>>The big picture of .NET is that its database integration is weak, and its design at the least doubtfull as the future lies in database driven applications (don't confuse with data driven applications). (you of course know the initial plans of longhorn..).
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>Walter,

Hi Jess,

>PMFJI, can you explain or give me specific details of your claim that .NET has weaker database integration as compare to VFP? Ofcourse, .NET doesn't have native database but what I mean is that, when it comes to integration with Server Databases i.e. Oracle, SqlServer, etc.

I think one is pretty obvious, .NET does not have a local database engine in which you can create, store and manipulate data in both a SET (SQL92) and RECORD (Xbase) oriented way. Of course you've got ADO, but once the data is loaded from the remote database into ADO.NET it has lost its relational characteristics (Because they now are stored in collections) and surely the possibility to use a standardized DML such as SQL or XBase.

That might not be a problem if you're not doing much of datamunging, but if you do, you'll have to find a way to do al of this on the remote database server because (again) .NETs database integration is weak.

So in fact you lose the division of labour you can do in VFP: off loading the data you need, mung it in VFP. You now have to do all on the server or work your way though iterating collections which for all kind of reasons is not the most optimal way.

The second is more fundamental to .NETs design. The development platform of the future will be build opun a database (as many ERP/ERM software already are), where all resource objects (forms, classes, graphics, reports, etc) are stored into database tables. (The initial plans for Longhorn were also that the OS runs on a database, though I'm not sure what is still left of that plan).

I'm already unhappy with VFPs progress towards this goal, but a least many resources are actually table oriented. .NET OTOH is a big step back from this approach.

Some believe there is a great place for .NET in the corporate world, but I think since ERP/ERM solutions getting cheaper and more powerfull, that is a myth also. .NET solutions can't compete with SAP, BAAN, UNISYS, NAVISON etc. It could fill in the gaps, but those will get narrower and narrower when these ERM/ERP software are evolving.

I really hope that .NET will go this direction though. Because its application is so much wider than VFP, and in many aspects it is an excellent product. If they really are going to make it run upon a database we have a killer.

Because then, it is a small step in creating new powerfull ERM/ERP software that is totally based on .NET without the disadvantages of current ERM/ERP software. Microsofts could get market leader in this area. They already have got the technology (they have purchased Navision). They only have to put it together.

Walter,