without knowing your experience, i dont want to come
across condescending, but most compilers parse the ( as
the NEXT word. therefore, decision on TIME will have
already been made and processed before getting to the
(. this certainly seems to be what is happening in
foxpro (and has since at least 2.0 (i dont have foxbase
online any more)).

that is why the ... timeout(5)-- which is not syntactly
correct does not work. what does surprise me is that
it does not give at least a warning that it isnt correct.

but then, m$ is paying ME a lot these days... lol.