>>
>>Hi Charles,
>>I strongly suggest that you should also evaluate Devforce too (and yes as of now I'm a Devforce evangelist and thus biased). All your questions get answer beyond your expectations there.
>>Cetin
>
>Cetin,
>
>PMFJI,
>
>Would you mind sharing (even briefly) of what you like about Devforce? Maybe in comparison to other frameworks you evaluated? Or maybe just some specific things that make you like Devforce?
>
>Thank you in advance.

Devforce, is not something that you should expect to install today and create your first application overnight. IOW with Devforce, your first application's delivery time to market is longer than others. OTOH after you first application, you get the advantage of having great resuability, resulting fast delivery time for following applications and more importantly dealing with maintanence needs of the existing. If your intention is to create an application quickly now, then Devforce is not the right choice. It'd take longer than it might take with another framework.

I can do many things in VFP today and would continue to do tomorrow. If I'm leaving VFP in any way then I should have good reason's to do so (and this has nothing to do with MS's last decision), not just it's easier to do many nonData things in .Net. At the same time I should be adding value to data related processes as well. In .Net biz objects didn't attract me enough until I saw Devforce. In Devforce those are just the ones I have ever been dreaming of (well because for a long time I was after remoting which I think is the future).
Your objects in Devforce, are mobile objects. They travel over regular HTTP/HTTPS. In a nutshell it provides cached objects that doesn't need to roundtrip to server for a number of needs. Devforce has an intelligent caching and support for offline data, support for CAB, deployment, higher security, more responsive tiered experience (from a single PC to n-tiered scalable, reliable systems your code base remains same, no recompiling. Few lines of configuration chage only for example. No connection string on client side to be compromised say in case of a stolen notebook). With increasing wireless networks now it's even more common to experience disconnects and you surely would want to be able to support your staff on the field with their notebooks with no connection to corporate, view/add/edit data. Then whenever they have internet access somewhere they could sync with corporate over regular HTTP (no need for a VPN). Even over less bandwidth higher response.
Devforce also supports multiple vendors, multiple datasources (don't think it's a feature in all) but it doesn't support VFP and MsAccess (who cares the latter) tables. Reason is simple in Devforce you do not write the SQL's (but you could if you wish), it's famework's job to do it and Devforce uses SQL92 compliant calls (VFP SQL is not SQL92 compliant).
It doesn't give you fancy UI controls. It simply uses .Net UI controls or if you have them 3rd party tools (Devexpress and Infragistics controls). IOW it's the plumbing you need rather than the buider set (well it still has RAD tools for such things but it doesn't provide you say a grid that you can format via a series of builders like Devexpress' xTraGrid control). If you're not after fancy UI than a form that looks like a VFP form is built in a very short time from scratch.
Dmitry, well it's getting very long and still I could only talk about the tip of the iceberg.
If I can't continue later this on, at least watch the movies on site and download, use funhouse application yourself (Cabana later). In summary if you plan to build applications that go beyond small/mid size businesses I think Devforce is the way to go. Probably it's Les Pinter who summarized it with a sentence like "This is thing that we would write if we knew ...". I saw that on IdeaBlade site recently.
What is important about funhouse is that you'd get the taste of remoting and 'smart client'. The form itself is a simple one that would take less than an hour to build. However the data you're using is from IdeaBlade's servers. Check the performance, test disconnecting by pulling out the ethernet plug if you wish etc.
Cetin