Hi Walter

>I'm not too familiar to the python programming language are you? I'd like to know how it compares to VFP. Do you have any information on that ?

Python is just a very neat and clean interpreter. Guido is a teacher at core. He was driven by the idea that the language should be as simple as could be whilst being as powerful as needed. IT IS AS SIMPLE AS CAN A COMPUTER LANGUAGE BE.

From this point of view python shares quite a few thing with vfp:
- a simple grammar (no pointers, no @{><->!..)
- few data constructs but very nicely devised (the dictionnary and the list are really as clean as can be),
- a pseudo compiler that compiles on the file and
produces professional runtime performance.

A vfp-er feels at home with the syntax in a couple of hours (see www.python.org for resources). It is clearly distinctive from vfp since it is not dedicated to any specific IT task. It is best used when you need to manipulate text, data structures or deliver - or test - a complex algorythm in a couple of hours.

Python has been used effectively by "open source" afficionados on the web on complex web apps when php is does not cut it. Python is a significant part of the google dev. toolbox).

I wished to go multi-plafform so i have moved my foxisapi things to python+apache and never looked back. They run *nix or win32.

Python is generic. It is not a data-centric tool not even a UI centric one. VFP is both. So the comparison with vfp stop there.

Ed Leafe and Paul McNett (two high-end VFPers) have launched an effort to deliver some kind of vfp-like experience (UI and data-awareness) within the "open source" python env. A daunting and possibly risky task. They use the wxpython layer to deliver the UI. Which is a very good point. The project has now reached some visibility within the python community. Not tested though.

http://dabodev.com/about

I currently stay on VFP for UI. Effective Win32 interfaces is still an MS garden and would hesitate to invest on "open source" tooling for UI intensive apps except if "multiple platforms" is not core absolure necessity.

François