>Retooling may be what's needed....I, for one, hate the fact that I cannot free tables and keep my long field names. Also, I wish that the index names could be more than 10 chars.

This is something of a "rock and a hard place" proposition. For all intents and purposes, Microsoft owns the xBase standard, as dBase is no longer a major player, and Clipper is still DOS-based, which is an outmoded OS. So if there is going to be a major change in the xBase standard, then it is either up to Microsoft or a new innovator to create the next set of substantive changes in xBase.

Combine this with the following - if a new standard is to be created, is there any reason at all that it should be based on xBase, besides compatibility with previous code or data? Why not create systems with a new database file standard and a new language set?

I believe that there is plenty of power and flexibility to be found in VFP. But to reiterate a speech I gave some months ago, I am not a Visual FoxPro programmmer. I am not a Microsoft platform programmer. I am a database programmer with an emphasis on object-oriented methodology.

So if the language is not working for you, you may need to check your other options.