A lot of the discussion has confused the use of custom developed applications with the use of _development environments such the range of X-base systems available.(DBase, Rbase Foxpro, Clipper and their ilk). It's a pretty daunting task for a non programmer to try and develop a professional application from scratch and the initial results are usually unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, this prcess often results in extrmely flexible and powerful development systems being branded as useless. Tim ********************************************************************** * Tim Bosher * Museum of Victoria * * [log in to unmask] * Information Systems Branch * * Phone: +61 3 651 6751 * Fax: +61 3 651 6180 * * * * There is no time like the present to postpone * * what you should be doing. * * * **********************************************************************