Two recent threads, "How to make a TEMP file permanent" and how to
"Cut/Paste a column" reminded me of something I discovered by accident a
while ago. I think it's one of things that some of us might say "I didn't
realize that" just as I and others did about the Ctrl-Drag combination in
Reflection.

The TEMP file system is a copy of the PERMANENT file system structure and
offers (to my knowledge) the same functionality. The command syntax is
slightly different in that it usually requires the ,TEMP option.

In other words you can manipulate TEMP files in any of the GROUPS in your
account. This might make life a little easier in some circumstances.

For example, assume there are two groups in the current account, PUB and
WORK.
The command BUILD TESTFILE;TEMP is of course valid and will build a
temporary file in the temporary PUB group.
The command BUILD TESTFILE.WORK;TEMP is also valid and will build a file
with the same name, but in the temporary WORK group.

All commands default to the current group, so a LISTFTEMP which we all do
with no arguments will only list temporary files in the PUB group, a
LISTFTEMP @.WORK, will list the temporary files in the WORK group. It's
similar for all commands e.g.. SAVE TESTFILE.WORK is valid and will save
the file as a permanent file in the WORK group.

You can use RENAME to move temporary files between temporary groups or add
lockwords,
or you can PURGE temporary files in specific temporary groups etc etc etc.

I find COPY a bit tricky because it seems to default to looking at the TEMP
file system first. So if you have a permanent file and a temporary file
with the same name and you issue a COPY on that file, the temporary file is
copied to another temporary file. It really ought to conform with all the
other commands and require a ,TEMP option when manipulating the TEMP file
system.

It's a pity there isn't a GROUP equation command (or is there ??) similar
to the FILE equation command. So GROUP WORK=WORK;TEMP would specify the
temporary file system. It could prove handy for testing directly on a
production system or quickly doing a dummy run without having to set up a
different account with the same group structure. Or how about COPYing or
RESTOREing all files in the permanent file structure to the temporary file
structure and then working with the temporary files ? ...

Apologies if this is common knowledge to most, but I thought I'd pass it on
anyway ... :)

Costas Anastassiades,
Intracom SA
Athens-Greece