>I take it that you completely discount the possibility of developing an application using C?

Hi Ed,

OK, I'll bite... yes, I discount that possibility. If for nothing else, only because my clients would gain no advantage from it. I don't see any reason to do so. I could stretch your point and mention assembler.

>The same database tools available to VB are available to VC++, and the language is at least the equal of VB.

I had a simmilar discussion with John Petersen. His mantra is scalability and the fact that VFP doesn't fit there. My point is that most developers don't create apps for fortune 500's, and most clients, regardless of how wonderful the internet is, won't be using it beyond email and browsing.

>The point I'm making here is that the ADO/ODBC engine vbased database solution is not limited to VB; I expect that C# will be on a par with VB as far as 'serious' development IAC.

Why would you use C#? Why didn't you use java?

>The question is does MS see a need to provide a separate data-centric application platform with a native file system as an alternative to a generic high-performance OO data engine that fits to your choice of development toolkit; in reality, once you decide that ADO is the data engine, ti doesn't really matter if you implement with VB, VC++, Borland's Delphi or any of the Java engines with ActiveX support.

So then, let me turn things around a bit. What advantage do YOU see to using VFP? If it makes so much sense to use VB/ADO, why don't you do that?

>So the question becomes not VB vs VFP but VFP/xBASE and a native file system for application development vs any development platform you choose to use and ADO. VB's only one of many development platforms that is suitable for developing applications using ADO; it's the one that's seen most directly 'in competition' with VFP because simply because people think of VB as a near equivalent language.

But the paradigms are obviously different ( vb/ado & vfp/dbf). The difference relies in that so far, unless you go with an sql back-end vfp seems to be more suitable for massaging sets of records.

>Certainly C# is poised to go after the same market,

Is MS about to shoot itself in the foot? That's what you're saying?

>and there's certainly a population of programmers who've started from a C/C++ perspective, and really don't see a need for VB. They don't consider VB as competition...and they do compete head-to-head with the development marketplace that VFP goes after.

You're saying that the real competition for vfp is C? Why?

Please don't take me wrong, I'm not trying to be antagonistic. I know that any arguments you provide will bear more technical weight than mine and I'm taking this as an opportunity to learn, hence all my "why's".

Alex