John,

>>>When it comes to data handling OOP can be of a significant value, in the case of business-rules. Especially when we talk about 3-Tier projects.
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>Please expand on how OOP helps data handling. I don't dispute how VFP's langauge can have some advantages, but how does OOP help, and further, how would multiple layers of inheritance help.

Well, I guess it has a lot to do with RAD and using your own framework to write middle tier com-servers. For example you've got a class on a applic class wich makes new primarykeys. This class maintains a table with the last used primary keys split in categories. If for some reason a project requires character primarykeys i can subclass the applic class and make changes in the Primary generator object.

Also I've got some general error handling routines which try to determine causes of errors and even try to solve it. Some of the errors are application dependend, some are not. When you try to adjust your middle layer, OOP might come in handy to handle the solution specific errors.

Another feature used in middle tier, is handling application security. I've got framework classes which take care of this. To have maximum flexibility to implement security It might be handy to use subclasses. If you want to use your own or Novell security data instead of the standard NT security subbclassing is a great mechanism to accomplish that.

>Keep in mind that in VB, complex logic can also be encapulated in class definitions as well...

Unfortunately, I'm not that familiar with VB. I can't judge if another implementation just would ease the pain of missing OO. I'm only pointing out that OO can be of a significant value.

Walter,