>Hi Alex,
>
> I just read your note to a UT member saying that I believe that VB users have to use SQL. That's not quite true, and not quite what I said. Please allow me to clarify my position.
>
> I don't think that Microsoft favors VB because VB users have to use SQL. They don't. They can use MDBs. But the performance is so poor with large volumes of data that migration to SQL is essential. In the case of VFP, migration to SQL is not required when data tables grow. In fact, DBF access if generally faster with VFP than with SQL, especially if some sort of VFP server is used, like the one I described in the article "A FoxPro Server" on my website, www.lespinter.com.
>

Les, just as a note, there are other alternatives to SQL and the MDB for VB users if they're willing to use a third-party product; I've used CodeBase fairly extensively, which offers xBASE data file implementation with a syntax that's fairly xBASE-ish. I've founf it to be very convenient in situations where I've had to deal with Clipper files that used thing like the large character data types, or where continuing to access data that's maintained with dBASE IV or Clipper applications is critical. CodeBase is also available for platforms other than VB; I first worked with it in C envirfonments, and am presently playing with the ActiveX library to make accessing Clipper tables in VFP a bit easier.