>>>Cyrus,
>>>
>>>>>It is interesting how programmers always focus on the programming concepts and code re-writes. But this app has been around for 15 years, and users like it the way it is. Only if I can figure why at THIS particular customer site, it is acting this way?
>>>
>>>I am sympathetic to your position. fwiw, not everybody will be aware that dbf combo loading under VFP9 can be instantaneous with 12K records.
>>
>>One man's instantaneous is another man's bad practice.
>
>While I agree with the diagnosis that 12k Combo is not healthy,
>the remedy to use a filtered combo means leaving everything 1-tier.
>not really a cure in my book...

No one said to use a 1-tier filtered combo. It's entirely reasonable to make it at least employ a middle tier and pass through a where condition to filter the set as the user types, and/or using paging to bring down 10 at a time. This kind of effect - not just for one combo, but the entire app is the best practice and will blow the doors off of any NIC modification.