DBASE II EDITING TIPS
by Beverly Howard, Kaypro Austin Club, May 1987

(Using an external editor with dBASE II)

When trying to write, edit and test dBase programs with your
favorite word processor, the time losses due to typing in all of
the commands exiting and entering almost (I said almost) make it
worthwhile using the primitive "MODIFY COMMAND" editor.  The
dBase command "QUIT TO" can make exiting to edit easy.  the
following tips assume that you are working on a program named
"TEST.CMD" and your word processor is named "PW.COM".  First
create and run a program named "WORK.CMD" containing the
following lines.

STORE "QUIT TO 'A:PW B:TEST.CMD','DBASE WORK'" TO QT DO TEST

When you need to edit the program, type "&QT <CR>" at the dot
prompt and dBase will terminate and call up PW.COM on drive A
editing "B:TEST.CMD".  After you have finished editing and quit
PW.COM, the command "DBASE WORK <CR>" will automatically be
executed and "WORK.CMD" will store the "QT" command and start
"TEST.CMD".  If you are really in a hurry, you could add the
"QUIT TO" command to the end of "WORK.CMD" which would insert you
back in PW.COM editing "TEST.CMD" immediately after "TEST" ends.

Having a "WORK.CMD" program is a good idea in any case as you can
store variables, set the date and drive, call .DBF files, run
programs and do any other housekeeping you normally do when you
start dBase.  The "QUIT TO" command can be added to the end of
your normal "WORK.CMD" file as needs dictate.
