>>>Does anyone know how to create ActiveX controls in VFP?
>>>
>>
>>You can't create ActiveX controls (OLE objects with a visual aspect that can be added to a form and join the form's event loop) in VFP, but you can create OLE Automation servers without much trouble.
>
>Thanks Ed. Do you (or anyone else here) have an opinion about using VFP to create COM servers vs. other techniques? What about EXE vs. DLL COM servers using VFP?
>

You can do this, and within certain limitations, the COM servers work. There are problems with apartment threading and interface blocking with the current releae of VFP 6, reportedly, fixes are being worked on. The lack of an easy implementation for collections in a VFP interface is a significant problem for the way I write COM servers, but again, if you don't need collections, there isn't a problem.

An in-process server (.DLL) has significantly lower OLE interface overhead than an out-of-process server (.EXE), but allow for remote deployment without using MTS. I've run into problems with COM servers that work in default data sessions stepping on each other, again, MS is aware of this, and it should be azdddressed in an upcoming release or Service Pack. I'm not holding my breath.

Unless remote deployment is an issue, I'm including the server code directly in VFP-only applications; there's even less overhead, and as long as a language other than VFP isn't an issue, it's a whole lot easier to debug.