Kevin,

>PMFI, but I'm not sure I accept the premise that the .NET architecture prevents one from doing some of the things you described.

>I recently completed a .NET/MSDE app for a mid-sized construction company. Job, material, and time tracking, invoicing, blah blah. It is very data-driven and features on-the-fly query construction, data-driven menus, etc. There are multiple ways one can accomplish this.

>It is also not a 'one-and-done' app, as I utilized some methods that I've developed for more 'enterprise'-style .NET apps.

>I'm not saying that VFP can't do the same things...it certainly can. But the same thing can be accomplished with Winforms, ADO.NET, and MSDE. (And I'll openly state that it took quite a rough learning curve to get to that point).

I'm not trying to say it is impossible to process data locally in .NET. However with the absense of having a solid database engine you are more limited in what you can process as compared with VFPs database engine.

So for example if you've got no valid alternatives to commands like SET ORDER, REPLACE FOR, SEEK, SCAN FOR WHILE, LOCATE FOR WHILE, CALCULATE FOR WHILE etc. If you're proficient with these tools you can very quickly datamung data as these command process multiple records in just one command. In .NET you've got two choices:

1. upload your local data to SQL server and process it there (loading network)
2. Process this in a custom made routine by iterating through collections.

Both ways are way and way slower than the VFP alternative.

Walter,