DD

Encryption of data and protection of source code is a *significant* risk for any VFP developer who distributes his/her work and any local table user whose server is not in a safe. Managing this risk involves a great deal of extra effort not required with other tools... or you can buy expensive addons from xitech.

MS has a long history of learning from 3rd party vendors and incorporating "major features" when a 3rd party vendor identifies needs like this.

It would be great if MS responded to these serious risks. I accept there is an issue of MS resource or priority, but Oliver at xitech has been producing and updating tools for safety for *years* with a fraction of the resources available to MS.

Contrast these risks with Autoincrement: most of us have made that a "no brainer" using class methods or stored procedures. The risk and cost is small. It is great to get Autoincrement, don't get me wrong, but I see far greater issues and risks for VFP especially if we are considering new developers.

Lets not focus on Autoincrement- if we boast too much, "VFP now has autoincrement!" will become another snide slogan for those who "know" that VFP is obsolete. "VFP code can be compressed and encrypted to make it very hard to crack" is more impressive and may bring more business in VFP's direction.

Finally: IMHO the MS people round here may be feeling a bit "beat up" about now because so many apparently negative things are said. Hopefully it is clear that this is not an attack on MS but an attempt by people to contribute to VFP's success. What other way is there?

Regards

JR