>The buy in for StrataFrame is a bit high for me now

Possibly. However, I think that as a community, Fox developers really got everything too cheaply to the extent that everything had to be almost free to attract interest. Codemine is currently $395.00 (I think) - its an awesome product for next to nothing. Its little wonder that CM8 is still in beta - it just can't be cost effective for Dave to spend time on the framework. As a user of StrataFrame, and knowing the scope of .Net by comparison to VFP, there is a much bigger target to hit so, I personally feel it is value for money. They have also done (as a guess) circa $25K+ worth of changes and enhancements to the framework for me alone. The support is excellent and they are committed to the product. So, the price is extremely reasonable when you think what a decent framework can do for you.

>the 10 day trial period is to short to really get a feeling for what they are doing. I think

I think they are probably trying to sort the serious evaluators from the mildly curious because they generally get involved with their trialees so, I suppose they want to spend time with serious prospects. I am certain they would extend the trial period for you - mention my name to them; it might help.

>It appears also to be vb.net specific?

The framework is written in VB.Net but I code in C# - the beauty of .Net. You get to learn two languages - when I step through the framework classes, its in VB so, I am getty pretty familiar with VB.Net - how's that for value ;)