>>I think I am closer to an explanation now... I tested the following:
>>- added one table from our production directory on the server to a test form - 2.6 sec to open the form in design mode
>>- copied the table to an empty dir on the same server - only 0.5 sec to open the form
>>It seems that the explanation for MODIFY FORM being slow when using DE to open/close tables, is that most directories where the data resides contain hundreds of files. What is still unclear, is why DO FORM is not affected to the same degree as MODIFY FORM.
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>I dunno, Doru...but just at a guess, the vfp team probably spent much more time making all runtime stuff as fast as possible - while development matters of performance perhaps took a back seat (relatively, anyway). I mean, that's the natural emphasis anyone would take.

It could be... Why don't they say it? There are a few of vfp dev team on UT...

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>But as to your network/server discovery - that makes some sense. Perhaps both your directory configurations (great many files) and/or your network hardware speed are not in the best shape. I say that because I again tested your situation, but this time by adding a bunch of large *server* tables from several different large DBCs to a form, and still MODI FORM only takes < 1 second, ruling out any caching.
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>So I suspect your problem is local to your working environment. Though not 100% sure that it's not due to something else...
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>I wonder, is there any tool like the Coverage Profiler that can be used in design-time? That could be helpful.

I agree that the issue is local to our environment - my last test shows that it is not the size of the files in DE, but the number of the files in the directory (the test directory was at the same level in the dir tree as the production directory.)
As for the network hardware, they say it is top of the line, and when running apps it seems so. Here is an example: we have a form that presents 10 data log tables on 10 pages in a pageframe; the tables are 1-2 mil records, and contain events for the last 30-90 days, records are recicled and data is archived on the server and CDs; the form uses 10 parameterized local views to navigate the live data and the archive, and all views are indexed with the same tags as the source tables; all this requires almost no waiting time to retrieve, either a few records or 20,000 records by requerying.
So, no complains when running, only some complains when designing...