of months. So, as Visual FoxPro and the Visual FoxPro Community has done so many times, I think we should prove the naysayers wrong again. As I was in need of a good New Years Resolution, mine is going to be to do my part to move us up another 5 spots in the coming year (take a look at what language is number 15 in the list). I know it's a lofty goal, and that it will take a concerted effort on the part of the entire Visual FoxPro Community, but I don't see why it can't be done.

Isn't it about time?
Isn't it about time to believe that a significant difference can be made by the Visual FoxPro Community? There's absolutely no reason that Visual FoxPro should have to play second fiddle to inferior development tools for the market we serve. Visual FoxPro is the best Microsoft has to offer when it comes to datacentric applications for the small to medium-sized business. As more of them begin to look for cost-conscious, lightning-fast alternatives it would be nice if Visual FoxPro was front and center. We've generated some good momentum over the past year, and I'd like to see us capitalize on that. Please join me in making a difference in 2006. Today position 20, tomorrow the world! Why not, Right?