Since all developers have their preferences and not every developer has personally tried every tool out there, this is pretty much entirely 'subjective' and you will get many different recommendations based upon a developer's personal preference. Having said that, I think it would be great to get 'personal preferences' regardless. So, I'll jump in with my experience and hopefully others will add theirs. See my notes below:


>1. What Frameworks would you buy? (Your personal preference. Money not an issue.)


Visual FoxExpress. I cannot say I would actually purchase any other tool because I have not had the opportunity to 'try it before buying it' with the other frameworks. Nor have I seen them in use.


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>2. What purpose would each Framework serve?
>a. Reporting


This is probably the weekest area in any framework as well as with vanilla VFP. I have always wanted the report engine to be improved. Other than that comment, the framework should enhance or simplify your report writing needs. Visual FoxExpress does that.


>b. Database Maintenance


Additional features or simplify maintenance. VFE has both and it is one of the areas I have been happiest with the framework.


>c. Internet frontend


This is lacking in both VFP and most frameworks (from what I've heard on the UT and from other developers) IMHO and left too much up to the developer. To be fair, basically we developers are trying to use a client/server tool to write webapps with, but IMHO that is what I would like to see VFP capable of doing (just like Delphi does now). However, VFE is coming out with a voodoo toolkit this spring which should help move it in that direction.


>d. VFP Standard FrontEnd


The framework should provide additional functionality and be fully OOP and ntier in design. It should assist the developer in changing backends and writing apps ntier compliant. VFE does this. It should also be a rapid application development tool that will 'speed things up' for the developer while still providing complete customization and control. VFE does this.

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>3. What Frameworks do you currently use? (May be different from #1)


VFE

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>4. If you could only buy one Framework, which one would it be?



Right now VFE. I would love to see a demo of MM and Visual MaxFrame to see how they meet these requirements but since neither provide a 30 day demo, I have not had the opportunity.

5. I believe some factors were left off, but most noticeably was support. Support is a key ingredient and the framework designer should provide adequate developer-level support either via a forum or reliable email response. VFE has one of the best forums I have seen and is on a par with the UT as far as technical advice and support from other developers goes. There is also a book available on using VFE with VFP and training classes and training cds from F1 Technologies. I have attended the training and it is excellent. Not only does it cover application development with VFE but also ntier design and OOP practices.