I took the challenge as I found it - writing an app in VFP vs .NET.

If Jeff acknowledges that VFP is in a deficit position, he is certainly welcome to put forth any tools and utilities to bring VFP out of a handicap position and place it on equal footing.

Additionally, if Jeff believes that VFP is unable to support asynchronous process or to raise/respond to events, then fine, he doesn't have to do them. However, I intend to implement them in the "demo" application and to demonstrate their value. Contrary to the "comfortable" belief that I'm trying to avoid a contest, I fully intend to proceed.

All that said, I appreciate you and John Ryan making my point about an out of box, "VFP vs .NET" comparison.

With regard to this statement:

I would no more have created the current mobile application I am building for a client with Visual FoxPro than I would have created the last data centric desktop application I created for a client in Visual Studio.

Unless one has production experience with .NET, I disqualify such statements as general lack of understanding.

It can take 1-2 years to truly understand what can be done with the language, the framework, ADO.NET, stored procedures, etc. I will fully acknowledge that it's not always easy, that sometimes it takes some "elbow grease" - however, in several instances, "digging deep" for a functional counterpart to handle local data or some other task has revealed other strong aspects of the .NET framework that I might not otherwise have discovered. One is not likely to gain a deeper understanding of the technology while taking a superficial approach.

I've presented at MSDN CodeCamps this year, and have spoken with MANY people who are developing different types of database applications: client-server, web, and even desktop applications. They're not complaining about lack of capabilities. As I've said many times, the "myths" and "half-truths" perpetuated on this forum are rooted in a psychology that is excessively tied to the "fox" way of doing things. One of these days I'd like to challenge someone to venture away from the friendly confines of the UT and post their theories on .NET on a .NET forum: I think that would be very interesting indeed. Some of the most negative statements I've read about .NET come from this forum, and in many instances from those with little or limited .NET experience.

As for your last point...I've answered over 100 .NET questions on this forum in the last year or so, and have even done some troubleshooting with files sent by different members. Yes, clients want honesty and they want to know when something truly cannot be done - and in many cases, they want someone with skills to make things happen, and experience to understand the difference between a perceived limitation and an actual one.

For instance, last year I published an article on techniques with the .NET datagrid - some were intended to demonstrate comparable functionality with the VFP datagrid, including a functional equivalent of a generic DynamicForeColor. I later received emails from people who said they'd given up on the .NET datagrid until they saw my article.

I've contributed a substantial amount of information to the community about doing "fox" things in .NET, and will always do everything I can to help people - but I have to be honest that I have increasingly low tolerance for hasty conclusions.

My twin-copper Lincolns.

Kevin