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One thing I forgot to investigate; one thing I never thought I'd need to know. Now I do. How do I make a dictionary from an existing TPS SuperFile (or make the appropriate dictionary entries in an existing dictionary)? I am not talking about a situation in which I've lost the dictionary and need to re-create it – shame on me if I don't have a backup nearby! I am talking about a situation in which I inherit a SuperFile but there is not and never has been a dictionary (let's just say my predecessor was a hand coder, and live leave it at that).
Of course, I can locate the file spec in the source files, make a dictionary and manually type in everything I need.
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Right. But I don't think so. If all else fails, perhaps … but only if all else fails.
Clarion, ever since there has been a separate dictionary (i.e., Clarion Database Developer, for DOS), has offered an option to import an existing file into a dictionary. In CDD, importing an existing file into a DCT used to be very easy: File | Import, navigate to the file, select it, bada bing bada boom, all done. In Windows, it is not so straightforward. Clarion now invokes “The Synchronizer.” And I have never mastered the Synchronizer (in other words, it gives me a lot of trouble – I blame it on SoftVelocity not making the prompts self-documenting and actually expecting me to understand something).
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