Beleive me, this happens. Your company have good network, but think about other companies. Specially when NETBIOS protocol used for network with some older clients to NT server. Did you know that file Open/Close operations works VERY slowly on some networks even when some files already opened? FILE() function in such network will work slowly too. Remote COM object is like already opened file, so checking works more quickly here.

>...and not possible in some cases to do what you suggest with the COM object

Everything is possible with COM objects in VFP now. Its just require another approach and another kind of organization. And that approach more simple and more powerful. You may disagree here because you know file-system programming well and know little about COM, so COM looks too complex for you. From my POV COM is much better.


>>Its application reliablity issue. FILE() checking might work slowly on some networks. You're right, in most cases COM is slower.
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>I disagree... if I am running an application that has files open on the server - there is no reliability issue. I can very simply check for the existence of a file. If anything, a remote COM object is less reliable and requires more work to maintain.
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>I guess I am looking at this from a support standpoint - I used to work for a company where we used the existence of a file to shut down workstations. We had 1100 clients where our application was installed - each site had their own copy of the application, data files, etc running on multiple workstations. It would have been a nightmare - and not possible in some cases to do what you suggest with the COM object.