Hi David,

To tell the truth, I had my fill of betas (never had the pleasure of a MS beta though).

In addition (and believe it or not) I feel that VFP itself is pretty damned good overall. Yes, I have a 3-4 item soap-box on which I like to harp (whine, bitch, push -pick it) but I believe that these are extremely important to the survival and growth of VFP. For your edification they are:

1) First and foremost, the quality of the documentation;

2) Next, a desire to see a VFP-to-VFP (native and between workstations) capability for at least SQL commands and their result-sets and preferably for all VFP table-manipulating commands;

3) Continuation of improvements to the UI parts of VFP, including new/improved (UI) objects and the OOPification of MENU/REPORT-WRITER in addition to the work of positioning VFP as the premier mid-tier option for n-tier applications.

4) Revision of the RELEASE command and the Release() method as written-up and submitted.

A near wish is to see improved communication between the VFP Development Team and us VFP developers. But since this isn't directly related to the product, I harp on that separately.

That's them for me, and in due course I will submit similar to what I just did for each of these.
I should note too that I have been trying to get improved documentation (especially Help) for years now, trying every means available to send the message. Frankly I have seen (what amounts to) zero improovement despite all of my attempts.

You say "The type of detailed analysis you gave on the RELEASE problems...". While I will admit to going a little more deeply than should be required (this problem has a history that needs addressing), I really wish that all except the most evident wishes (ERs) contained a thorough reasoning, requirement and benefits outline. I have to believe that such submissions would demand a more thorough consideration than a mere statement in a single sentence.

By the way, do you buy the argument(s) presented for RELEASE? If so, which option would you feel is best?

Cheers

Jim N



>Hey Jim,
>
>How about applying for the VFP 7 beta? It would give you another platform to advocate proposed changes to the development team. (oops, I meant changes to the product) :)
>
>Although it would be after the design phase, sometimes things are changed/added late in the game due to input from the testers. The type of detailed analysis you gave on the RELEASE problems would be very valuable during a beta cycle.