>Arnold,
>Thanks for your input. I have purchased VFP 3.0b/Mac, but have had NO time to play with it. I have heard on CompuServe several disparaging remarks about performance. I have not seen anyone actually discuss how it is to work with on a full scale.
>
>I, too have looked at 4D and FileMaker Pro. They just don't fit our schema either. MS seems to have to only game and I feel like I'm always playing 3rd string. We do not want to switch to the PC platform....
>
>Best,
>Bette
>*******************
We're running VFP3.0 on Mac and Win95 systems. We've had some (relatively minor) glitches where things that worked on one system didn't work quite the same on the other, but we've managed to put together a pretty neat bi-platform case tracking/phone log/diary system for the Insurance Liability Recovery group.

Unfortunately we're being migrated to Wintel from Mac :>( so we'll be doing future development on Win95 PCs. The Mac is slower than the PC -- but the machines are physically slower too (PowerMac 6100/8100 vs Pentium 100/120s)

Originally the company was using 4D and FileMaker Pro (FileBreaker is what it should be called)

4D is a nightmare to work in -- I discovered I had to code reports as there is no "real" report generator. Producing forms is a pain as 4D has none of the tools for alignment and layouts that VFP has (align centers, space equally etc.) I also found it was very slow. 4D also has some quirks that make debugging and documentation difficult.

FileMaker Pro is nice for quick and dirty flat file applications. I'm in the middle of designing a VFP replacement for a FileMaker database that was designed by amateurs. It's a nightmare -- no data validation tools, no serious programming/scripting tools. I use FileMaker for a number of personal apps -- because I'm the only one who uses them and I know I'm not putting in dud data!! However, it's not a serious tool for heavy duty apps.

Stick with VFP -- it's by far the most heavy duty database engine. I like 3.0. I hope that the new Apple/M$ alliance will result in better support and for VFP on the Mac. I've not used 2.6, but 3.0 has worked very well for us so far. (I'm an old dBII, dBIII, Clipper, FoxBase programmer from way back)

Of course letters to Apple and M$ commending the allianece will have no effect!!

HTH
Jen