>>sorry - but this is not a good question , >>because tools change and evolve - I wouldn't use foxpro as an object >>oriented tool before VFP ... etc. etc. >That's probably due to the fact that OOP wasn't available before VFP 3. >However, to the best of my knowledge, DOS versions of Basic have always had >some type of database management tools built into their products. Yet, most >people chose not to use Basic because Basic's data management tools were >not as robust as Xbase, Paradox, etc. I believe the same to be true within >the Windows environment as well. The only difference is the Microsoft >marketing machine has chosen to tout VB's data management capabilities over >VFPs. If Basic is such a great data management tool, why wasn't Microsoft >marketing it as such when Dos was king? that is correct but VB now has DOA,RDO,ADO + C/S capabilities this is not to say that IMHO VFP isn't better at handling data etc. just to question the validity of saying that something is not good today for something because it lacked that feature/capability in the past Arnon