Obsolete Commands, Functions and Other Symbols

Purpose of the Obsolete Section

Anything documented in the obsolete section may or may not be up-to-date with the current revision of DataFlex, with the exception of the first paragraph of each obsolete item, which should point the developer to the replacement of the obsolete item. This is the only purpose for documenting these obsolete items here at all. Obsolete items are also not included in the help index; you can only find them by looking here or by going to the Search tab of the help.

DataFlex History

The DataFlex command language has a long history stretching back to the original procedural DataFlex language that ran on character-mode systems.

Each step of the evolution—from a procedural language to object-oriented; from character mode to Windows 3.1; from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95—brought about new and improved ways of performing certain operations. This necessitated many changes and additions to the command language. The result is that after many iterations, the DataFlex language allowed too many ways of performing the same operation, whereas only one way was appropriate or necessary.

Beginning with DataFlex revision 6.0, the documented DataFlex command set was made simpler, more focused, easier to learn, and easier to use. All the obsolete pieces will eventually be removed from the DataFlex documentation and sample applications.

Each obsolete command, function, and symbol should function as in earlier versions of DataFlex, unless noted that it now works differently. However, you are encouraged not to use them when writing new code.

This section of the Language Reference alphabetically lists the obsolete commands, functions, and symbols.