Stan Sieler writes:

>Thank you.  My point exactly.  As I learned from Steve Cooper in 1978,
>before I even started using MPE!, an application should *ALWAYS* check
>that the database looks the way it expects it to look.
>
>BTW, that's not merely "because DBINFO does not find the item"...it's
>also true if the item type or size changed.

I have worked on several different computers using both hierarchal and 
relational data bases.  I have seen literally thousands of programs 
(written by myself, my co-workers, and third-party vendors) that use 
those data bases.  I have never seen one program that kept track of 
what the data base should look like and then compared it to the current 
data base to see if there was anything amiss.

While I'm sure it is the 100% correct way of doing things, I imagine 
the overhead involved, both in terms of program complexity and maintenance,

would be very daunting.

Jim Phillips                            Manager of Information Systems
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]      Therm-O-Link, Inc.
Phone: (330) 527-2124                   P. O. Box 285
  Fax: (330) 527-2123                   Garrettsville, Ohio  44231