Hi Gerard.

Here you have my impressions.

>1. Is there a steep learning curve

No. All of the cumbersome data-binding and data access is transparent to the developer. It allows you to get up and running and to be productive very quickly. There are classes you can attend if you feel like, video-classes ( http://www.stratatrain.com ) and a forum with prompt replies.


>2. Is there anything that you cannot do ?

Not that I have seen. They even have a Smart-Client Middle Tier server that they are about to release which allows the developer to swap between the standard data connections to a remote connection in a single line of code. I am looking forward to this being released!


>3. Whats the speed/responsivemess of the app, from point of view of data retrieval and Form refreshing

It is faster than even using the standard ADO.NET. I think that the reason theirs is so fast is because they have an actual enterprise level medical system that they develop as well. So the framework is optimized for performance all the way around.


>I kooked at a few VFP apps (and indeed purchased a few) years ago, and the two things I noticed was that form refreshing seemed to be very slow, pesumably because of the 'Framework' baggage. On one of the frameworkds, it turned out to be so slow, that I had to revert to straight VFP to develop the app.

I am a CodeMine user in VFP, and always felt very pleased with its performance.
Regarding SF, I recommend downloading their trial and putting it to the test. I think you will be very pleased, especially coming from a VFP background. Their data-binding and business objects make most VFP developers feel at home.

Hope I could help you.

Cheers.