Hi Dean,

Believe it or not, I care too!!!

Keep in mind, though, that we are *not* talking about a person's survival here, but rather a development product. I mean, if I or my brother or sister are told that they will need to have their legs amputated in order to survive, I'm all for that. But tell me that VFP has to undergo the same procedure (which, to me, mid-tier is much the equivalent given all the things people here repeat about VFP Team size and MS focus, etc) then I have to ask myself a few questions and I surely have to be on my guard.

JimB, who responded to me above (and who's opinion I deeply respect) noted that he has heard nothing regarding diminishment of enhancements of other aspects of VFP. Yet he and others consistently tout that the VFP Team is small and always under fire and can only do so much. Now look at VFP 6 and see how much of it was directed at an 'average developer of non mid-tier apps'!

It is because I fear for VFP's future that I raise these issues. I see that your present employer believes that there is some need there for a "C/S solution". I believe that countless other businesses do not and will not in the reasonable future, and I want a VFP which is thriving and growing so that it can compete with other possible solutions. Should VFP stagnate where it is, as far as first/third level capabilities are concerned, then competition could supplant it. (Clarifying the 'first/third' above, I really mean an "all-in-one" app. where first/second/third are all integrated).

Jim N

>>
>Middle-tier and ADO gets a big "Here here!!!" from you. So you don't really care that you effectively lose the VFP native D/B speed in using such. Nor the fact that VFP databases/tables are at best, at least as at right now, supported only by the ODBC portion of ADO.
>>
>
>
>Hey Jim,
>
>Actually I do care. My point (if I even have one), is that I am not large enough nor strong enough to stem the tide toward n-tier client/server solutions (ones using a sql database for the data store). As an xBase programmer since the dBaseII days, I am happy to see that at least VFP "might" have a chance to survive in this "new world order".
>
>At my "day" job, my four and a half year very successful application, which is part of the company's bread and butter product, is begin replaced by a "client/server" (sql server) application. If this other team is successful, which I doubt - they have been working on client/server for over 2 yrs - still no real product - its all fluf so far, they will put me and my two staff members out of work! It is a full time job as a development manager to continually show and prove to the company that FoxPro is still a viable tool to use. The tide is turning and I can't stop it. But, I hope VFP can still play a part!
>
>Thanks
>Dean