In keeping with our commitment to provide you, the user, with support
that will maximize your productivity with the dBASE IV product, we are
continuing our tradition of publishing timely, detailed anomaly and
work-around reports.

The following listing addresses three known anomalies when using dBASE
IV. Use of these techniques will aid you in avoiding anomalies that
have been reported to our Software Support Center.  This report will
be supplemented as new information is received.  There are also two
Usage Tips that users can use in order to avoid further problems or
misunderstanding when using the dBASE IV product.

*******************************************************************

                            ANOMALIES
                                 
MODIFY STRUCTURE will not create .BAK files

Issuing the command MODIFY STRUCTURE (from the Dot Prompt) or Shift-F2
(from the Command Center) while highlighting a database file, allows
modifications to be made to the structure of the .DBF file.  dBASE III PLUS
automatically created a backup file with the extension .BAK that was a copy
of the original .DBF file.  dBASE IV does not create this backup.


WORKAROUND:

In order to preserve data in the case of a mishap or an unsuccessful
modification to the existing structure, use the COPY command to produce a
duplicate, temporary file prior to modifing any .DBF file.

USE .dbf filename
COPY TO temp
MODIFY STRUCTURE

=================================================================

Date type Index key expressions in .NDX files coming from dBASE III
PLUS.

Index files created in dBASE III PLUS and used in dBASE IV may return
the error message "Data type mismatch" during operations such as EDIT,
APPEND or SEEK.  

WORKAROUND:

In the case of .NDX files, simply issue a REINDEX command to recreate
the index file under dBASE IV.  In the case of the .MDX file, if the
database cannot be opened with the updated production .MDX file, the
user will have to delete the .MDX file and create it from scratch. 
However, if the file can be opened in dBASE IV, issue the REINDEX
command.

Also, users may issue a COPY INDEXES <.ndx file list>
TO <.mdx filename> command to update a production .MDX file with the
key expression from a dBASE III PLUS .NDX file.  

=================================================================

LABEL generation errors when DEFAULT is set to A:

Creating or modifying labels with SET DEFAULT TO A, causes generation
errors.  The first error returned during generation of the .LBG code
is "Generation error 34, label.cod @460" and subsequent to that,
"Generation error 161, label.cod @777   Builtin function 325 failed". 

WORKAROUND:

1)   Copy the relevant files to the hard disk, and thereafter,
     MODIFY/CREATE LABEL will not cause generation errors.

2)   Download the updated file LABEL.GEN form the dBASE IV Library and copy
     it over the LABEL.GEN in your dBASE IV directory. 

*****************************************************************

                            USAGE TIPS

.$VM and .$ED dBASE IV temporary files

dBASE IV will create temporary files in the DOS default directory
during each dBASE IV session.  These files are named with a series of
numbers ending with an extension of .$VM or .$ED.  These temporary
files should be deleted by dBASE after a session, but often are not.  They
can be deleted manually after quitting dBASE.  

dBASE IV can be forced to reroute these files to a different location
by using a DOS environmental variable.

For example:
     SET TMP=D:\
          will route the temporary files to a D: RAM disk
     
     SET TMP=C:\DB4TEMPS\
          will route them to a special directory on the hard disk.

This will make it easier to delete these files now that their location on
the hard disk is always known.

Note: A backslash is required as a terminator after all path names. 
Also, a period should not be included in the directory name.

=================================================================

SHARE and FASTOPEN cannot be resident (loaded in memory) during dBASE IV
installation

Attempting to install dBASE IV (especially running under DOS 4.0) when the
DOS SHARE and/or FASTOPEN  utilities have been loaded will hinder
successful installation of the product.  An error such as "Open file
error" may be returned.  With SHARE loaded, the Install routine may
fail to recognize the insertion of System disk # 1 or # 2.  


WORKAROUND:

Remove these Terminate and Stay Resident programs (TSRs)/utilities
from the CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files or temporarily rename these files
and reboot the computer. This will allow the successful installation of the
product.  After completing the installation, these programs can be loaded
as usual through the original CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files.