>Hi Jerry,
>
>KDE is developed in QT C++, isn't it? This would give you the ability to integrate a QT form right into the KDE desktop. However, to go beyond the base classes and customize the form, wouldn't I need to learn QT C++ to write my custom events and methods?

KDevelop's Project Wizard offers about a dozen GUI options and a couple of console options upon which to base a project.
You can write a C++ console app (utility, cgi, etc...), a KParts component, a KDE applet, SDI, MDI and Tabbed interfaces, which can be plain or beautiful....

KDevelop generates and maintains a poject shell and just like Kylix is opening and closing functions as you manipulate KDevelp. Qt begins with QApplication and QWidget and all else decends from them. All new Qt widgets are created with the C++ NEW keyword. The learning curve is just like Java in that as one becomes more familiar with the various objects, and the methods and properties they expose development proficiency increases. The better your memory and experience the faster your skills improve.

>
>However, I guess most of the work has already been done in the base classes, and it is my understanding that most of C++ programming is a matter of learning what is in the C++ libraries, and making calls to the libraries while passing the needed parameters. I have very little experience with C++, but I've heard a lot of good things about QT. I took a look at some of Qt's example Linux code about five or six year ago, amd was very impressed with how graphical it was.
>
>I wish Microsoft would port their products to Linux, especially VFP; although, this really isn't necessary because Linux and Windows already work so well together.

The KDevelop + Qt Designer + PostgreSQL is a combination that will prove lethal to propriatary tools. Instead of paying over and over for each release I see adoptors paying one time for training and perhaps enhancement courses. Bigger IT departments might pay for support... maybe.

Your right about VFP. If Microsoft created a Linux Native verion of VFP6 (at least) with the database technology controlling dbf tables, with data conversion being merely the act of copying the dbf file over and running the forms and reports through a converter app. Assuming it had the same look and feel, it would sweep the Linux World over night. At the same time folks adopting the Linux version of VFP would also be adopting the Linux desktop and Open Office. There are 2,500 folks setting at desktops where I work, and 95% of the apps are built with VFP6. We would be totallly Linux by the end of the summar if a native VFP6 for Linux appeared, even if it were propriatary. Where we aren't dbf we are Oracle, accessed by a browser, and converting that to Linux would be a matter of comping the html files over.

But, it is precisely because folks would switch to Linux that you will never see a native Linux version of VFP.
JLK