The Business Services department at the University I work for has decided to use VFP 5.0 for developing database applications. It is my job to use VFP 5.0 to convert existing multi-user DB/2 - IBM Query Manager applications to VFP and SQL Server.

The end-users will be using VFP to design single-user or small applications. If these applications grow I will be responsible for upsizing them.

At the Great Lakes Great Database Workshop I attended, one of the instructors had some bad things to say about the Wizards in VFP. He stated that when he does support on CompuServe, he doesn't even try to give help if the problem involves a wizard.

In my experience, I have found that it is very difficult to customize and troubleshoot the forms that result from a wizard.

When I got back from the conference, I informed my supervisor of the instructors comments regarding the wizards. He is no longer sure if he wants to continue with VFP, and is considering other alternatives for development (Visual Basic 5) and end-users (Access)

Any comments?

Jeff Rusch
UW-Madison