EXIT

[Bruce Easton]

Occasionally I have wondered about the use of those terms just within 
filepro documentation.  For instance, the online manual at fptech.com 
refers to "HTML Functions" which really seem like commands in the 
filepro sense. But by and large filepro "functions" seem to be commands 
that return a value.  Whether the categorization within filepro makes 
sense outside of filepro or not is not as important as consistency of 
documentation within filepro, imho.  When a command or function is 
discussed here, people should simply be on the same page with regard to 
the command/function being discussed.   Since the earliest printed 
filepro manuals, commands and functions have been labeled one way or the 
other within the filepro programming language.    When Ken 
differentiates between a "command" versus a "function", I do believe he 
is strictly speaking of such within the filepro programming language.  
This helps  avoid confusion and enforces how those are referenced in the 
documentation (or should).

I was able to find in the online manual the description of the system 
*function* in the 5.6 release notes.  I was not able to find it there 
looking just for "System".  However, "SYSTEM()" is searchable and well 
documented with an example in the latest-version  help available via F10 
in Define Processing.

Bruce



On 3/9/15 2:14 PM, Fairlight wrote:
> You say that like it has some meaning, Ken.  Given the utterly shallow
> documentation filePro has (-rw .. -rz are still documented as deeply as
> mirror plating, and about as transparently - as witnessed by an exchange
> I had with a client this week), saying *COMMAND* and *FUNCTION* in the
> context of filePro's API to any underlying system functionality is
> laughable.
>
> What are you meaning, -exactly-, by "*COMMAND*"?  Because I've -always-
> considered the damned thing a function which is a wrapper around system(2).
> If it points to an underlying system function, I consider it a function
> itself.  Full stop.
>
> You apparently have some seemingly arbitrary (but differing) definitions
> of the two which are not clearly presented, and which appear to follow
> arbitrary rules which you have yet to properly and concisely explain.
> Apparently it's not represented by the syntax, as I'd queried...
>
> So enlighten me/us...
>
> mark->
>
> On Mon, Mar 09, 2015 at 01:08:09PM -0400, Kenneth Brody thus spoke:
>> On 3/9/2015 11:49 AM, Fairlight wrote:
>>> What's there difference between invoking the two?  Using a variable for the
>>> return value, or using parentheses?  Or both?
>> The difference is that one is a *COMMAND*:
>>
>>      SYSTEM command_to_execute
>>
>> and the other is a *FUNCTION*:
>>
>>      status = SYSTEM( command_to_execute )
>>
>>> m->
>>>
>>> On Mon, Mar 09, 2015 at 09:06:05AM -0400, Kenneth Brody thus spoke:
>>>> The SYSTEM *command* was never "redone".  Rather, as I wrote in my
>>>> original reply (quoted above), 5.6 introduced the SYSTEM()
>>>> *function*.
>> -- 
>> Kenneth Brody
>>