Usage

Section 4: Visual FoxPro Reference

"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knockdown argument'," Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, 1872

Section 4 is the meat of the book. You'll find a listing for every command, function, property, event, method and system variable. We've grouped them logically so that you can find several related topics in one place.For an explanation of the syntax we use for commands, see "How to Use This Book," back in the Introduction.In the printed version of this book, you'll notice that this section is, well, missing. We've had plenty of requests to cut down on the size and weight of this book. Here are a few of those reasons:

Conservationists, from those saving the trees to those saving the habitats for animals living in the trees, have expressed a desire for us to reduce the amount of paper used.
Workers in the Hentzenwerke stock room and our shipping companies are complaining about back pain and exhaustion from moving copies of the Hacker's Guide around, and they keep muttering things like "worker's compensation."
It costs too darn much to ship such a large book, especially to our overseas readers.
Nobody wants to purchase it at a conference, because they'd need another suitcase just to bring it home, and it may put them over the airline's cargo limit.
We're tired of the jokes about it being a great monitor stand (though the advent of the 17" and larger monitors has drastically cut down on that one), that it makes a great doorstop, and that it provides more exercise than a membership to a fitness center.
Nobody reads the paper version anyway; we all use the .CHM version instead.

So, dear reader, we have listened to your comments, and we've provided this section in an electronic format only. "How do I obtain this wonderful file?" you ask. Very simple. Point your browser to www.hentzenwerke.com. Somewhere on the main page is a link to Downloads. Click that. You'll be given instructions from there on how to get the CHM file. If you purchased this book directly from Hentzenwerke Publishing, you were emailed a user ID and password, and can log in and download the files you want. If you bought the book from another source, you need to have the book in front of you (like now), so you can answer some questions to prove you own it. See the section "How to Use the Help File" for lots of useful information, including keyboard shortcuts, how to put the Hacker's Guide into your FoxPro menu, tips on searching, and much, much more.

Feel free to copy the Help file onto the hard drive of each of your own computers, but please do us the courtesy of not sharing it with everyone you know, even the other folks in your office. (Think of the book as having a single-user license. You will find appropriate copyright notices in the Help file.) We've put a tremendous amount of time into this book, and illegal copies deprive us of the income to pay for that time.

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