Doug,

>> So while in theory, the argument could be made that VFP can provide all 4, is it practical? I think not.
>
>Indeed, but that wasn't my point. (snip)

>However, for the smaller business I'd think that it might be eminently practical to start with VFP on the back end and then when able to migrate to SQL, for example.

Practical for who? For us as the developer, yeah sure because fox has everything under the hood. But if being practical, cost efficient, and relatively easy to maintain for a small business is the utmost concern here I dont think fox is that practical for the layman for several related reasons:

- Fox developers are a lot harder to come by. Your on a well deserved 2 week vacation and something dies, client will most likely be might hard pressed to find another fox person quickly and painlessly.

- where's the beef? uhhhh I mean server... I'm gonna guestimate and say maybe 1 out 50 commercial web hosting services will let you set up an inexpensive account on a shared server that uses things like fox and west-wind that they've never heard of. But most likely your only choice will be a dedicated server account and/or put your own server inhouse. Both of which take us well beyond practical costs for the small business. Plus if your server isnt inhouse, not likely that something will go wrong and the average hosting service tech will even recognize it like they would with more commonly found technologies, so we're talking 24/7 support for the fox developer.

- ideally if the small business goes to the expense to build something n-tier, their purpose is gonna be to expand their business and make more business. So ok, the n-tier project you do in fox in a big success, the client business grows and 18 months later they have a slew of new concerns: more data, more features, and hey what about security? All of which is gonna mean more money for specialized developers that are hard to come by to begin with.

So is fox practical for small n-tier implementations? I dont think so, unless you have your own internal fox shop to support it. Besides show me an n-tier project that's 'small' anyway. I think fox is practical doing what it currently does best - client server data munging apps. Does it have a place in the bigger picture? Sure, the fox team has got us to the point where fox plays semi-well with the other kids but unfortuantely it's greatest strengths (internal db engine) is also it's greatest drawback when it comes to the n-tier field in general and for an organization that does not have it's own on staff fox developers inhouse in my opinion.