Jim,

>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.

Well, how about programmers who don't know very much about VFP - web enabled applications ? Well i happen to be one. The comparising you make looks te me as very doubtfull at least.

Not one of my clients has ever ask for web enabled applications (other than running VFP over RAS). I can't imagine clients who don't look at a cars top speed.

Frankly I don't see any requirements in the near future. Sure I want to know a bit more about VFP and the web, but I don't think I will use it this much. If the time comes that the combination of VFP and the Web is quit common, we'll probately see that a lot has changed since now.

The things I find MUCH more important than VFP on the WEB is developing very powerfull, effective, reliable, scalable, maintainable and last but certainly not least user friendly applications. These topics deserve al lot more attention as they do now.

Developping a framework for these goals is tough enough. I simply cannot (and will not) build in features that I will not use very often.

When a client ask me to develop some internet connection between my application and the web, I'll recommend someone else who does the job faster and more robust than I will ever be able to. With a good construction of the database the developer will be able to write a well working web application on top of my data.

I see this VFP - web combination as a hype, like client server is (Pure application / database server, Excluding OLE, COM/DCOM). Everyone is talking about how beatifull and powerfull this theory is, but when you look in practice, I find it all a laugh. Sure, I know there are very much applications running at client server. But when you look at the costs and downtime you'll get a heartatack. Only in some circumstances it may be justified to make web - enabled or C/S based applications for e.g.:

- Connect sites with a slow (WAN) connection.
- Heterogeneous environments (Win16, Win32, MAC, UNIX, etc)
- Environments where the data is already stored on a database server.
- OLTP requirements
- Security issues that cannot be solved in another way.

For all the others, I think, It's best to run these in a LAN environment. Of course there are a lot of these other environments, but I truly do think this is only a small percentage (if done within VFP at all). I've worked for two big ensurance companies (not so long ago) who still developed applications in FP(W) 2.6. They said "Well it serves our needs. Why change the thing all over again ?" AND THEY ARE RIGHT !!

No, give me my LAN based applications (the environment that made fox famous).
there is still a lot of work to do............


Walter,