>I guess the answer to both questions (yours and mine) would depend on who are you working for.

I work for the people that buy projects from me. Have not had an index crash in a long time. If fact, every six months or so - I send emails (or call) and suggest they run the maintenance utility when they have scheduled down time. The call also gives them a moment to think about buying more time from me!

>Now regarding the robustness and stability, coding your wagons into a circle against something that may happen once in a leap year...would depend.

How often should an index crash before we go look for the real problem. VFP aint crashing it - something else is doing it - whatever that something else is - is the guy that should be fixed (at least thats what Spock says:)

>if a cdx has crashed, what are the chances your dbc is intact?

Treat as if it has crashed and totally broken. As infrequent as a INDEX rebuild should be - why not clean out the barn when we do it?

>And, besides, what will teach the users to have a backup at all times, if not a case like that?
You have a point here! But I get so embarassed when one of my project's has problems (for any reason). I insist on good administration - even if I have to bring my guy out to assure the configuration.