Larry,

>You won't see any difference from the CMD/DOS prompt. To see the "other" name, go to Explorer, select the directoy, right-click and select Properties from the shortcut menu. You should see it next to MS-DOS name.

Got it...you are right about everything...with a small twist further down...

>All systems that support long file names now (except for UNIX based systems because they never had that limitation) also support the 8.3 naming convention for backward compatibility. After awhile, that support will probably be dropped but not in the near future.

Indeed...I sure hope so... *smile*

>On a Novell server, the ~ naming convention wouldn't work because that is not what is supported. When storing file names, the server keeps track of two names: LFN and 8.3 filename. These are associated with one another. In NT/2000, the 8.3 file name is stored with a ~1. The Novell file system stores it without the ~ and it starts at 0 when assigning names that have duplicates.
>
>Just as an experiment, try the following:
>
>cd "YEAR2001_ver02" - you may need to surround the LFN in quotes
>cd YEAR2000 - see where you go with this one

Guess what...I re-created my directories, and because they existed before (at least I assume that is why), their names now ended in a "2" and "3". So Novell must start at ")" and then continue up even when directories are removed (maybe _that_ is something to to with SALVAGE). But you are right. DIRECTORY() in VFP is merely doing its job...returning both the long name and the MSDOS name as valid. Because Novell just ends in a number it was really freaking me out because my "year2000" etc. naming system also ends in a number. But you cleared it all up! Thanks for helping my solve this mystery (well, mystery inside my head anyway... *grin*)

JoeK