Cecil --

While Servoy looks easy to program and implement, there are a few things with it that have stopped me from proceeding very far with them:

1. Somewhat unusual user interface (many aspects of it do not look like Windows or Mac)
2. Single source provider (there have been many of those that came and went, leaving a bunch of programmers holding the bag)
3. Easy upfront development, but customization is a different thing. And you know how the devil is always in the details, how "finishing up" the last 10% of an application can take 90% of the total development time.
4. Limited "ecosystem." Certainly not as large as the .NET developer community, so finding answers or already built solutions will be harder with Servoy, I'm sure.

Given all that, I think that .NET is your best bet, warts and all. Look at Ideablade framework -- it makes especially data connectivity much easier than what you get off-the-shelf with .NET, and you can try it out as much and as long as you like if you use their free version. That version is pretty much like the full version, with a few limitations such as connectivity to more than one database (not tables, database.) They also have a whole bunch of tutorials that will teach you not only their framework, but also a whole lot about .NET in general.

The foxpro experience always gives me a lot of pause when I look at a system that looks great but doesn't seem to have a dedicated backing of a large corporation, such as Java with Sun or .NET with Microsoft.

Pertti

>Hi Neil,
>
>I looked at "Servoy" today for the first time on a SERVOY Webinar this morning, or maybe early afternoon. It was really cool; and the costs overall are less. I saw the data between a desktop form and a web form be changed at the same time on the server.
>
>Cecil
>
>>Hi,
>>I know where you are coming from, maybe you should have a look at Servoy http://www.servoy.com it looks promising., it is also cross platform.
>
>>Complexity is the result of a badly designed system. .Net is complex. For gods sake, we are only doing DB maintenance with a bit of interfacing.
>
>>I am currently looking at Servoy because I think there could be a major change in direction with O/S's over the next couple of years and a development environment with cross platform builtin seems to be the way to go.