>>BTW, you can address a new message to someone in particular here on UT. This way, you can be sure that that person will see your message in his/her replies box.
>
>I couldn't remember how to do that and decided it was a PUTM feature. Where is it?

Look at the bottom of the screen that appears when you click on the white paper icon.

>Of course Access as a Rapid Development Tool is separate from Access/Jet as a back-end database. What are the things your clients don't like about the Access database?

It's not so much that they don't like it. We don't offer it as a choice. :) Don't ask me why, it was not my decision. But, basically, our customers are huge corporations and they don't want to risk with Access.

>Could you imagine using VFP as middleware in this type of situation?

Imagine, yes. Recommend it... no, because I didn't try VFP as middleware. So, I don't want to say anything about it.

>>>3) How does the form handling/presentation speed compare to VFP?
>>
>>Just to be clear: I consider Java ONLY for web applications. For any other (standalone/desktop/LAN) type of app, choose any other developement tool.
>
>Please be more specific here.

Ie: Java is not of much help for UI of traditional apps. Being here on a VFP forum, I wouldn't dare to compare Java with VFP for such a task. :) Seriously, VFP is so much better for data handling and the data binding is so easy...

>So assuming a lan-based client-server solution, what would be your choice of development tool at each level:
>
>Back-end database ?

SQL-Server, VFP or Oracle.

>Middleware ?

VC++ with ADO. Maybe VFP, but I haven't tried it yet, as I already said.

>Front-end ?

VFP.

The truth is that I believe that the choice must be done considering the specific app you have to build. I don't believe there's any generic solution.

>>About form speed in VFP: I think Jim Booth said it best: a well designed/developed VFP app will have forms that are fast enough for any user. These are not exactly his words, but... From my experience: Almost any slow VFP form can be modified to perform well even on average computers. I optimized some VFP forms (2 years ago) and obtained a performance increase of 23 times!
>
>Hearing more about that would make an intersting thread...

I don't remember the details. It was a routine optimization task. Idetify the code that consume most of the time and optimize it. It was something with some views that were not created/used in the best possible way. :)

>The app I replaced was written in DataFlex for DOS and one thing you can say is that the forms appeared instantly. It bothers me that with all the hardware speed we have now, that in many cases the user sees an app which is much less responsive than the old DOS apps. I really think this is unexcusable. I mean the hardware is 10-100 times faster than a few years ago. Why should the form-handling be 10 times slower?

Please tell me when you find the answer! :) I am talking (often) with programmers with 7-10 years of experience. Most of us agree that, 7-8 years ago, we were building apps of comparable complexity as we do today. Only that, at that time, a 286 with 2MB RAM was enough!

Vlad