25 July 1993

This is a very simple VB3 application to demonstrate one way
of handling a dBase table. Probably it could be improved in
many ways, as I've not been working with VB very long!

To run it, you need Visual Basic version 3, Professional 
edition. Install the files into a directory called ADR on the C 
drive. If you install to a different path, you will need to 
change the code in a couple of places accordingly. The directory 
name is important as VB treats the directory name as the 
database container, equivalent to an MDB file in Access.

One point of interest is the implementation of a PACK button
on the form. VB does not support PACK directly. This
routine creates a new table with the same specification
as the existing one, copies the records across, deletes
the old table, and renames the new one to the old name. I've
tried to make the code as generic as possible - I'm aiming
towards a reusable PACK procedure.

The table is in dBASE IV format. Initially I wrote the app using 
FoxPro's format. Very little needs changing to adapt it. 
However, in both cases there is a problem: VB seems to do 
something strange when it recreates the MDX or CDX index file,
which can prevent some other applications from opening it. I
would very much like to know what it causing this.

If you decide to make use of this application, please be warned
that it has not been thoroughly tested, and should be treated as
a "Beta" version.

This software is copyright 1993 Tim Anderson.

All comments etc to me:

Tim Anderson CIS 100023,3154
or freer @ CIX.COMPULINK.CO.UK