Hi Rob ---

>PMFJI: Actually, as I recall, legend has it that the original genesis of SYS() was a way to put specific functionality into FoxBase without losing dBASE compatibility every time Ashton-Tate decided to screw with the commands and functions behaviour to try to break FoxBase by adding its own definition of a command that Dr. Dave added to FoxBase...

AFAIK, this is more or less true. I seem to recall seeing an explanation years ago that the SYS functions were where Fox-specific stuff would be placed to maintain a general xbase compatibility.