Seems there was no compile error in vfp6, but vfp9 generated one.
I have 2 more similar issues.
Below, vfp6 does not generate errors while vfp9 does;
SCATTER MEMO MEMVAR NAME lcchanged FIELDS fcfield, fmoldval, fmnewval
DIMENSION astack[1, 5]
astack[1] = .NULL.