Hi Steve,

>A very interesting topic. And lots of questions:)

I'll do my best!

Before I go any farther there is one thing I must make crystal clear, I mean, no lingering doubt about it at all... ready?

MSDE 2000 IS SQL Server and it is FREE!! It costs you NOTHING to ship the SQL Server database engine with your application. It costs your clients zero, zippo, zilch, nada to run SQL Server on their server. How much does it cost to ship the VFP database engine? Zero, zippo, zilch, nada, so I do NOT want to hear from people how expensive it is for their small clients to run SQL Server. It costs no more than VFP.

MSDE 2000 IS SQL Server. It is that simple. The ONLY difference between the two is that MSDE is limited in it's speed executing queries. Once the number of concurrent queries reaches the limit, the engine begins to slow down. Notice I didn't say it crashes or doesn't run the query. It just slows down until the number of concurrent queries drops below the limit, then it's back to full speed ahead. The other difference is that MSDE does NOT come with the client side developer tools (Enterprise Manager, Query Analyzer, etc).

The scenario works like this. You work with the full-blown SQL Server (you work the the SQL Server Developer Edition) when you develop the app, then you ship your app and the SQL Server database engine (MSDE) with the app. Again, the best part is that you can ship SQL Server's database engine for FREE!!!! Yes, that means you can ship the SQL Server database engine royalty free just like you do with the VFP database engine.

>Where does one get MSDE?

Oh, lots of places. Do you have VFP 7? MSDE is on the VFP 7 CD.

Get more info from

http://www.microsoft.com/SQL/techinfo/development/2000/MSDE2000.asp

>so will it be like a VFP front end and MSDE as the backend?

Yep....

>How is the connection made to MSDE?

There are a number of ways to connect to SQL Server (I'll just go ahead and reference SQL Server since they're the exact same thing). You can use Remote Views, SQL Passthrough, or ADO.

Or.....

SET MARKETING ON

You can use DataClas/VFP to build your VFP / SQL Server applications. I won't bore you with details (unless you ask). For more info head over to www.redmatrix.com and download the eval version of DataClas/VFP.

SET MARKETING OFF

>Cand dbf tables be converted to be read by MDSE?

Yes. One of the tools in SQL Server is called DST (Data Transformation Services). It does a fine job importing DBF data into SQL Server tables.

Any more questions???