I am about to start a project to convert a Clipper app to VFP6. For now, the tables must be shared with the Clipper app so that both the Clipper app and the VFP app can use them simultaneously. I haven't worked with Clipper, and I hope someone out here has done this kind of project.

I am not concerend about the RI issues as I am using a Data Dictionary outside the DBC which works against free tables. But I am concerned sbout incompatibilities with indexes, memo fields, field lengths, and # of fields per table.

My initial thought is to create a View for each table, so that VFP formats can be used within the VFP app, while the table structure could remain the same for the Clipper app. Views could also solve the # of fields per table if that becomes an issue, but not field length if the old code uses fields longer than 254 character.

Has anyone tried this approach? Are there other "Gotchas" I may not have considered? Should views be opened as Local views, or Remote views using ODBC to preserve the Clipper format in the update process? ODBC is a lot more trouble, so if possible to use local views, I'd rather not use ODBC.

Thanks for any help, advice, techniques, etc...