>As a result, I make pretty extensive use of the ado recordset's GetString method, which generates the data as a delimited string.

Hi Vin. I pass my data as XML between tiers. I am impressed with the speed of CURSORTOXML/XMLTOCURSOR (in VFP) and the read/write xml methods in ASP.NET. I was expecting a major performance hit when I converted from a mostly monolithic LAN based VFP app to a 3-tier ASP.NET/VFP app. Having the data local to the COM compnents has helped to compenstate for the performance hit of XML.