Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!cernvax!ethz!forty2!eichi
From: eichi@forty2.UUCP (Stefan Eichenberger)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: DBASE IV BUG(S)
Message-ID: <701@forty2.UUCP>
Date: 2 May 89 19:55:18 GMT
References: <2178@muvms1.bitnet>
Reply-To: eichi@forty2.UUCP (Stefan Eichenberger)
Organization: Exp. Physics University Zuerich
Lines: 100

In article <2178@muvms1.bitnet> dcc003@muvms1.bitnet writes:
> ...  Of course you all
>don't mind using the "RE:DBASE IV BUG(S)" subject to push your products.  It
>seemed to me that very few, if any, who responed to my problem (without useful
>advice i might add..) appears to even have used it.

OK., I just had a pretty hard weekend to get a application running for which
the unfortunate descision was made to use dBase IV rather than Clipper, which
not only seems to have far fewer BUGS but also many extensions which
dBase IV doesn't offer.

Bugs : - I had a couple of system crashes.
       - Sometimes, after compiling (and running) a errorenous program and
         returning to the DOS prompt, another attempt to compile resulted
         in a message of the sort 'Illegal invocation of compiler'.
       - similar smaller problems, which disappeared after restarting dBase IV
         or rebooting the machine.

       - The following code produced errors:
            Procedure EditPanel
              .... 
              Do GetInput
              On Key Label F2 Do HelpWdw
              Read
              On Key Label F2
            return

            Procedure GetInput
              @ ..,.. Get m->Field1 Valid UDF1 (m->Field1)
              @ ..,.. Get m->Field2 Valid UDF2 (m->Field2)
              ....
            return

         At one of the GETs, a error box appeard telling me, that a variable
         was not found. Outcommenting the respective VALID condition made
         the error disappear, which was obviously not the solution I wanted.
         After backtracking the problem for a few hours, I found, that moving
         the ON KEY and READ statements from the procedure EditPanel to 
         GetInput solved it.

       - Insufficient memory (especially on in a network environment) is
         certainly not a bug in it's true sence, but it's quite annoing.
         The above procedure GetInput got about 20 fields, almost each with
         a 20-50 line long user defined function for validation. After adding
         one additional field (a date field), I got the insufficient memory
         message. I reconfigered the PC and got another 60 kBytes. The message
         was still there until I removed the new field again. I could also
         another field instead to get around the memory shortage. What you
         think of a program that uses 60 kBytes just to get a date????????

       - If you are in the debugger, the program crashes in a ACTIVE WINDOW,
         which is not the full screen, you enter the editor, to edit the file
         and then quit the editor as well as the debugger, your screen looks
         pretty shitty...

       - BUILD, which should be something like a fullscreen make, disregards
         the hardware configuration and flickers on my AT&T 6300 screen, which
         is compatible to the old CGA. Doesn't matter, since

       - BUILD crashed on a program, which worked fine in the interactive
         environment, saying that the command '^%$&' (or something similar)
         was not recognised on line 27 (where in fact there was a CLEAR ALL
         command)

>Once again, I state my problems. 1) Dbase does not erase its temporary files
>after use.  I currently get around this problem with a batch file.

Won't A-T tell you, that you shouldn't bother? The files have length 0, so they
should occupy no disk space apart from the directory entry (some 20-30 Bytes,
as you are in a subdirectory anyway, which looks as a file to the parent dir.)
And you wouldn't want to look at this directory anyway...? Real dBase users
never go to such a low level as DOS...?


I have no experience, with the 'dBase IV Control Center' (great name anyway!),
but if you plan to program, forget it. I don't know FOX, but certainly
Clipper is a much better programming environment. BTW, once you have finished
development and deliver your program together with the Runtime Environment
(which alone fills about 500k on your hard disk), how do you get rid of this
silly dBase opening screen, advertising how great dBase IV is? Or, if you
don't get rid of it, on the field in the top left corner, they say

This software is licenced to
 =========================
   ===================
      ============
   ===================

How do you fill in the '============' with your customers name? (I don't mean
the opening panel of interactive dBase, which is licenced to you from A-T,
I mean the runtime environment opening panel)


Disclaimer: I don't have opinions, these were just my fingers who typed this.
            Whom's fingers are these...?
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