Very Computer

A problem with dBASE IV :

        When a error occurs in a program (still developing ...), and
I choose the Cancel option from the menu that pops up, dBASE occasionally
locks up with an annoying beep, and the only way to get out is with
Ctrl-Alt-Del (pretty ugly). When the system comes back up, some of the files
that were open at the moment (especially .MDX files) end up scrambled
and need to be recovered with CHKDSK (even uglier). Any suggestions ?

A couple of questions :

        1. I hear all this great stuff about 1.1. And the question is -
                        WHEN ???!!!
           Sorry. Just a little anxious.

        2. We are writing a system in dBASE IV that requires security.
           The logon security is nice, but what if a person leaves his
           terminal unattended for a while - we want to put a screen
           that will make him to enter a password after let's say 5 min
           with no key press. Can that be done without tying an extra
           program to the clock and keyboard interrupt handlers ?

Boris Pelakh.

Ctrl-Alt-Del can do some pretty ugly damage, allright.  The lock-up and beep
are only indirect causes of the problem.  Can you give me more information
about how to reproduce the lock-up?  You might also want to SET AUTOSAVE ON,
which will minimize the damage by flushing files to disk whenever they are
written.

Quote:> A couple of questions :

>    1. I hear all this great stuff about 1.1. And the question is -
>                    WHEN ???!!!
>       Sorry. Just a little anxious.

We're anxious, too.  We're in "we will ship no dBASE before its time" mode
here--what we have in hand is very good, but we want to ship a product that
will completely refute any notions that Ashton-Tate is not committed to
quality.  Answer: not this month; possibly not next month; soon.  We have
to go through Beta-test before we ship, and that takes some minimum time.

Quote:>    2. We are writing a system in dBASE IV that requires security.
>       The logon security is nice, but what if a person leaves his
>       terminal unattended for a while - we want to put a screen
>       that will make him to enter a password after let's say 5 min
>       with no key press. Can that be done without tying an extra
>       program to the clock and keyboard interrupt handlers ?

This is a good idea for 1.2--we could generalize it to something like:
ON TIME <time> DO <proc> to perform some procedure at a specified time.
Or ON IDLE DO <proc>.

For now, if your program is in control, it can logout programmatically
whenever it thinks it should.  But if the user is sitting in PROTECT or
some other full-screen task, you'll need a third-party TSR to preemptively
schedule the logout.

Quote:> Boris Pelakh.

/alastair/

Please excuse this post, but this is the only way for me to get a note
to him.  

To Alastair:

Question:  I sent in a bunch of paperwork a number of weeks ago to
be a Beta tester for dBASE IV 1.1 and haven't heard anything back
yet.  COuld you possibly check up on it?  Also, my system did not
like your address.  Do you have one that can be accessed from
Bitnet?
--
Let sleeping dragons lie........               | The Bit Chaser
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