4th D1987 Programmers Reference

Acius 4th DimensionTM Programmer's Reference 4th Dimension by Laurent Ribardiere Copyright © 1987 Acius, Inc . even if advised of the possibility All rights reserved . of such damages . In particular, Acius shall have no liability for This manual was written by any applications developed Dominique Hermsdorff, Will with, or data stored in or used Mayall, Bruce Barrett, and Bill with, 4th Dimension, including Kling . the costs of recovering such Cover design by Patrick Chedal programs or data. C&C . Apple, AppleShare, AppleTalk, This manual and the software ImageWriter, LaserWriter, described in it may not be MacDraw, Macintosh, and copied, in whole or in part, MacPaint are trademarks of without written consent of Apple Computer, Inc. Acius, Inc., except in the normal use of the software or to make a backup copy . It is against the law to copy 4th Dimension on magnetic tape, disk, or any other medium for any purpose other than the purchaser's personal use . Even though Acius has tested and reviewed the software and documentation, ACIDS MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO SOFT- WARE, ITS QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, MERCHANT- ABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. AS A RESULT, THIS SOFTWARE IS SOLD "AS IS," AND YOU THE PURCHASER ARE ASSUMING THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO ITS QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE . IN NO EVENT WILL ACIDS BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ANY DEFECT IN THE SOFTWARE OR ITS DOCUMENTATION, Contents Figures and tables ix Preface xiii Manual overview xiii Aids to understanding xiv Vocabulary xiv Chapter 1 Overview 1 Tools 2 Database structures 3 Layouts 3 Layout procedures and file procedures 3 Procedures and functions 4 Programming language 4 Menus 4 Passwords 4 Environments 5 Design environment 5 User environment 5 Custom environment 5 Syntactic definitions 6 Chapter 2 Programming 7 Types, constants, and variables 8 Data types 8 Constants 9 Variables 9 Identifiers 10 Filenames 10 Layout names 10 Field names 11 Subfields 11 Variables 12 Sets 12 Procedures and functions 13 Constants 13 Operators 14 Numeric expression operators 14 …