Rick,

I thought I mentioned having to install the BDE and I didn't even want to use that because it seems very difficult to configure. I also looked at CodeBase and had it many years ago, but they still don't support DateTime or Currency types other than Read Only. I wasn't trying to do a comparison against VFP. I had looked at it as a possible replacement and was giving my review of that. However, I have been using it to write ActiveX controls. I needed a good RichEdit Control. Remember the problems with displaying Bitmaps in the Microsoft ActiveX RichEdit control? All we get are icons. I was able to write an ActiveX control around a FreeWare VCL component which is working quite well. I added Properties and Methods to match the MS control so I wouldn't have to change my VFP code that was talking to the MS version.

I haven't tried the BCB yet but I know writing an ActiveX in MS C++ or MS J++ didn't work very easily and I gave up. I tried Delphi 3.0 about 1 1/2 years ago after the frustrations with VFP not printing and such. Delphi has definitely taught me in a lot easier way than C++ how to access all of the Windows messages and what is going on. I like a lot of their properties for forms and such that expose other things like ClientWidth and ClientHeight rather than having to calculate them using Sysmetrics. I also am happy to be able to pick up and handle Windows Messages.

Still nothing compares to the speed and ease of database management as VFP. It has been my primary language since 1986 and that's a long time. Especially when you can get 10 to 18 hours a day in 6 - 7 days a week in it. Waiting for bug fixes to ship commercial products is very hard on cash flow. Especially when you are trying to build stable apps and you can't. That is what I deem is the hardest thing to put up with using VFP. It's in my opinion the most powerful language in terms of ease of use for OOP languages and for data manipulation and speed. At least that's why I've been using it. I didn't want to mislead anyone about the size of the app growing for data access.