Hi JohnK,

"Handles data services" does *not* do the actual I/O, does it!

Since VFP is famous for its SPEED, especially as regards LARGE databases, how does this EXPLOIT that aspect (and the *major* sales point) of VFP???

I'm happy to learn something new, John, so if I've got it wrong do tell me!

Cheers,

Jim N

>Hiya JimN ---
>
>>
>>Seems you may have a problem with the 'definition' of middle tier.
>>
>>Assuming a three tier application, middle tier would be the "BUSINESS RULES" tier, having only MARGINAL data access requirements.
>>
>>So just HOW does VFP's speed and flexibility help as a middle tier in a 3-tier application????
>>
>
>Hold on a sec, Jim. A middle-tier can broker business rules or facilitate data access. There's nothing that limits data access in a middle tier, on the contrary: A good n-tier application *always* handles data service requests between the front-end and the server database.