Hi John ---

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>VB can use ADO - to a greater extent than VFP. I can't talk about VB 6 - because of my NDA - but suffice it to say that your jaw will drop a bit when you see some of it's features. I'll leave it at that.
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I *have* seen VB6 ... incremental upgrade with *some* simplification of data access...the Data Environment in VB6...hmmm...where have I heard that one before. Jaw ain't dropping ;-)

>With regard to inheritance. I have come around on this issue. While I still hold that a language must support inheritance to be OO, inheritance is more apt to be overused - and for the wrong reasons. Inhertiance can be your best friend or your worst nightmare.
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I'd rather have it and choose not to use it than to not have it and not have a choice. I use the crap outta it. It can be misused; you can subclass text controls ad infinitum for different stuff (I remember that DevX discussion) but, hey, bad coding will be bad coding. It's only your worst nightmare if you let it be.
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>I think many Fox developers get too much of a free ride with regard to database analysis and design. I also think too many VB developers get a bad wrap - and are guilty by association. Many VFP developers could not design a good data base if thier lives depended on it. Many VB developers could. On average, I will grant you that a VFP developer is more apt to understand how to build a DB app than a VB developer. But I would caution against making too sweeping of a generalization.

OK....define free ride? I know that there are a lot of bad database designers using Fox as primary tool....I've had to clean up after some of them in recent years. I have seen a lot less bad database design since FP went to VFP though. I'd agree on that many VB developers could...I don't know about most. I work in a consulting firm with almost 100 VB developers; I have a large control group to study ;-)