Dear Mr.Thurber,

>I am not aware of a SQLEXEC() syntax that returns an XML. It returns a "cursor" that would be converted into XML.

You're mixing things againg, buddy. SqlExec is a VFP command, not a SQL Server feature. But SQL Server 2000 can indeed return XML from a query. Does it matter to this debate. I don't think so. More below...

>Without VFP as the COM, the developer would have to use XOM on an ADO recorset and "build" the XML (AddNode/AddAttribute,etc). So I agree with you that NET is using XML - and that VFP's XMLToCursor and passthrough [DBF] cursors are alot easier than transcribing raw ADO to XML.

Nonsense. It seems to me that being VFP you main (or only) development experience, you reduce everything to VFP terms. When you perform a query from ADO or ADO.NET what you really receive is a data stream that gets converted into an object (simpler or more complex depending on the case).

>If that's what you're saying? IF your saying there is a new SQLEXE() argument that returns a rowset as XML - then I plead ignorance. But if you're not - then a DBF is in the stream - and a DBF is xBase!

The data stream SQL Server (or any other ODBC or OleDB source) sends is not a DBF at all. And -anyway- accessing a DBF is NOT necesarilly xBase. When you perform a SQL statement against a local DBF table in VFP you are not using xBase techonlogy.

xBase implies USEing a table, setting its order, SEEKing a record, SCANning the table or doing a DO WHILE with the old SKIP command. This is xBase, together with the idea of having a SELECTed work area, a record pointer, etc. All of this can't work in a disconnected scenario. It could be in local cursors, maybe, as this is mainly a local snapshot accessed with exclusive rights. But NOT with remote, and loosely connected data sources. The mid-term there was the Remote views. You USEd a parameterized view that was actually getting a resultset (accessing ODBC sources trough SQL technology) and you were mostly able to play with that data with xBase commands. When issuing a TableUpdate(), the engine performs a series of SQL UPDATEs, INSERTs or DELETEs to write the data back to the engine.

Hope this helps to agree on some basic concepts.

See you,