>>Can someone give me the comparaisons on how to choose Visual FoxPro to do Client/Server instead of Delphi, Power Builder, etc.?

Robert:
Most of the current c/s tools out there have basically the same features. At one point in time, we started a matrix w/ feature comparisons but got to a point where most of them had checks on them.

The biggest differentiator now is the dml in each.
PB uses PB script: very limited!
VB, of course, uses VB: not OOP.
Delphi uses object pascal: if your team has a lot of pascal experience, then this is the tool to consider.
VFP's native xbase w/ mixed in VB & C++ syntax is somewhat taxing to a new developer but (IMHO) offers the best flexibility.
Optima uses C++, so C++ shops have a toy to use also.
Centura's SQLWin uses SQLTalk: used to be a forerunner in the c/s tools arena but ran out of steam and fell way behind Sybase, MS, and Borland.


Some limiting factors prevent us from using VFP:
What are the customer's expertise for maintaining the app?
Does the app need(1) to run on pre-Win95 machines? Delphi,SQLWin,PB,Opt++
Do the pre-Win95 pc's have less than 16M of RAM(1)? Delphi, SQLWin,Opt++
(1) No choice, can not be changed.

Right now, VFP offers: off-line transport (for field sales, etc.), FoxISAPI (if we want to use the same app for internet apps), and Ole Automation (for business object creation in n-tier c/s apps ).

If you're ever in an argument: ask the various experts how they would handle the following:
Assume a table with 25 columns. For some reason, you now want to fire each column's validation routine. If you see them having to hard type the names of the columns, start laughing and show them VFP's indirect reference capability (macro substitution <g>) like:
oMyBusObj.&Field((lncnt)).myValid()