>I rewrote my companies major product in VFP6 and now in VFP7 using the >Stonefield Database toolkit and the DBC...

Hi Calvin,
If you used to hv developed dictionary for your dbfs in the past (2.6)
functions to maintain/upgrade/document your dbf sets,
then you should appreciate DBC as ready made distionary from VFP.(+SDT)

DBC container give you possibility to easier maintain your dbfs if nothing else
but there is much more to it.

As per my knowledge, VFP does not support transactions unless dbfs are part of DBC. Just this is enough reason to use DBC(s)!

Nobody forces you to to use primary keys as such - you can use ordinary key
but maintain its uniquenes in your code just as you did in the past.
Myself I don't use any primary keys / triggers / persistent relationships etc.
All that is resolved in apps (fat client) - approach that could be outdated but
it is much more flexible & works great for me - having to deal with multiple related databases, multiple companies / fin. periods etc.
If you do simmilar stuff to deal with, my recomendation is

*** DBC / buffering 5 / transactions ***

(I wish VFP supported transations on multiple databases)
Rgds+all the best.