Let me put a further wrinkle on the problem. This is a little different than the original problem.If I write code such as:
'Insert into mytable from memvar' on the assumption that mytable is an alias that is open when it actually is not open,(in other words, a table by that name does not actually exist) THEN the user is trapped in an open table dialog that can never open the right table. The only escape is ctrl+alt+delete many times. I did not mean to do this but in maniuplation about 150 tables in an update, it did happen and each time (after the conversion had run for several minutes) I had to go thru a lengthy process to recover. I wish I was better at writing code but sometimes the truth is not evident even when you are staring at it.