Hi,

I'm a VFP programmer for 10 years now and trying to get my head around Alpha5. Any pointers and help is greatly appreciated in translating between these languages...

1. Are the A5 .dbf tables secure and protected from changes by users connecting to it via an odbc driver outside the A5 environment like Excel? Could this type of access screw up relations, indexes and/or other things?

2. What A5 code would I need to do the following:
a. test if a table is open,
vfp code: if used("Products")

b. open the products table,
vfp code: use "Products" in 0 shared (or exclusive)

c. set the order by using an index,
vfp code: set order to "ItemNum"

d. set a filter condition,
vfp code: set filter to Item_Num >= "25412"

e. browse the table,
vfp code: browse

f. create an index on Item_Num with a name of ItemNum,
vfp code: index on Item_Num tag ItemNum

g. go to a record number 514,
vfp code: go 514

h. resize all the columns on a grid to fit the widest values for each column in the browse form programatically and/or via the ui,
vfp code: Thisform.grdProducts.AutoFit()

i. find the type of a variable and/or field,
vfp code: type(fieldname/variable name)

j. More later....

3. How do I use a variable in a program/function like this:
aa = date()
?dtoc(aa)
(this errors out in the interactive window)

4. Does the term "open exclusive or shared" mean anything to A5?

5. How do I see the entire contents of a memo field on a browse?

6. What other Foreign languages are supported?

7. More later...

Thanks,
Stanley