get_fldbuf(variable-field-name)

Hi family, I have a problem that cannot be solved by standard 4GL. I am trying to improve upon the FourGen help subsystem in ways that I'd rather not detail right now. The main issue is that I need a uniform way to get the value in the current field at the moment the user presses a function key for field level help. FourGen has already generated the code to save the name of the current field in a "before field" clause. I'd like to use that string - the field name - to call get_fldbuf() and obtain the value currently in that field. This cannot be done in 4GL; get_fldbuf is a built-in function, not a library function. I have experimented with it: This works as documented: let mystring1 = get_fldbuf(customer) This gets a syntax error: let mystring1 = get_fldbuf("customer") This gets a run-time error, presumably because there is no field on the screen named "field_name": let field_name = "customer" let mystring2 = get_fldbuf(field_name) Somehow, I am certain that the internal workings of the 4GL libraries will give me what I want. I am prepared to call undocumented and/or C functions to get what I want here. I don't think I need to worry too much about changes in the release, unless Informix plans a release 7 of 4GL. And maybe it's high-time to document them. I would gleefully write 4GL wrappers for them and rebuild fglgo and fgldb in order to use them. Can anyone tell me what C functions I can call, as well as their calling sequences, that will retrieve the value in a field named in a function? Remember when get_fldbuf() was undocumented? Yuchh! Maybe it's time to release these functions to the general public and canonize them. Thanks for any help on this. -- -- Jake (In pursuit of undomesticated aquatic avians) +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Impeccable Logic: A thought process which successfully | | resists chicken bites | +-----------------------------------------------------------+