>>The real question here is WHY cant he not get exclusive use of the table - and this can be narrowed down pretty easily if that becomes the focus here.
But if the selected worked area isn't exclusive or is empty then PACK would throw an error.
Unless ON ERROR RESUME or similar is involved... or unless isexclusive()=.t.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1