just an update

[Bob Stockler]

Top Post . . .

Laura's Help Files [1] refers to @FSTAT[] when you look up
Help for EXISTS().

Bob

[1] An improved set of filePro Help files available at:

      http://www.hvcomputer.com

John Esak wrote (on Sun, Dec 18, 2005 at 01:23:40PM -0500):

| Rick,
| 
| Don't know if you remember but we were trying to find out if some file had
| size for the EDI  batch thing a couple months ago?  I kept saying there was
| something like fstat() to do this.  I had read about it and catalogued it
| away for future use sometime. You remember we looked for it for a while in
| the Help, and then gave up. Finally, we concocted something else... like an
| open() file and then filesize() I think.
| 
| On the list, Ken just mentioned... why didn't I use fstat(), so I looked
| again and it wasn't there AGAIN! I was just about to go crazy when I had a
| thought... maybe he said @fstat?  I looked and there was the thing I
| remembered reading about. It gives you *everything* you could ever want to
| know about the last successful EXISTS() command.
| 
| It's knowing where to look that counts, huh?
| 
| Again, this is why I wrote the first online manual with a listing of
| commands by *functionality* that was *not* alphabetical. In other words
| under SCREEN functions, you would find DISPLAY, MESGBOX, SHOW, SCREEN, etc.
| Any other way to do this is not as useful. Sure have an alphabetical listing
| somewhere... but it won't be used 1% as much as a by-function listing. The
| EXISTS() description would have a "See @fstat" and the @fstat stuff right
| there as well, where it should be.
| 
| I'm mean, seriously, everyone, anyone who's listening... Why, *how* would
| anyone new or old to FP think to look through a listing of @arrays to find
| something which works only with EXISTS()?  Why, how would anyone new or old
| find the MESGBOX function if that was what they needed? All they would know
| is they want a function that puts something on the screen, and asks for user
| input. What would lead them to the letter "M"? I looked for my original
| by-function listing of all filePro functions in the latest on-line manual,
| and it wasn't there. (Maybe I missed it.)  Why in the world would this be
| taken out?  I mean I had it grouped so nicely by Screen Functions, Output
| Functions, Trigger Functions, Math Functions, File functions, String
| Functions, etc., etc. Any programmer or any plain user could quickly find
| all the filePro functions that pertained to the area needed. We all think in
| terms of these areas... none of us could possibly think alphabetically about
| what it is we want :-)  All we know is, we want to do something on the
| screen, or print something, or etc. By using areas of functionality and
| grouping all the filePro processing table functions and commands that way, I
| thought I had achieved something really good. Nearly ever one of the filePro
| Bible people let me know it was fantastic. If it is not in there, and I
| didn't just "miss" it, please, could it come back? What say everyone else?
| 
| John Esak
| Visit The FP Room www.tinyurl.com/97y9u
| 
| Author of:
| The filePro Survivor Series
| Interactive Training for filePro on CD
| See samples at: www.valar.com/training
| 
| 
| 
| John
| 
| cc: fplist
| 
| _______________________________________________
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-- 
Bob Stockler  +-+  bob at trebor.iglou.com  +-+  http://members.iglou.com/trebor
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