Hi, Chris,

Good questions....I'll take a stab...

1) do popular backend databases for dotnet apps tend to be either SQLserver & SQLExpress or do you see people going w/ MySQL or something else?

I can only speak from what I've seen...I would order them as SQL Server, Oracle, SQL Express, and MySql. I'm sure some will bust on me for this, but I'm not a fan of MySQL. Unless the newest available version is different, I've found it lacking (at least for my needs).

2) are there data volume issues / multi-user license limits built into SQLExpress?

SQL Express 2005 supports 4 GB. I don't know about # of active users, but SQL Express will only address 1 GB of memory. There's a URL with specs for SQL Express - I'll dig it up and I'll post it.

3) i use Stonefield to handle database updates. how is this addressed w/ SQLserver when shipping program updates (keeping in mind that there is no dba on site)? Are you shipping scripts to update the database?

Yes, I've used scripts. And yes, I've found that some SQL Server installations don't have a full-time DBA. Often it's either DBA by committee, or no DBA at all.

4) for VFP developers, do u recommend C# or VB?

Uh, oh, loaded question!!! I recommend mastering one language, and being able to at least read the other one. ;)

I mainly write in C#. It's a bit more powerful for many tasks. .NET Generics in .NET 2.0 are a little better when using C#, because of the support for anonymous methods.

However, I like VB2005 a hundred times better than VB2003. VB is much better for Office Automation - don't even think of trying to write Office Automation in C#.


5) i assume any 3rd party activex controls used in VFP need to be replaced with .net versions if that functionality is not in .net

Absolutely. The .NET third-party world is awesome, IMO. DevComponents, PureComponents, Infragistics, DevExpress, and others have some great and slick third party tools.

6) in Srdjan's post, he mentioned "Client/Server app deployed on LAN" as the example app. Do you see this type of app or a more distributed/web-type app as the prominent app type being developed?

I see both. I've actually seen a few more client-server apps in .NET than I have distributed apps, though I encourage clients to develop for distributed architectures.

7) is the installation/distribution of a .net app comparable to that of a VFP app? (runtimes, exe, chm, 3rd party .net controls, database, launcher).

8) regarding install packages, are there .net-specified dependencies that need to be addressed for the different flavors of windows?

I'm going to answer this one in a separate post.

Yes, I agree, the original post was a good question. Having said that, I'm unable to provide actual numbers as far as projected costs. Maybe someone else wants to take a stab at that. There are so many factors that will go into ANY major change in platform. I was trying to identify those aspects that will factor into total costs (either as minimal or major).


Kevin