Hi Jim,

>THANK YOU CHRISTOF!!! This has been my fear exactly and the (other) GURU here always pooh-pooh it as a rant and an uninformed guess.

Just to make this clear. I don't have any inside knowledge about the next version, or such. Therefore my assumptions are just that, assumptions. I base them on the overall strategy and how Microsoft markets VFP and other products. But only the mS team can say you for sure what gets into the next version.

>Now I have to admit that the announced multi-line grid column header suggests that at least some UI stuff may be forthcoming, but we need lots more than smidgens of things in order to keep VFP as a competitive product.

Must have missed that announcement, where did you hear about it?

>I am happy to see MS push VFP to mid-tier, BUT not at the expense of the other features of VFP. And, as mid-tier, how will we continue to take advantage of the nice fast engine we have all grown to admire and love????

Well, you certainly can process data quickly in the middle-tier, and I'm really the last one who would stop using VFP. But one thing is what we want, the other what Microsoft wants. And the strategy is towards distributed applications, client/server, and so on. In the future the fast desktop database engine of VFP will be less and less a strong argument for VFP, rather the OOP capabilities, quick prototyping, reduced development costs, and so on.

Christof