>>Hi JimN ---
>>
>>SET SOAPBOX ON
>>
>>I guess I'm really tired of being a pariah in the Visual Studio family of developers. Although VFP is getting some press, there almost seems to be an active discouragement on MS part to attract new developers or use VFP for enterprise solutions. And what really frosts my ass is that most of us doggone well know that VB and Access choke on moderate to large scale 2-tier apps -- this is where VFP excels. Now, all else being equal, VB is probably more flexible for n-tier. Still, VFP does what it does very well and there is absolutely no logical reason for it to be the poor bastard stepchild of VS.
>>
>>SET SOAPBOX OFF
>>
>SET PARANOIA ON
>
>Sure there's a good reason. Mircosoft is good at making money. Why should you get for free (VFP distribution rights) what they can sell you (SQL) licenses. It would be silly of them to pour money into a product, that if fully developed would compete with a product that makes them as much money as SQL. The only way to get Microsoft to support VFP better, is for it to make more money. The best way to do that is to pay per seat distribution rights for the engine. We would screem if that happend. So, we kill ourselves.
>
>SET PARANOIA OFF

What I can't believe in the whole scheme of things is how powerful and flexible FoxPro is comapared to Access and SQL. Microsoft have a paper guiding the selection of a database product on their site showing just that.

You are totaly right that it all comes down to money and it directly affects their marketing and also the marketing of their 'solution' providers. We were in a situation recently where a simple VFP search engine was required for the web. Easy, five minutes work and a DCOM was available. The department that required this engine asked different ISPs for a solution. Each one suggested that we, as an organisation, should 'UPGRADE' to access so that it will work with FrontPage!

Need I say more... (other than the typical quote was £25K)

Jason