>Advantages:
>RI
>Enhanced table information (meta-data): captions, long field names, field validation, etc.
>Conceptually adheres to the logic of a "database" of tables vs. a lose affiliation of free tables.
>
>Disadvantages? None, that I've met in my experience. I'm sure others can enumerate them.
>
>
>>Hi Nancy - why do you always use the DBC? advantages and disadvantages
Hi Nancy,
Think I'll take a crack at possible disadvantages:
1.) The business rules in field and record validation are tied to the data(field and table names, etc). How does one port this information to another app which manages the same information but uses a slightly different table structure with different table and field names?
2.) To my knowlege you cannot turn field level validations off. If a field level rule is defined then VFP will decide when it should be fired.
3.) When I looked at an earlier version of VFP it was difficult to trap all possible RI errors. Thus, it was not always possible to suppress the error.
4.) It was not always possible to present a developer defined error message.

To sum up, I see two types of disadvantages to using the DBC, one is loss of control, and the other is becoming data centric and thus limiting reuse.

Anyway, thats my two cents worth and I welcome any feedback pro and con.

TIA,
Ned