SQL is good, but when it comes to the row-by-row stuff (cursor), it stinks. Also, VFP data is an excellent choice for small to medium web databases when data is installed on same machine as web server. In this scenario, VFP is no longer a file sever, it becomes a lighting fast "in-memory", freely distributable database.

I'm sure you've read about Rick Strahl's site taking nearly 1M hits a day on VFP code. Yes, he did eventually switch to SQL Server (performance went down a lot), but problems with data corruption caused by large external batch updates during runtime could have been fixed. Also, I have 3 all VFP applications that have been running 24/7 on NAVAIR network for last 6 years without a single data corruption!

I have had a lot of sucess using both and I would be very upset if my customers where to hear that VFP was not a "real" database. In some cases, VFP is a better fit than SQL Server.

Charlie