>If you are developing alone or in a team of 2, then you probably can keep using SourceSafe with FoxBin2Prg, which have the automation you mention between text and binaries automatically.
>Data should not be considered for checkin/checkout, because that can make explode the SCM tool. Normally data is backed up and you just checkin the text file with the structure of the data, or a few small tables full exported to text (parameter tables or some little business tables). But if you want to use the full potencial of a DVCS tool, then you don't want something like the VFP project automation when checking in/out.
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>One option that some SCM/DVCS tools have is "triggers" that fire before/after you checkin/checkout, which can be used to fire your own scripts to do the necessary convertions, but this have it's downsides, because when you automate too much, then you have not space left for little adjustments or use cases that sometimes are needed and that require some less automated.
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>Another powerful option is using external tools (sometimes they are included with the SCM/SVCS tool itself) that allow doing this stuff, (didn't totrtoise allow integrating external programs?), or scripts that can be used from the file explorer or even called from the SCM/DVCS tool, that facilitates this conversions.

IOW, it's all options and possibilities, and what I use at the moment is already good enough and easy to remember (so not missing a step, like it used to happen the first year) and takes minimum of time. Now if I was to introduce source control to a project where it wasn't used before, I'd surely check which option would be worth it.

Re databases - the client's databases, when doing conversions or initial temporary hosting, get transported just a few times, and they are not in source control. The tables which are controlled are the metadata, and those would just as well be turned into text (and indexed by some code which would be part of the project), and it would have the benefit of not sending trailing spaces and memo bloat over the wire. Which is perhaps still worth doing regardless of the rest of it. Hmmm....