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FoxPro Revival (Rust/WASM Runtime)
A developer has revived Visual FoxPro, discontinued by Microsoft in 2007, with a new Rust-based runtime compiled to WebAssembly that maintains compatibility with legacy FoxPro applications while adding modern features like JSON and HTTP support.
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## Overview
A new project has revived Visual FoxPro, the business application language Microsoft discontinued at version 9 in 2007, by building a compatible runtime in Rust compiled to WebAssembly (foxscript.org, September 22).
## Technical details
The project checks compatibility against the real vfp9.exe, removes the legacy 2 GB table size limit, continues to support old 32-bit .fll add-ins, and adds modern features including lambdas, JSON support, and an HTTP server. The project reports builds are currently unsigned and documentation is incomplete (foxscript.org, September 22). It is released under the MIT license.
## Why it matters
The revival highlights the persistence of legacy enterprise software and the technical debt many businesses carry — a 20-year-old language still running critical business applications because rewriting them is too costly. This speaks to a broader theme of legacy system modernization relevant to enterprise software strategy and technical risk management.