>>>What? You said SQl Server 7.0 is aimed at the desktop?
>>>
>>>Do you have more info on SQL Server 7.0?
>>>
>>>Isn't this a direct attack on Visual FoxPro being the serious Microsoft desktop database development environment...
>>
>>Someone said that Access has more to fear than vfp by local SQL Server...
>
>
>Rumor is that Jet will be killed and Access will become a SQL Server front end.


Information I have seen from Microsoft on SQL Server 7.0 include:

This is not really an upgrade but a total rewrite of SQL Server (removing any remnants of Sybase code so consider this in some ways a version 1.0 release).

Support for row level locking.

There will be separate version of SQL Server 7.0 called SQL Server for Windows 95/98 and Windows NT Workstation. This does not require Windows NT Server. It is aimed for desktop and mobile clients. This version will ship with Access 98 in addition to the jet engine.

What is of most interest to VFP'ers is the Embedded Version. This will be a lightweight, full-featured low-cost database engine. This version will make it practical to build systems using SQL Server as the engine without having to worry excessively about DB management. Some of the key features of SQL Server 7.0 are memory and lock resources adjusted dynamically, file sizes grow automatically and auto-tuning features guarantee consistent performance under variable load conditions. The database will be self-managing so your customers won't need to hire a DBA!

If you are building a new system with DBF's you should consider at the very least a migration path within your app to SQL Server (and constructing your interface to handle the move with little changes required).

VFP is a superb front-end interface for data applications and its merit does not increase or decrease based on the data source. VFP will not be damaged in any way by an industry shift to SQL databases. VFP has an excellent connectivity model to SQL data that provides high performance with developmental flexibility.


Just for some added info (and whining) I am currently on a project using VB5, ASP, RDO and SQL Server in a three tier environment. Do you know that if RDO retrieves over 100 records (gosh, that's a lot!) it's rowcount property will consistently store -1 meaning I don't know how many records I have! so we have to skip through every retrieved record set to get a record count. VFP is such a clean and consistent environment compared to VB5! Enjoy it!