>>I am about to embark on a new adventure- converting a FoxDOS 2.5 application used by many many people to VFP6.0. At this point I am not sure whether I should use the DBC or not. I can code for referential integrity and having code hidden in triggers etc does not exactly turn me on. Aside from updatable cusors and transaction processing are there any other advantages to using the DBC versus free tables? On the other hand are there other disadvantages to the DBC other than the risk that it gets broken and the application will not work?
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>>I would appreciate any input you can give me. The typical user is either a single machine or a small peer to peer network.
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>>Thanks...
>
>I NEVER use free tables unless I have to. After you get used to the dbc, it will become invaluable to you. There are certain things that you just cannot do without one:
>Long field names.
>Field caption (these can be used to automatically create labels when dragging fields onto a form.
>Field comments. You can integrate field comments into your framework to have them be automatically used as a tool tip. (or for anything else)
>
>Field and record validation rules and triggers. One of my favorite uses for validation rules is not validation at all; it is a timestamp function that stamps a record with a last modified date, whether edited at the command window or through your app. Try that without a dbc.
>Or try automatically adding a surrogate primary key without a default value. You know how nice it is to write PK code once and never deal with PK generation again? All I do is create a table and put the newid() function call in the default value.
>
>Like Craig said, get used to hidden code. It's what OO is all about. It only makes debugging difficult if you don't think to look in DBC code. Once your used to it, its just like the rest of your app.
>
>Please take a harder look at the DBC, and you won't regret it.
>
>BTW (Mark)- GenDBCX overcomes the bug you mentioned.

Just a question?? It's what OO is all about--- Is it really or just VFP Implimentation.

Makes me go Hmmmm?

Jeff