I did VFP for a long time, and recently VB.

VFP is greate as long as you don't need a true compiler and free multi-threading.

VB is ok since it does compile to a certain degree, but you still need a fat run-time dll. The database part of VB is not as pleasant as VFP since VB uses an object database. However, one big advantage is that you can repair a corrupted Access database via jet. In VFP you would need a third party tool and even then you will need to be lucky.

C++ Builder and Delphi are the only two tools that I have used which have nearly every thing in VFP together with free multi-threading and native code compilation. And both tools are completely RAD. The one drawback with these two however is that you need a C/S version for Client Server projects. This means that you have to unload ~ $2000. With VFP you can simulate C/S without using a C/S database.