>I spend at least half my time (sometimes as much as 70% of my time) planning an application. I use different tools to record my plan (word processors, dbf tables, excel spreadsheets) but when the plan is complete, I basically have to start from scratch to develop the application. It seems to me that I am wasting a lot of time because many objects developed in the plan could be created almost automatically.
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>I have looked at several development enviroments but they help in the development but not in the planning. Does anyone know of a good planning tool that I can use that will automate some of the development as well.


You might want to look at application frameworks. They won't take the information from your plan as an input, but they will help you reduce the hassle involved in creating a brand new application. By using a framework you won't start from scratch.

There are several frameworks available for VFP developers. Vision Data develops Visual MaxFrame (http://www.visionds.com/VMPSite/default.asp ) but there is information about other frameworks for VFP developers in the Fox Wikis (http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~FrameworkFeatureChart~VFP )