>I might be wrong here, but I assumed that was why Irene asked the question, but in addition to the "merit points", she also wanted a list of "demerit points". It's not too hard to get a list of why the product is good, but coming along to a forum of "hardened" users is the best place to get an idea of the pitfalls that you can expect to find in use.
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>I thought her boss was taking the correct course of action, I've occassionally worked on projects where the development tool was chosen only on its merits, only to run into problems because the downside of the tools wasn't thoroughly looked into.

Your points are valid.

I think "demerits" are (more) significant when one is considering a long-term strategy. When one is only looking at a particular job/project, then (maybe) "merits" are more important, and a particular demerit may simply not be relevant.

If a particular job did not require a "intrinsic Windows controls", for example, it might be counter-productive to assign demerits; if one only considered the sum total in this case, then VFP might be disqualified.