>>Can it be true? Is VFP the only viable desktop RAD tool for serious database development? Or, are the members of this thread a little biased ;) ?
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>Certainly not the only one. But certainly the best among Microsoft solutions for medium-to-large data sets and/or many-multi-user apps.
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>Naturally many members of this thread have some bias toward FoxPro. But many people here make much use of other products including VB and Access, as well as non-Microsoft tools. And when it comes to writing intense database apps, VFP is still a great tool. Still one of the best in several categories, including speed, power of built-in tools, and the fact that it's truly object oriented (VB and Access are not object oriented, although they are "visual". VC++ is object oriented, of course, maybe more so than VFP.)
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>>If it is true then it might explain why Microsoft feels that it is not necessary to expend much marketing effort on this product.
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>Bill Gates started Microsoft with two products, DOS and BASIC, which he wrote. Do you suppose he might like BASIC a little bit? :) :)
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Actually, Microsoft got it's start entirely with BASIC, well before the days of the 8086/8088 and the IBM PC; Microsoft bought the first release of DOS from SCP, and ran from there with it. Prior to PCDOS, Microsoft was almost entirely a language house.