>>If I issue any 'select-sql' statement, the originating table gets opened; so, in your example, as sson as I execute
>>
>>select * from MyTable ......
>>
>>the table MyTable gets opened in one workspace, and the results of the query in another. I'm still faced with the problem of the loading of MyTable...
>
>Sure, if you get all the records. But quite often, you can work with only part of the records - and that part is copied over the network.
>
>The fact that the table is "opened" doesn't mean that all of its data is immediately transferred.

That's true. However, I'd bet if there were a large # of deleted records at the top of the table, the initial USE of the table would result in a period of thrashing as VFP tries to navigate to the first record.