Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!hacgate!ashtate!dbase!awd
From: awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: dBASE IV -- Trials and Tribulations
Keywords: bugs
Message-ID: <167@dbase.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jul 89 17:43:05 GMT
References: <2071@hub.UUCP>
Organization: Ashton Tate Devlopment Center Glendale, Calif.
Lines: 39

In article <2071@hub.UUCP>, erbo@lime.ucsb.edu (Eric J. Bowersox) writes:
> 
> BUG #1:	The Case of the Missing Procedure  (or: Son of Line Eater? :-) )
> 
> If you have a .PRG file with more than about 8 procedures in it, and you
> try to call the last procedure in that file, dBASE won't find it, and will
> hand you a "File does not exist" error.

I couldn't get this to fail.  I created a 150-line prg containing 14 simple,
but not empty procedures.  The main proc just called the others, and the last
one was never ignored.  Is it possible your code is unusual enough that the
nesting on RETURN statements looks okay to you but looks different to dBASE?
(That's fairly unlikely, though--the keyword PROCEDURE automatically ends
the preceding procedure and the compiler would complain then about missing
control structures like ENDIFs.)

Can you send me a simple failing test case?

> BUG #2: PLAYing Loop-the-Loop with MACROs
> 

This is out of my area; the fellow I would ask about MACRO questions had
a small accident this morning and wound up in the hospital, so I can't help
you.  It sounds like you're playing a game we play here a lot--let's figure
out what the software is _supposed_ to do by trial and error.  Sometimes
subsystems are not very clearly defined (documentation and spec writers 
are not programmers, and, to be fair, vice versa).  Looks like you figured
out what we intended the hard way.  I'm glad the workaround wasn't too
difficult for you.

Thanks for presenting such clear cases.  I think the people on comp.databases
who don't hit 'N' when the subject line says 'dBASE' appreciate hearing 
about any bugs or unexpected features (:-).  I'll try to investigate any
reports of bugs, and although I'll probably shy away from saying "That's
a bug!" (unless I know it will be fixed in v1.1), I may explain why some
behavior might be considered meritorious in such a way that you can read
between the lines.  :-)

/alastair/