>Is the release copy of VFP 8 ready to do real development, or should I wait until a service pack or two come out???

It's ready.

The VFP team at Microsoft has said, and many beta tester developers have agreed, that this is the most stable version of VFP ever. 8 is more stable than 7 with SP1. There are no plans to issue any service packs for VFP8, as reported by Ken Levy here and elsewhere.

See Microsoft Releases Visual FoxPro 8.0 Thread #748065 Message #748065

HRH,