(I don't know what happened there, my message previewed ok, but then posted blank, so here it is again)

Hi George,

>What are the advantages to using VFP as the middle (business) tier as compared to VB or something else for 1)Internet apps or 2)regular apps?

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I would say the biggest pluses for VFP in the Middle tier would be its text and data manipulation capabilities.

You get the built in data engine for intermediate data processing, and you get VFP's built in text manipulation like TEXTMERGE for handling the large amounts of text one deals with in internet apps (HTML, XML, etc.)

VFP is almost as flexible as Perl here IMO and if you need Perl style RegExp support, you can instantiate objects from the VBScript.RegExp COM Class as easily as a VB programmer.

In short, VFP shines in the middle-tier because its strengths (OOP, speed, text and data manip) are in need here, and its commonly perceived shortcomings relative to VB (UI development, ActiveX support, API integration, etc.) are not as relevant in the middle tier.

And if you need functionality in one of these areas, nothing is stopping you from developing your components using VB, VC++, Java, or whatever, and then integrating them with your VFP COM components.

This seems to be the most flexible and increasingly recommended trend--to develop you applications as true systems of components, using the right tool for each problem domain. In the middle tier because of the types of things handled there, VFP is a good choice for these archetypical components.


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Here are two articles that demo VFP in the middle tier:
http://www.jamesbooth.com/n-tier.htm by Jim Booth
and
http://www.west-wind.com/presentations/aspobjects/ASPObjects.htm by Rick Strahl

HTH,
Bill