If you're coming from VFP you can't expect to much from the stock controls either and on a one to one comparison while the .NET controls still lack some functionality it's a roughtly comparable scenario.

No development tool to date that I know of has shipped with modern UI controls - those have generally been a third party feature and this apparently hasn't changed.

As Rod points out the next version of .NET will support a full set of modern controls that procvide theming and office style menus and toolbars.

+++ Rick ---


>Rod,
>
>I guess, as you've already said, VB developers instinctively seek out 3rd party controls. As a person coming to .NET after many years in VFP (I haven't quite given up on it yet), I guess I expected more out of the box.
>
>I know that when I looked at some VB forms that coworkers created, I used to be shocked that they had to write code to do what a VFP textbox could do simply by setting format and input masks. Even more shocking to me was the lack of a built in numeric spinner control.
>
>Its good to hear that the next version of VS.NET has a better set of controls. Lets hope they're as good or better than the 3rd party stuff (which is pretty good to begin with).
>
>
>Mike
>
>
>>To understand what MSFT was/is thinking you need to take a look at history.
>>
>>VB developers were accustomed to purchasing 3rd party controls. This is still the case. There are a number of useful controls that I use out of the box. For some grids especially I buy them. I did in VB6 I do now.
>>
>>Not to play MSFT marketing. But the next version does have a better set of
>>controls.
>>
>>Rodman