Ken,

When you say, "multithreaded", do you mean aparmtment threading without the method blocking, or true multi-threading along the lines of:

oThread=NEWOBJECT("Thread")

And the COM events stuff - I assume this will be similar to the VB implementation (With Events)?


>I would re-phrase that and say MT DLLs (multi-threaded DLLs) are useful, but not always the solution. You are right about the server issue. With a non MTDLL, you have FIFO (first in, first out). So if a method is called that takes 5 seconds, and 1 second after it starts the method is called again by another client, the second call will have to wait 4 seconds before it even starts. But using an MTDLL, it would start right away, and execute at the same time. If you have a single processor machine, both process will be mutli-tasked and slow down both, so the first process normally taking 5 seconds might take more than 6 seconds because of the other process running. The solution is hardware, just use a multi-processor machine. This is where the new VFP MTDLLs will really shine. And to clarify, I work in Redmond on the VFP team and I've been working on this upcoming versions (yes, plural) of VFP. Microsoft has been busy on other new stuff for VFP as well, like a very soon to be
>released DLL that allows VFP developers to bind VFP code to COM events.
>
>>
>>Multi-threading isn't always all it is cooked up to be. For an internet app I am working on (VB Com objects) we do invoicing at the end of the month. Usually in one or two days. Multiple users were calling the invoice server all at the same time. Multithreading was highly effective in bringing the server to its knees. We have now implemented an 'orderly' queueing system to deal with multiple inovice process one at a time.
>>
>>With that said, not having multi-threaded COM objects is about the only big weakness I see to VFP as a middle tier component, and even there, Web Connection has proven it's efficiency as a middle tier server (instantiate a couple of servers if necessary, it's only memory).
>>
>>No matter what the gloomsayers think, if Ken is correct about making VFP multi-threading (and I'm sure he is - he might even be helping!) it shows the kind of commitment and effort MS are placing in the product. Much better than advertising, I'd say.