>Does anybody knows how to open a .dat file where Magic stores the data? either in VFP or through ODBC, OLEDB, etc?
>
There was an application generator called "Magic" in the late 80's working on BTrieve data. AFAIR developed in Israel, but not sure about that. No idea if or when ported to windows, but if that is the tool BTrieve is nowadays Pervasive and should give you ODBC access at least.

They had a functioning data dictionary approach very early for PC based solutions, simulating a C/S environment development approach with a lot of know how put into the back end side/data dictionary. Screens were painted with a screen painter similar to FPD, but bad developers were better protected from writing redundant code in magic, but overall had less freedom (tools written in the same language and/or accessible to hook like products as GenScreenX). Saw them on CEBit, but market penetration was never that high here to make them a player

HTH

thomas