Bill;

I have the Murach books and they are great!

My experience with VB.NET is that it allowed me to create a complex ASP.NET form and "all was well". It is a three tier design and I thought I would try my hand at C# as a matter of interest.

When I created the same application in C# it threw an error! I had an open connection and it let me know. The dba's do not like open connections nor do I. This turned me off of VB.NET, as it brought back memories of "all is well" for six months into production release of an application and then it blows up. That is what I call a "soft failure". They are a pain and when you find it you ask, "Why did this run at all"?

At this point I am using a custom VFP application for users to run reports. I used a class library I developed at home and it took little time to create the application for my users.

There is one form which displays rows of report names and if you click on it once a description appears in a list box on the same form. Click twice and it takes you to a custom form which the user can do what is needed and allowed. This may include date ranges, company names, or any thing that is specific to that report. Then you can send it off as a screen of data, report, Excel, or whatever is needed.

When I get time I will look into other types of reporting tools.

C# might take a bit more effort to begin with but it is really fun to use.

By the way I am looking into StrataFrame for a number of reasons, one of which includes having received a number of eMails from developers that are well known and respected telling me his/her experiences with that product. Additionally, the folks at StrataFrame have answered my technical questions within hours if not minutes. They are really on top of things.

Tom


>Thanks Joel!
>That idea of using Vfp 9 for reporting sounds wonderful. I will be ordering the "Flying Fox" Book from Hentzenwerks.com.
>I'm evaluating whether to jump into VS.Net 2005 and if I can use VFP 9 for reporting it will be a big plus.
>Am grappling with which language to go with. VB.net 2005 is still Basic, and C# uses the "curley brackets". Have gotten 2 books by Murach, one for VB 2005 and the other for C# 2005. Also have VS.Net 2005 Express loaded on my machine.
>Have read that Micro Focus has a version of COBOL for .Net 2005, but don't think I want to go there.
>What are your views on the .Net language situation?
>Thanks again!
>Bill