>As a slightly foxpro newbie (18 months) I will give my opinions. (If anyone cares)
>I come having 6 years doing pascal/object pascal (Delphi) and about as much C/C++ experience as FoxPro. I used to get all emotional that Delphi was the best tool in the world. I try real hard not to let emotions get involved in my programming. I chose my present job not because of programming tools.
>I know that I will get flamed for this, but I do think that C++ and Delphi are better than VFP. 2 main reasons:
>1) MS does a poor job of fixing the 'bugs' in VFP and MS is the only vendor responsible for it. Whereas with C++ you have a slew of vendors (or even GNU) that support it, so if one vendor does not live up to expectations you can switch. Not to mention cross-platform support. Try asking MS to release VFP for Linux/OS2/other Unixes. As far as Delphi goes, Borland does a decent job of keeping up with the 'bugs' and development of it, but yes, you are somewhat stuck with that vendor and Windows. (There is GNU pascal, but as far as I know it is not that developed yet.)
>2) VFP has limitations. You can create objects in C++ to do the same things that VFP does and a whole lot more. (What do you think most of the ActiveX stuff is written in?) Not to mention the speed difference. VFP reports, and forms are all tables. While this not bad, it is slow since you have the database overhead to create forms and reports. There are toolkits for Delphi that have direct access to VFP tables and give the programmer XBase functions. (check out Topaz)
>I know that I will probably get flamed for what I said, but programmers need to evaluate tools more on what they can do, how easily it can be done, the limitations of them, and the vendor support.
>I appreciate the support that I have gotten from some of the people on this forum and do not want to create ill will. I may still be programming in VFP for a few more years, but I try not to let feelings over a tool cloud judgement over how well it stacks up to others.

Hello Derek,

You know, there is "no flaming" rule on UT. We always did the comparison between the products and everybody is interested in it. You raised some interesting points and I am sure the others will find the answers for it (no flaming of course :). It would be interesting if you could write an article "Delphi Vs. VFP" for our Knowledge Base.

Nick