>Maybe I'm just sadistic and I want them to suffer--at least until they realize that the app really does need to be rewritten <g>.

...and then once it's rewritten you be the software hero of the day :).

...done that and didn't even get a T-shirt. Was paid, though.

Can't you just point out that you simply can't guarantee that the current app will keep working? If few lines you may add may break something else somewhere (public vars?), who knows what else can happen?

Also, as Jim pointed out, it wasn't really tested under VFP9, and we know that each version was less forgiving of various things (syntax errors, table corruption), so something that worked under VFP5 may have worked just because VFP5 tolerated that type of error.

An app written by a 15-year-old may be a good start, but why would they want to stay on the start line forever?