>It seems a bit silly, doesn't it? I think they need to change this. Being able to manipulate dates, but not display them makes no sense.

No, it makes perfect sense. VFP can manipulate the data any way it wants, but when it does SHORT or LONG, it hands the date off the Windows and says "Here, you deal with it." Windows says, "What the heck is this?" and sends it back. VFP goes "Hey, dude, Windows says no go."