Foxpro 9 spaces w/ ?? in set alternate

[kerichsen]

I am <sometimes> getting extraneous spaces in a file created by set alternate on in Fox 9. I don't get the extra spaces in Fox 6 or dBase IV.

Here's the code:

------------------------------------------------------------
Set ALTERNATE TO foo.txt
Set Alternate ON
m_text="Here is some text"
?m_text
??" on "
??DATE()
??"by "
??alltrim(VERSION())
?"**********************"
?"<@SECTION TITLE:>"
??"COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICTS"
Set Alternate OFF
Set Alternate TO
Modify File FOO.TXT NOWAIT
-----------------------------------------------------------

here's the result:

-----------------------------------------------

Here is some text on 11/30/2005 by Visual FoxPro 09.00.0000.2412 for Windows
**********************
<@SECTION TITLE:> COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICTS 
-------------------------------------------------

Note that in the first line of output, ?? works correctly. In the second, I get extraneous spaces between the ">" (a Pagemaker formatting directive), and "COUNTY". Note also the LF/CR at the start, the trailing spaces after "DISTRICTS" and the odd character (eof mark?) at the end.

Can you offer any guidance on controlling text output in Fox 9?

thanks

 

[JimWWinter]

Haven't done much with this kind of thing, but I'd suggest trying the SET TEXTMERGE approach as opposed to SET ALTERNATE.

Regards,
Jim

 

[Mike Lewis]

kerichsen,

Interesting. I'm seeing the same results as you, both in VFP 7.0 and 9.0. I don't have any earlier versions installed for comparison.

By the way, you're right about the funny square at the end. That would be an ASCII 26, which is an end-of-file marker.

For this kind of output, I agree with Jim that TEXT/ENDTEXT is a better approach. You can do TEXT TO <variable> NOSHOW, and then STRTOFILE() to copy the variable to a text file.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)

 

[kerichsen]

Thanks, you're right, that does work.

Kurt

 

[Dan Freeman]

Mike, I'm definitely not seeing this behavior. What's different in our setups? Language settings?

 

[Mike Lewis]

Dan,

What's different in our setups?

Don't know.

I'm not aware of any language settings in VFP. Presumably we both use the English version of the product.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)

 

[TamarGranor]

I'm seeing extras spaces after the angle bracket, with a total of 6 spaces there.

Looks like it's a function of _SCREEN.FontSize. When I go down from 13 to 10, I get 4 spaces there.

Tamar

 

[Dan Freeman]

I tried _screen.fontzie from 8 to 24 and still don't see any extra spaces.

Note: this is VFP9 RTM I'm trying. The SP beta is not installed on this machine.

 

[Dan Freeman]

That would be _screen.FontSize, of course. Ergh!

 

[kerichsen]

Bingo.

_SCREEN.FontSize=9
_SCREEN.FontName="Courier"

I found that after a point, decreasing the font size made the extraneous spacing worse. So I also wondered if the font might be part of the problem. I tried 9 point because that's what the Fox 9 (SP1 beta) says is the default. The output now is correct and all those pesky extraneous spaces are gone.

Interestingly: set textmerge can capture chr(9) in a .TXT file, but set alternate converts ascii tabs to spaces. Tools | Options |IDE |Indentation is set to "keep tabs" for TXT files.

This has been a nuisance with Fox/dBase from time immemorial.

Kurt

 

[TamarGranor]

Dan, looks like both FontSize and FontName are relevant.

Tamar

 

[Dan Freeman]

I still don't see it. <shrug>