>How would you do this if the backend was SQL Server or Oracle? Even when I use VFP as the backend, I have started asking myself this question and design that way [just in case the project eventually ends up as C/S].

Mark,

An interesting side note on this point.

I am amazed at the number of users who don't really want to browse through 10,000 recors in a grid when they are presented a viable alternative of getting their work done.

Designing for C/S forces me to reevaluate the interface design. To take the apporach that "the entire table" is NOT available at any time causes a rethinking of how an interface to the data will work. When that problem is solved, I am surprised by how many users say, "Well that's a lot better than scrolling down for two days to find the record I want. And I really like the way I can use any criteria I want to get the record instead of only being able to type in the name until I get it."

I said this at a conference in the recent past (can't recall exactly which one), "I have never met a client who asked for a grid." Although I have met a lot of developers who insist that the suers want them.

The irony of that position is that developers see data in their minds as neatly arranged rows and columns, while users see their data as Invoices, or Purchase orders, or people, or telephone calls all of these not being neatly aranged in rows and columns. The only groups I know of who see the world as rows and columns are accoutants, actuaries, and database developers.