To all:
The solution to the problem is that a TableUpdate must be
issued after each Update in the loop.
The problem appears not only with the SQL Update command but
also wilt SQl Delete etc.
In my case the solution was:

Scan
M_ CODE= temp_curs.Code
Update invhed Set katpel= m_sys WHERE invhed.Code=M_CODE
If ! Tableupdate(0, .T., "INVHED")
* message code
endif
Endscan

In general one must Tableupdate the table each time a record changes
or appended.
This is a major change from VFP7 to VFP8, and it should
have been documented from the very beginnig.
Practically I must review and change a lot in my code in order
to move from 7to8.

Yiorgos


>>>>>With VFP7 it takes less than a second to update the table.
>>>>>With VFP8 it takes more than 3 minutes
>>>>Have you checked out SET TABLEVALIDATE? This might be what's slowing you down.
>>>No. What the SET TABLEVALIDATE has to do with the TABLEUPDATE ?
>>
>>If TABLEVALIDATE is set to 2 or 3, it validates the record count on every insert. I'm wondering if that could be your problem here.
>
>I'd really have trouble believing that any INSERT/APPEND record count check would significantly affect performance.
>After all, an INSERT/APPEND has to update the header's reccount field ANYWAY and the OS has to update the file's size. These, for 99.99999999% of updates, should be in the cache.
>The actual extra instructions to perform the check have gotta amount to virtually nil in the overall scheme of things.
>
>Just the way I see it.