>>>Regarding VFP, for me the transformative event was MS' development of SQL Server.
>>>Once I saw its benefits I determined to stop using DBF's.
>
>Agreed- preference for C/S was cemented during VFP3 Beta with customers urged then required to move content to C/S before end of century.

There wasn't much slack in that schedule. The first really stable version of SQL Server was 97.
But my head was turned in that direction when I saw a Sybase demo at a conference a year or so earlier. Till that time, it had been presented as something requiring mysterious powers to master.
Once that bubble burst, I was a disciple.