>We are about to embark on a major rewrite of two of our legacy procedural apps, one in VB, the other in VFP. The rewrite will combine the functionality of both apps while keeping the look and feel of the VB product (based on customer preference for the UI).
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>We have decided to build it using an N-Tier component based structure. A lot of the business rules are data driven from existing extract driven foxpro tables. We are looking to do a proper object model for the various business and interface objects we will be designing and need to develop the COM objects in an OO language. My boss and my other team members are leaning toward using VC++ for the object programming, but I have concerns about the level of complexity we will be encountering and the learning curve (none of the developers are expert in C++ and will have to learn the language as well as COM). I think we may be better off using VFP, since I have a lot of VFP experience and my other developers have intermediate to advanced VB experience, but there are concerns about performance, scalability, etc.
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>Any advice from those that have been down this road would be appreciated.....

Been there, done that. Look at ComCodebook. It's middle tier framework that uses ADO as the data transport mechanism. It works well with VB or ASP. Create your bizobjs with VFP and use VB for your front end. Piece of cake. It can also be used with VFP as front-end, but it's a little tricky to implement

If you don't want to use VB, take a look at the MM framework. It is a true n-tier application framework that will accomplish what you are trying to do. I am familiar with Aritron, and the project you are working on. For this sort of project, I highly recommend you look into getting an application framework. You do not need C++ for your middle tier. VFP does it very well. The MM framework will allow you to create you com objects, interface, and have multiple backends to boot. It has excellent client-server support. Any questions ask.