>In my grid subclass, I have a function that receives a collection (containing column/heading names, whether the column should be text, checkbox, pulldown, conditional coloring expressions, etc.) The function does all the tedious 'dirty-work' you described.

This would be a topic of interest for me as a white paper on Markus' site or an article in CoDe.

>I believe this capability exists in CR.NET, though I've never had the need to use it.

I use this feature in Fox all the time. I've cranked out many a report in short order whipping up a quick SQL statement and then doing a quick report. Why wouldn't this be part of an intro to CR.Net article?

>The amount of practical material now is higher than it was a year or two ago. ".NET for VFP Developers" by Kevin McNeish is a very good book. The VFP ToolKit is a decent library. Go check out the messages on GotDotNet...a ton of practical solutions up there. And also, scan through the solutions provided on the .NET forum by folks like Kevin McNeish and Cathi Gero and Bonnie Berent - the content of those two alone covers many practical solutions.

I have read the book (last year, in fact) and have downloaded and experimented with the VFP Toolkit. I've scanned GotDotNet and lurk in the .Net forum here on occasion. I also subscribe to and read ASP.Net and CoDe magazine. As you say, the learning curve is steep. Meanwhile, I have apps to deliver and only so much time for "research and development." The fact is until the content of the books/articles/training focuses more on productivity issues and I get the time to read them, it's still a couple years out before I can even approach the productivity I enjoy with Fox. Meanwhile, to complicate things, I hear Winforms will be replaced in the next iteration. :-)