G'day  all,

Jonathan wrote:

   I define a record...
   DIM RECORD testRec
    DIM testFirstEntry%
    DIM testSecondEntry&
    DIM 25 testThirdEntry$
   DIM END RECORD.testRec

   Then I use ( 3*_testRec + _testThirdEntry) type constructions
   the put and get the info in the handle. This seems as intuitive
   as I need. I'm not saying XREFs is not good, just that they
   seem to create confusion (would they be a hangover from a
   time when there was no support for handles and pointers in FB?)
   and thus I have never perceived that the gain I could obtain
   from using them would exceed the investment in time and grey
   matter to grok and debug the little thingies (This is of course
   a reflection on the bad quality of my grey matter, not on XREF,
   but my point was that if others have similar 'conceptual' problems
   with XREF, there are other techniques...)


When set up it is much easier to access record arrays than you are
doing, just set as shown below:

_maxRecs = 100 'just for demo, can be any amount.
DIM gtestRecH&  'setup the handle for the array of records

XREF@ gtestRecH.testRec(_maxRecs*_testRec) 'can be any value, I usually
                                              'setup just one record,
then add other records
                                              'as needed with
SETHANDLESIZE.

'setup fake data for demo purposes
FOR d% = 0 to _maxRecs-1
  gtestRecH.testFirstEntry%(d%) = d%
  gtestRecH.testSecondEntry& = d%
  gtestRecH.testThirdEntry$ = LEFT$(STR$(d%),24))
NEXT

Just use similar methods to access the array data. I also keep a track
of how many data elements I have
& what I am operating at the moment. Makes for easy display of a data
record, anywhere in the array.

To increase(/decrease) the array just use the following method:

maxRec& = maxRec&+1        'increase num of records
currRec& = maxRec&             'set pointer records to newest
bytes& = maxRec&*_testRec 'set new amont of bytes for array of records
oserr% = FM SETHANDLESIZE(gtestRecH&, bytes&)

I hope this help your understanding of XREF@

Regards,

Chris Wyatt, in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.