Dear Jim,

Yes, we face the same problem. Be careful, I think VFP has a unpredictable future. It is a great front end (data handling, cursors, speed) but I would move the backend to MSFT's SQL.

MSFT is giving away the 5 user MSDE (MSFT's SQL Server 2000) for free. WOW! See the comments below and follow the web link to get the Visual.NET runtime, MSDE and Mobile Development SDK.

Regards,


Jim Smith

* BEGINNERS AND PROS WILL BENEFIT FROM ASP.NET WEB MATRIX
In the past two issues of Windows Web Solutions UPDATE, I've
discussed the power and ease with which Visual Studio .NET helps you
build Microsoft .NET applications. In this issue, I discuss a new
release from Microsoft that many people believe is much more
interesting and even easier to use than Visual Studio .NET. On June
17, Microsoft publicly released ASP.NET Web Matrix on the Microsoft
ASP.NET Web site ( http://www.asp.net ). ASP.NET Web Matrix is a
free, lightweight, easy-to-use tool for developing Web applications
with ASP.NET. ASP.NET Web Matrix is great for building small Web sites
and hobby applications. If you've never tried ASP.NET, ASP.NET Web
Matrix uses a series of tutorials to get you started and links to the
ASP.NET community, which can quickly answer your questions. ASP.NET
Web Matrix's 1MB download includes a WYSIWYG Web forms designer.

Microsoft made a bold move by releasing ASP.NET Web Matrix free of
charge. The company has never released a developer tool or any product
of this magnitude for free before. Clearly, Microsoft is aiming the
product at professional developers as well as entry-level,
high-school-age, and college-age developers who might have migrated to
Java because of their schools' curriculum. Additionally, a link to
download Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE), which is the free runtime
version of Microsoft SQL Server, is available on the ASP.NET Web
Matrix download page.

In the June 13, 2002, issue of Windows Web Solutions UPDATE, I wrote
that because Visual Studio .NET is so easy to use, technologists
outside the realm of software development are beginning to use the
tool to build prototypes and pilot projects. Many readers sent me
email messages asking me how to acquire Visual Studio .NET. The .NET
Framework is a free download, but Visual Studio .NET isn't; all
versions of Visual Studio .NET are quite expensive. Users who tried
the tool complained about having to pay for the developer tool in
addition to the server licensing. Microsoft seems to have heard those
complaints, and the company's response is the free release of ASP.NET
Web Matrix.
>Jim,
>Thank you for your information.
>
>That application is not a big one and has a lot of tables. I will test in NT server to see the performance and then make decision.
>
>
>We are using Visual Foxpro 6.0 now and we will move to 7.0 in near future. It is not a simple job to update from FOX for DOS to VPF. In future, we perhaps change some part of that application into VFP.
>
>
>
>Jim