Hi, Dave...

Thanks for your responses. Yes, it does not surprise me that many developers are turned off by crystal. I've only ever used it for thick client and distributed architectures where the report is generated on the user's machine, so I can't speak for generating reports from a server.

Yes, I agree the GUI is a pain. I'll go one step further, if the gods of the UT will permit a slip to the vernacular...the UI sucks. I'm used to it, because I've been using CR extensively since 1996, but I agree it's disgraceful.

As for the syntax...I made a fundamental decision years ago to put my expressions in my code. Basically, I format the data for the report in my code (C#, VFP, etc.) beforehand, and use CR only for a presentation vehicle. That way, when I need to export the report data to another tool (Excel, HTML, text, etc.), I can export the contents in such a way that it looks very similar to the output in CR. Very very rarely will I use report formulas.

Point 3 is the only area where I have a different perspective - I think the integration is 'there', but is not well-documented. It took me months to experiment and find integration points between CR.NET and the rest of .NET.

Point 4...apparently some time ago, the licensing was confusing, especially when using it as a server, and even though they've changed the wording, the confusion continues. Admittedly, I'm fortunate because the way I've delivered CR solutions continues to be royalty free...but yes, for server solutions, I agree.

As for the intallation and deployment, it was a bit confusing for me, though I had help from Cathi Gero and others here about a year ago. Bottom line is that there's very little about CR that is 'seamless'.

Believe me, I'm not 'defending' CR - the entire implementation of CR into the .NET environment was a disappointment. Were it not for the integration of reports and graphs (which is important for the work that I do) and 7 years of personal investment, I'd probably switch to AR.

Kevin