>Lianja's remarkable capability with existing VFP code is a bonus IMHO. Why not dig out some of your retired VFP code, point the beta at it and see how you go. Then check out the python and JS and ask seriously where is the downside-

This is exactly one of the points where I miss the info about how they accomplished the things in Lianja.
I want to know how each language is added/interleaved, as this might make a difference in future work load.
Example with vfp: the compability is less than 100%, which is understandable from the "new" vendor POV,
as it might make his previous dialect of xBase brittle - Alaska/xBase++ gives good argument in that direction,
if you happen to have read their stuff or watched their sessions (either live or on youtube).

Also the GUI will need a transpiler or whatver the process will be called:
that makes sense for the new vedor and the curstomer, if the process is a once only affair
and he works from that point in time with the tools of the new environment or
the step is totally without problems so that it is automated fully (yeah...).

But imagine you work with a library like West-Wind or a fwk like Promatrix:
each tool sporting a new release has to enter the migration and testing effort again -
even if you have a willing 3rd party vendor, who will perhaps modify HIS sources
integrating some lines with a compiler switch, eliminating the dull patch work,
testing still will be done mostly on HIS favorite runtime, that probably being vfp at first.

Now such reasoning goes triple for PHP, Python and JS as there is much more
library usage in those languages compared to the common vfp project.
Sometimes it is a real effort to get a fwk like Django working on one of the other
runtimes, as the efforst/proud messages on jython and PyPy show.

Now if Lianja brings another new compiler/runtime, I am much more cautious compared to
having Lianja having embedded the normal CPyton runtime as is described in their Python docs
or some of the XMLRPC ways used to communicate between different python VM's -
even if the second is pure poison for call speed.

@Hank: feel free to use part or all of the above
to motivate Barry to give at least some bare outline info.

regards

thomas