>I have a nine year old application that uses 14 freestanding .dbf files. There has never been a problem with file integrity over the years among any of the 7,000+ users. I am now in the process of redoing the UI and updating to VFP 9.
>
>Ignorance may be bliss as I blithely stroll down the tracks, hand in hand with my free standing .dbf files, deaf to the rumble of the train a few yards behind me. Can anyone give me a really (really, really) compelling reason to switch to the newer super duper .dbc database?
>
>Thanks,
>Scott

There are several things you can't do with free tables, but my top reasons would be:

Referential integrity. Once you start using it, you are hooked.

Triggers in general (RI also depends on triggers). For example, a change in the table "delivery details" would automatically update the current stock, in another table.

Free tables can't participate in transactions. I think this has been solved, though, in VFP 8, or perhaps 9.

Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)