>SCAN approach is faster if you want to retrieve few records, SELECT-SQL- if you want to retireve thousands of records. BTW, if you want to retrieve thousands of records from SQL-Server, it will slow too.

The difference in performance becomes more dramatic the more records you want to return. The example I described produced a result set of about 150 records on average. The larger your table, the larger your index, the more data that has to go over the wire. It's the classic reasoning for going to client/server in the first place.

>IMO, the idea is: if you're going to use SQL-Server, then use it immediately building VFP-front-end with normal back-end approach, because if you try to combine true back-end approach with non-backend engine it will involve development problems.

It's no problem to develop an application as pure client/server and then use a local engine, it's just slow. I guess what I'm looking for is people's opinions on that: are client/server apps inherently slow using local data engines? The answer appears to be a resounding YES.