Hi fred,

>I know that this is a basic question, but I am self taught and just don't know the best solution. I have an application running
>at a local office for medical and dental claims processing. It is a good multi-user application, it handles the locks and the
>updates and everything else just fine. But performance wise, it really lags and I don't know what to do. The program and tables are on
>their one local server, and everyone in the office (10 people) accesses the application.
>
>My clients love my application, they just don't like the slow response times especially when they all start getting on together.
>Is there something that you could recommend to me to read so that I would know how to better design more robust applications?

Unfortunately there is not a straight answer for performance problems. some suggestions;

1. Do you use DELETED() index TAGs ? Get rid of them !!
2. For Queries, be sure that you've defined the proper indexes which allows rushmore to optimize the query in the most efficient manner.
3. If using views, try to select as less data as possible. Views with lots of records are slow. If requiring many records of a table, a FILTER might be better.
4. Use optimistic buffering as much as you can. It only locks tables when commiting changes, thus allowing other users to commit intermediate changes.
5. A wellthough use of commands like SEEK(), SET ORDER, SCAN WHILE, SCAN FOR can really boost slow data munching routines.

Maybe the best one:
6. Find the particular parts (with code example) of the program that are performing bad to provide use some more feedback about your performance problem.

Walter,