>Now you see, I even deplore the use of ! for NOT. Saves 2 keystokes (but with the added nuisance of having to shift) - big deal! It's less readable. But Scan-endscan doesn't need the select and skip business cos its name IMPLIES it's SCANNING the table - so far more readable

In the same way, Select("myalias") implies the workarea or zero (i.e. next available workarea) if not used("myalias"). The USE... IN {WA} likewise implies that the table won't necessarily (but may accidentally) be opened in the current workarea - because we're specifying one.

Now, any programmer worth his pay knows these implications when he sees them, doesn't (s)he? ;)