Carl,

You can do it in Add Data mode, if you have not added any records in that mode since you opened that mode.

-Ray

Yeah, in Q&A for most operations, you pick the operation and then you go get the records to operate on. For each operation (for the most part) you have to re-retrieve records. In Sesame you retrieve records and then operate on them till you are done with those records. Most operations in Sesame are allowed by mode, even if you have no records. Largely, this is because update mode, extend mode, and add mode are all (really) the same mode / code. We divided them into separate modes visually because Q&A had two of the three and we wanted to maintain that familiarity.

I suppose we could disable commands until there were records to operate on, but I find the "pinball" effect of having commands turning off and on, somewhat mysteriously, disconcerting. Maybe I'll build an experimental version that does something like that and see if people like it.

As an experiment, I did build a version of Sesame that had no modes, merely commands. You started with a blank form, and filled it in. Then you either issued the search command or the add command (or any other of the Sesame commands). Sesame then either searched using the values you filled into the form, or it added that record to the database, depending on which command you issued. Technically, the modes are superflous to the operation of the program.

I can't count the number of records I've seen with search specs typed in them (in both Sesame and Q&A), or the number of times someone has typed in a whole record, only to discover that they were on a search spec  when they hit F10. The modes and F10 aren't so bad - no real harm done. But the modes do get to be problematic with F3.

Quote:


Sesame 2.0 now has an alert dialog if there are no LE selected.