Hi John,

I found a RAD tool I really like in Linux. It's name is QT. In RedHat Linux it can be accessed off the start menu as follows:

Programming --> More Programming Tools -- QT Designer

When you click on the QT Designer, the QT IDE will be opened. Once you have the IDE you can click on:

File --> New and a window will open. Select [ C++ project ] form the 7 or 8 project types available. Give the new project a name like [ test C++ Pro ].

Next select Tools --> Containers --> TabWidget. Then place the mouse plus sign in the IDE desktop and click to create a pageframe. In the window to the right you have a properties sheet that can be filled out with tool tips, etc. By default the pageframe will have two tabs.

Next click on Project --> Database Connection and a dialog will appear. Fill out the form with the table name, host, username, password, database driver from drop down list for MySQL, Postgres or Unix ODBC, etc and then click on [ connect ] to connect to your back end database.

Next create a grid to work with a table from your backend database. Click on Tools --> Database -- Database Table and place the mouse cross in the pageframe and click. A dialog will appear so you can select the fields to appear in the grid. You can also select how the rows will be sorted, whether you want to be able to sort on each column, whether to verify before inserting, updating, deleting, etc. When the wizard is completed, a grid will appear on the pageframe.

Next click on the [ Preview ] and a drop down will appear including a preview in dotnet style. Click on Preview Form, and the pageframe will become live and the grid will fill with data from the selected table. The grid is updateable. You can scroll across or down the grid to find the records you want. It appears all the object needed to build a grid form comparable with VFP are there including buttons combos, listboxes, ect. There are a number of other RAD form that can be built with dialogs, so the from can connect to the back end and navigate top, previous, next, bottom with bottons, etc.

This can all be accomplished in about 15 or 20 minute and is on a par with Visual FoxPro. Jerry Kemp told me about QT back when he was active, and I took a look at it then, but the product has mature since then and VFP's future has become more clouded, so it might be worth a look.

I'm not yet sure how cross-platfrom Qt is, but I suppose it would be as most Linux products are.

Regards,

LelandJ