PERFORM with text BLOBS?

PERFORM used with an OnLine database allows users the option of "View"ing text BLOB fields as a READ-ONLY access to the fields' entries. PERFORM seems to have no way of interacting with the selected text editor (vi in our case) to alert the user that the "View" mode is READ-ONLY and that changes/entries to the text BLOB will not be saved when the user exits the field. We have had frustrated users enter large chunks of text into a BLOB field and expect to see them saved when they exited the field only to sadly learn that they were NOT in an "Add" or "Update" mode but, in fact, had started the entry while in the "View" mode.....the entered changes are NOT saved nor is there any user feedback about the pending disaster! Has anyone developed a method to deal with this frustration? Is there some PERFORM configuration available that would tag "View"ed text BLOBS as READ-ONLY so that if you tried to execute ":wq" in vi you, at least, would get a message saying that you couldn't write to the file. Thanks for any advice/help/sympathy! Jim -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=#=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Jim Kistler - kistler@an.hp.com # "Organizing is what you do before Hewlett-Packard Co. Imaging Systems # you do something, so that when you 3000 Minuteman Road, Andover, MA 01810 # do it, it is not all mixed up." TEL: 508-659-2251 - FAX: 508-687-7265 # A. A. Milne -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=#=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-