>There also seems to be some dispute as to whether it is a bug or the result of a bug fix! One way or another, we obviously need a fix for it or a lot of our clients and users are going to be very peed off!

It's absolutely a bug fix. Here's how I explained it in some session notes:

An index is sorted according to the rules for the table's code page. Even if VFP translated from the table's code page to the current code page, the sort order might be different. This means comparisons to data using the current code page may be incorrect. This is what VFP's new rules prevent.

Tamar