As an aside here, I've been really impressed by VB 6 performance,
especially form performance! If you have an SDI form that doesn't
do data access a VB app brings up forms as fast as most C apps.
I was blown away by how efficient some things are - especially
COM access compared to VFP is no contest.
In fact I have a fairly complex UI that uses a TreeView and
Web browser control to display a help file structure. It loads
much faster in VB calling the VFP server as a COM object to
provide the data, than it does in VFP code natively!
OTOH, if you throw in data access with ADO, you're loosing any
of those gains <s>...
VB's UI functionality is not necessarily better than VFP's. I
think VFP provides much more functionality natively - with VB
alot of things have to be handled with Message Hooks which are
not trivial to program. For everyday development of rich UI
application this can be a big problem.
OTOH, VB's UI has much fewer quirks than VFP - in VFP you spend
the same amount of time working around bugs and impaired
functionality and I would agree with Jim N. that these things
really should be taken care of. I'm guessing that the vast
percentage of the UI bugs in VFP are minor issues that could
be resolved quickly and efficiently and in the process make
VFP much more user friendly. I swear when I build fancy user
interfaces 80% of the work I put in is to work around bugs
in the product!
+++ Rick ---
+++ Rick ---
>Jim,
>
>Comparing the UI capabilities of VFP with those of VB is like comparing a Ford Escort to a Porche. VB outclasses VFP is just about every aspect of UI development.
>
>1) VB uses real windows controls so all of the third party auto testing programs work with it. VFP uses VFP controls that windows cannot see nor does windows know anything about them.
>
>2) Citrix and other remote access systems work well with VB, they are abysmal with VFP.
>
>3) All of the ActiveX controls work with VB, some work with VFP.
>
>4) VB forms load many times faster than an equivalent VFP form (even without data binding).
>
>5) VB has a smaller memory footprint than VFP.
>
>So the argument that VFP is
Always the best tool is a nearsighted view of things. If an applciation's major requirement is a fast and responsive UI then VFP is NOT the right tool, VB or VC++ would be.
