Hi Jim,

It is true what you say, given a pure VFP example. As such, my framework sports an n-tier architecture and meets the specs you outlined.

However, there are no elegant solutions yet as far as dataset (cursor) retrieval is concerned for VFP COM Servers regardless of what presentation layer is being used. As I said in the previous post, a VFP OLE DB provider would be a great help in this area - otherwise ADO will remain a cludge.

For example, I would like a VFP grid control to access a dataset in the same fashion as most any ActiveX grid control.

>N-Tier has nothing to do with SQL Server or any other particular product.

Never said it did.

>N-tier architecture can, and should, be accomplished with pure VFP code using VFP data for every system built from today forward.

Yes, albeit the ADO cludge.

>N-tier means that the responsibilities within the application are clearly divided into distinct layers of objects, no object stomps on the responsibility of another object.

Never said it didn't. N-tier also means that the tiers can be swapped.

>In a pure VFP example of 3-tier you would have a form that does nothing but present data and asks a business object to enforces business rules, fetch data, and update data which asks a database to enforce domain constraints and handle the actual reading and writing to the files.

My forms can actually swap business objects at run-time.

>It makes no difference how small or large a system is for it to benefit in a very big way from N-Tier architecture. Using an N-Tier design allows the encapsulation of code into logical discrete objects with very specific responsibilities thusly making maintenance and evolution much eaiser. It also creates an application where one layer can be changed relatively easily without requiring major changes in other layers.

Except for things like grids.

>The N-Tier design does not require that a database server is used, nor that COM/DCOM is used.

But it does require that a database server can be used and that COM/DCOM can be used.

>You can, and should, build N-Tier architectures with only VFP accessing VFP data.

Doesn't this violate the definition of N-Tier architecture?

>To make the agrument that this client doesn't need internet access today and then design a system that precludes internet access ever without a major rewrite, is like a car manufacturer making a car that can't go faster than 65MPH because that happens to be the speed limit today.

Never made that argument. What I did say is that I am looking forward to implement technologies into my framework to support Internet access whether it is needed or not.