Hi Mark,

Pardon my intrusion, but I think a point that Christof was leading to is that there are a lot of questions that need to be answered before a tool selection can be made. If this is a development project, then I would think you could go a long way into the design and let the design models surface the proper tool.

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>The app in question is the first of a series of apps which is data-centric as all of our apps are. Currently we use VFP-VFP,VFP-SQL,VFP-Oracle and have a number of developers with expertise in each. My background is 10+ years with Fox both Windows and Mac, although that is not the main criteria at this point.
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>This particular project is a rewrite in a sense but it will be changing a stand-alone VFP EXE to a client/server model. This is a watershed in my mind as we need to establish future direction.
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>Web use is not an issue as that is handled by another group with JAVA, etc.
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>Ease of maintainance, speed of data access, speed of processing strings are very important.
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>Native code generation is not a big deal.
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>The main issues here are what many of us are concerned about. Since VFP/FPW seem relegated to small business use, is it wise to dedicate a medium-sized company's resources to a second string player (no matter how technically sound or superior)? Qualified programmers are increasingly hard to find and there's a persistent threat of 'this may be the last release'.
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>We have a great deal invested in Fox and I would be one of the last people to aid in it's shelving, but is it not wise to look at alternatives? Currently the biggest contenders are VFP, VB and Powerbuilder.
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>What do you think?
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>Thanks for your attention.
>Mark