>>Yeah, we use a parser class that builds the whole sql statement from objects created from metadata. ( I can't take credit for any of it, Mike and Toni wrote it all ) but it has the advantage of being very flexible and incorporating metadata props and any code you want to use in subclassed instances of the cursor, field or parameter objects.
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>I remember most of it. Although it's now about six years since I last had my fingers in VFE, I still remember how many neat tricks were inside, made possible by the quite strict and straightforward OOP thinking applied.

The design has held up very well as the framework has evolved since then. In the last three years Mike and Toni and I have been doing all our development against SQL server so there has been a lot of thought about that, especially about means of minimizing wire traffic. ( for example bizobjs that use two cursors - one for the list returned by the parameterized view for further selection - it contains only fields needed to pick a record - and a data entry cursor that contains only one record but all the fields. Makes a huge performance difference in some cases )

What really amazes me is how many apps are being written in VFP that are table based rather than view based. that seems like the most masochistic implementation of Foxpro, but in almost every case where I questioned someone as to *why* they worked directly with tables the answer boiled down to they didn't know *how* to do it with views.

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>>And this is my point - that too many VFP developers are not getting out of VFP what they could - especially in coupling it with the power of SQL Server back ends.
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>I once went through help line by line, and counted how many commands or functions I never used. And I came out good: I did use (at least once!) about 80% of it, and most of the rest was either included for backward compatibility (aka "dBase IV killer features" :), or belonged to the areas I absolutely never used: general fields, ActiveDoc, app wizard framework, menu generator directives.
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>> I just think if frameworks as an extension of VFP. Everyone cries about no VFP 10 but there are VFP developer environments in the here and now that do things they never dreamed of. If I try to create something in vanilla VFP now I feel like I'm programming in assembler <g>
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>Feels more like GfA Basic on Atari... small and knowing good. And equally lame in that you can't just start coding in a wasteland, you need so many pieces on which you don't want to waste time. Where's the code I wrote before? Where are my power tools? You can't expect me to open this safe with just hammer and chisel :).