• FoxTalk
• Microsoft Knowledge Base
• Visual FoxPro Help
• FoxForumWiki
• Usenet Newsgroups
• Universal Thread
• Notes About Sources
• Further Plans for This Page

Notes About MSDN Links

Many of the articles listed above may be available both online and on your local copy of MSDN, if it's installed on your machine.  (Links to articles on the web, if available, are attached to the article titles in the first column.)  The MSDN links have been set up to work with my machine's installation of MSDN (10/99) and the separate help update for VFP 6 SP3.  You will almost certainly have to adjust these links to work properly on your own setup, because my CD uses drive letter G: and my installation directories are non-standard.  All of these MSDN links refer to either VFP Help pages installed on my hard drive, or articles found primarily on CD # 3 of the October 1999 version of MSDN Library.

Notes About FoxTalk Articles

Only the first FoxTalk article is publicly accessible on Pinnacle's web site (and it's also in MSDN).  The others require a subscription to Pinnacle Publishing Online.  (I have the printed FoxTalk versions.)

Notes About MS KB Articles

Dates shown in the second column indicate the last review date of the most recent version that I have seen, which won't reflect any more recent updates made by Microsoft since I last checked.  The Microsoft Knowledge Base Search page is at http://search.support.microsoft.com/kb/c.asp.  I last checked all of the above listed MS KB article review dates on 10/4/00.

Notes About VFP Help Topics

Articles that make reference to SP3 in the title are from a separate help file that came with that update.  The rest are from the main VFP6 help file.  Go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/devprods/vs6/vfoxpro/foxhelp/vfpstartpage.htm to see the Visual FoxPro Start Page, or use this link to go directly to the start of the A-Z Language Reference for VFP in the MSDN Online Library.

Notes About FoxForumWiki Topics

The FoxForumWiki home page is at http://fox.wikis.com.  Note that there is an accompanying threaded discussion forum at http://www.foxforum.com, but this can only be accessed by registered users (free).  Date Last Updated for listed topics are as of my last review, which was on 12/16/00.

Notes About Usenet Newsgroup Messages

The links in the Subject and Newsgroup column point to web pages provided courtesy of www.deja.com, aka Deja News.  When you go to one of the Deja message pages, click on the "Thread" link to see an outline of the rest of the thread for that message.  (Deja also includes a handy outline of the thread at the bottom of the page, but this feature seems to be screwed up for older messages.)  I used Deja's Power Search against the keywords "Error Handling" (omitting quotes, i.e. the logical and-ing of "Error" and "Handling").  The "Deja Classic" format in threaded organization seems to work best for wading through large searches.  (You can change my links to display in Deja Classic format by inserting "=dnc/" after "http://www.deja.com/" in the URL.)  I reviewed the results of this search on 12/17/00 and culled out a handful of noteworthy threads from a total of 354 hits.  It should be noted that my selection does not include the most prevalent cases, which go something like this:

Question: "I don't understand ... about VFP error handling.  What's the story?"
Answer: "See Doug Hennig's excellent article on the subject."

Notes About Universal Thread Messages

These links will only work if you use a browser window that has been logged on to the Universal Thread, which requires you to be a registered user (free).  Note that UT provides some very handy links at the bottom of the page, which allow you to quickly see a Map or View the Entire Thread all at once.  You can use this link to go to an unframed UT Search Form, which I find useful.  On 12/18/00 I did a search of the last 4 periods (about 2 years' worth), displaying only the top-level message titles for threads containing the exact phrase "error handling"; this yielded 194 hits.  I'm still in the process of reviewing these threads.

This article is still in a preliminary, skeletal form.  Planned changes include:

• add comments about selected articles and references
  Besides highlighting noteworthy points, try to save the reader the trouble of following links that are likely to be uninteresting in most cases.
• include additional sources of VFP-related information
  e.g. from Virtual FoxPro User Group (VFUG), etc.  Each major source would go under a new sub-section.
• maintain the corresponding outline in table of contents page(s)
  (This is accomplished via a FrontPage "include" page, in order to support both framed and unframed versions with minimal redundancy.)  Note that the outline also provides a categorized organization of these references.
• periodically update the dates when articles were last reviewed/updated
  (See my most recent date of review under Notes for applicable sections, MS KB Articles and Wiki References.)
• additions to VFP Help topics
  Include entries for the following VFP commands: ASSERT, MESSAGEBOX( ), ON SHUTDOWN, RETURN, SET COMPATIBLE, SET DEBUG, SET ECHO, SET STEP, CLEAR EVENTS.  (Note that debugging is intimately related to error handling.)
• cite additional MS KB articles
  It's hard to know where to draw the line on this, but broaden coverage to include more specific VFP bugs and problems of general interest (or of particular interest to me).  I'm not trying to build a comprehensive list of VFP bugs here; my intention is to focus is on problems related to VFP error handling in general.  Note that KB articles are also categorized in the outline that appears in the table of contents page.  Here's a tentative list of additions currently planned for the list of relevant MS KB articles:
  • Q94811: Common Causes of "Feature Not Available" Error
  • Q98920: PRB: SET REPROCESS and ON ERROR Routines; "Attempting to Lock"
  • Q119900: Understanding the RETURN Command
  • Q121685: BUG: RETURN TO <Filename>.SPR Does Not Work in .APPs or .EXEs
  • Q124720: BUG: "File Is In Use" Error When Opening an Encrypted Table
  • Q129711: How to Clean Up the Visual FoxPro Environment
  • Q130131: PRB: ON ERROR Not Called When Trigger Fails in Browse or Grid
  • Q132680: PRB: Hiding a Modal Form Removes Its Modal Attribute
  • Q134309: PRB: Timer Event Does Not Fire If Timer Object Is on a Toolbar
  • Q134891: BUG: DEFINE POPUP PROMPT Can Cause Visual FoxPro to Quit
  • Q138107: PRB: Standard Toolbar Visible in .Exe
  • Q138398: PRB: RELEASE May Not Remove OLE Objects from Memory
  • Q145693: PRB: _ED Functions in Toolbar Causes Fatal Error
  • Q156322: FIX: RETURN TO Procedurename Command Doesn’t Work in Forms
  • Q170126: PRB: Using the SelPrint Method of the Rich Text Control
  • Q170148: PRB: Cannot Trap Error Number 1884 on Form
  • Q170917: PRB: "Error 1709" When Several Users Are Using the Same Database
  • Q172455: SAMPLE: Exitfox.exe Overcomes "Cannot Quit Visual FoxPro" Error
  • Q175613: PRB: Combo Box ItemTips Prevents Selection and DisplayValue
  • Q177143: PRB: "Error Writing to File" Error Using a Table on a CD-ROM
  • Q180495: BUG: Pages of PageFrame Created with AddObject Method Invisible
  • Q180497: PRB: Formset with Modal Windows Containing OCX Hangs VFP
  • Q181390: PRB: Grid with Focus Ignores Alias of Second Form
  • Q182249: BUG: CHRTRAN, CHRTRANC(), and FULLPATH() May Cause GPF Errors
  • Q182573: PRB: Illegal Operation Err Using Richtext Control with Find
  • Q183296: BUG: SETALL() Corrupts Properties of Custom Objects
  • Q183522: PRB: Divide by Zero Creates Err with Third-Party Print Drivers
  • Q184218: SAMPLE: Formexit.exe EXIT Command May Leave Form Object Visible
  • Q184969: PRB: SET COMPATIBLE ON Causes Problems with Arrays
  • Q185084: PRB: Visible Property of Container Ignored by ActiveX Controls

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