The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

July 2000

Undocumented (Con? from page 4)

the Help selection off the help menu in the upper right, I believe.

PKXARC

Not valid now, but it used to be, at least through Foxpro 2.0.

PKXARC looked for PKXARC.COM in the current directory. If

such a file is found, Fox tries to execute it. My notes indicate

that if you renamed a .BAT, .COM or .EXE file to PKXARC.COM

and ran the PKXARC command, Fox would run it! This com-

mand is how Fox used to install itself from floppies to the hard

disk.

RESET

This appears to be some sort of dBaselV compatibility com-

mand. I thought it might have had something to do with

dBaselll+ catalog files, but my handy dBaselll+ book doesn’t

mention the command Reset. So, I don’t know what this does in

dBaselV. The latest HackersGuide documented this one.

However, the HackersGuide says you’ll generate an error when

you run this command. This is incorrect — no error is gener-

ated.

RUNSCRIPT

AppleScript? on the Macintosh was the equivalent of DOS batch

files — or DOS batch files were a poor equivalent to

AppleScript?. You get the idea, I don’t care which came first...

Anyway, this command would run the script. In VFP, if you type

the bare RUNSCRIPT, you get a “missing required clause”

message. However, if you pass it the name of a file, you get a

“Feature Not Available” message.

SET APLABOUT Enabled / Disabled

This command was used in the Macintosh products to deter-

mine if the application trapped for the Apple About menu bar.

SET ATTRIBUTES TO (something)

Now, this command is a find. This command has something to

do with color attributes. But what it is, is unclear. I always

generate a syntax error no matter what I pass to the command.

Even after the following:

x = SET([ATTRIBUTES]) SET ATTRIBUTES TO (x) Not that I

have the faintest idea what it does it seems you can do a SET

ATTRIBUTES ON or SET ATTRIBUTES OFF without generating

a syntax error

SET BROWSEIMECONTROL ON/OFF

This command is the same as the documented SET

BROWSEIME ON/OFF. However, the above name is the real

name of the command.

SET CATALOG ON/OFF

This command is used for dBaselll+ compatibility with .cat files.

.CAT files, or catalog files, were a way of grouping similar .DBF5

and perhaps other files into one container. The concept wasn’t

very successful, as the catalog files were brittle and got in the

way much more than they organized things for you. The project

and project manager in VFP and Foxpro do a much better job of

what catalog files were trying to do. The latest HackersGuide

documented this one.

SET CATALOG TO (.cat file)

This command used to allow one to select a specific catalog

file. This may have to have been preceded by a Set Catalog On

(SetCatalog).

SET DBTRAP ON/OFF

Another dBaselV compatibility command, and who knows what

this does. There’s also a Set Trap (SetTrap) command but I

think the two are different. I used to have a copy of the dBaselV

manuals around. I’ll have to look these up if I still have ‘em, but I

think I don’t... The latest HackersGuide documented this one...

SET DESIGN ON/OFF

This command is used for dBaselV compatibility. What it did I

don’t remember at all. Nonetheless, it’s there... AFAIK, it lets

you put a form into design mode inside a running application.

The latest HackersGuide documents this one...

SET ENCRYPTION ON/OFF

This command does nothing in Foxpro or VFP. But it doesn’t

generate an error, either. This command did something in

dBaselll+, something like encrypt the .DBF somehow.

SET HISTORY ON/OFF

This command doesn’t do anything now, but it used to be

important during the dBaselll+ days... If I remember correctly,

this command is used to turn on/off storage of the dot prompt

commands.

SET HISTORY TO (numeric)

This is a companion to the Set History ON/OFF (SetHistory)

command. This command set a limit to the buffer of stored dot

prompt commands. This command does nothing in VFP.

However, error checking is done. For instance, try the following:

SET HISTORY TO -1

SET HISTORY TO 16000

SET HISTORY TO 16001

SET IBLOCK TO (numeric)

Another dBaselV compatibility command. If I remember

correctly, dBaselV came out with a lot of incompatibile function

names, hoping that Fox Software would appear out of step and

not part of the dBase standard. This is one of them (of many).

VFP does very little error checking on this one.

SET IBLOCK TO 390842039420398409

SET IBLOCK TO -32094209340923488

SET IBLOCK TO [test]

SET IBLOCK TO DATETIME()

All appear valid. The latest HackersGuide documented this

one...

[To be continued..

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