John,

Good explanations below, and very helpful in getting the concepts from a VFP point of view. I'd like to see more discussion along these lines, or maybe a mini-paper on ADO.NET for VFP'ers.

>...But you know what, when you strip a lot of stuff away, I found the following to be basically true:
>
>DataSet = DBC/DBF
>
>In many ways, and ADO .NET DataSet is like a DBC and associated DBF's. This also holds true for me:
>
>DataAdapter = Middle/Data Tier
>
>If you have embraced n-Tier development, you will find that the DataAdapter Object is just like the middle/data tier components that have been presented at numerous devcon sessions.
>
>IMO, the only material difference are the terms and phrases used. The basic concepts of how we use and interact with data are the same. Remember, no matter the setting, there are only four things you can do with data:
>
>Query
>CReate
>Update
>Delete