Cecil,

You'll probably see more of the VFP influence in the .NET version after 2005 (I can't recall if they're calling it Ocras, or if it has a new name).

I've been working with the 2005 beta for months now. The enhancements in data handling from VS.NET 2003 to 2005 are probably more "evolutionary" than "revolutionary". However, they're still some great enhancements. Here's a rundown:

- Several methods that were previously available only for the dataset are now available for the datatable. A dataset is a collection of datatables. But in 2003, if you have a free standing datatable with no association to other tables, and you want to use methods like ReadXml, WriteXml, etc., you have to create a dataset and add the datatable to the dataset, just to gain access to those methods. In 2005, that's no longer necessary.

- Performance has been greatly enhanced. Filling a result set can be up to six times faster, depending on the circumstances.

- You can write a data access layer to support multiple backends (sql server and oracle, for example) with less code. (You can do it in 2003, but it's easier in 2005).

- Asynchronous command execution (you can execute a command to pull back a result set, and execute other code while waiting for the original function to finish, though this needs to be used carefully)

- You can read a result set into a datatable, without using the DataAdapter

- More control over rowstate

- A new SqlBulkCopy class, to bulk copy the contents of a datatable to sql server

- You can have multiple datareaders on a single connection

- There are new capabilities for data binding that will be helpful to newbies - but in all honestly, the generic binding solutions that different folks have come up with (in 2003) are probably still more powerful. But from everything I've read, this aspect of data management could see major enhancements in the version after 2005.

If you search MSDN for ADO.NET 2.0 topics, you'll find more details. Hope this helps.

Kevin