>>>>>We have systems/processes that run in various flavors of Fox from FPD 2.0 through VFP 5. One of these controls our Decodes system which is referenced by FPD 2.0 through VFP5 systems, the COBOL system and 2 Clipper applications. It is currently in FPW 2.6.
>>>>>
>>>>>I would like (for obvious reasons) to migrate this system into VFP, but I don't want to have to start maintaining yet a 4th set of files for the FPD apps,
>>>>>
>>>>>Yes, I know I can access FP 2.x files with VFP, but the minute I try to update the file with VFP, (poofda) it's a VFP file now. Is there any way to convince VFP NOT to convert the file on update?
>>>>
>>>>If you change table structure then it's going to VFP format, but you may restore it back using COPY TO .. TYPE FOX2x
>>>
>>>Ok, bear with me here a second - it's been a long week. As long as I don't change the structure, I can open and update with VFP and have the data files remain 2.x, correct?
>>
>>Yes. You can defintely update data in the FP2.6 table without changing it to a VFP table.
>
>
>If you really want a guarantee, try reading and writing to the FPW 2.6 tables through ODBC. Treat it like you would any other non-VFP data source.

Won't that slow things down? How much of a performance hit do you take?