~RE: DISPLAY in auto

[John Esak]

> >
> > No, this is wrong. EXIT will exit you right out of filePro even from the
> > AUTOMATIC table. Before I answered Jay's question, I tested his
> exact code
> > (to the letter) in every instance I could think of and it works
> just as it
> > should in all cases. There is something else going on with his
> environment.
>
> Can you think of anything environmental that could cause that to fail
> in that fashion?  The environment in question is 5.0.x on SCO 5.0.6; if
> the exact point release is pertinent, I can get it (me and the machine
> are in different cities at the moment).
>
> Cheers,
> -- jra
> --
> Jay R. Ashworth

No, I can't. I have been wracking my brain since you first posted the
probelm. I didn't answer it the first time because I had nothing to offer.
The second time you posted it, I tried everything out and it all works just
fine. I was guessing that you wanted to display a particular screen, wait
for a few seconds and then exit if the user hit a record that had some
detail records attached... even just one. I put "debug on" statements at
every possible point... but it all worked. I used...

   dreport test -f tryit -a -u
   echo $?
   read akey

to test the results. I always got exactly the value assigned to EXIT. (4 in
the example code I posted.) I tried the fp code on an input table in rclerk,
an automatic table in rclerk, an output table in dreport, and an automatic
table in dreport. (Why don't I use rreport... habit.) Anyway, they all
worked every single time. Is it at all possible that the particular version
you have (not meaning a George Simon copy, mind you, but the whole "version
level" you are runng) has a bug in it? It has happened before (as you have
so often pointed out... that things get broken from version to version...
things which used to work.  I would find this hard, very hard to believe,
because my code has worked since 4.5 without failure of EXIT to return a
value to my scripts, and I've used all versions since 4.5.

I can't remember your postings about it. Does the program actually exit and
just not supply a alue or does it just sit inside filePro somewhere
ignoringt the EXIT completely?  I think that was what you said... If so,
replace the EXIT sommand with something that does work, for example, a GOTO
DOIT, and in the routine DOIT, put an EXIT 4. Does that work? (Don't know
why it should, but debugging something that should clearly work demands
trying all sorts of things.  Also, of course, try putting the EXIT on the
first "then" line in the AUTO table and run it. Does that work?

Last thing I can imagine is that you are running a -z table which looks just
like your posted table _without_ the EXIT??  I've been known to set up a
test script work with it for hours and then change the processing name
forgetting to change the testing script. For minutes, hours, sometimes
nights, things don't work right, until I get un-brain-dead and look exactly
at what I'm running.

Whatever this problem is, I (and everyone else I'm sure, too would)
appreciate knowing just what was wrong. It is bothersome to me that you have
so many complaints about filePro and when something _should_ work as
advertised... I don't want you to be right. :-)  (Seriously, also, I know
how frustrating it is when this happens. It is a real time-waster.

John