>Hi All. Can anyone explain the logic that RECNO() should return a value of 1 when a file has no records? VFP8/SP1. Its in the docs but why? Surely RECNO() should return 0 if there are no records?

That's the way it works since the beginnig of the time. :)
FoxPro always kind of "adds" one blank record at the end of the table.

CREATE CURSOR test (cc C(2))
? RECCOUNT(), RECNO()   && 0 1
APPEND BLANK
SKIP
? RECCOUNT(), RECNO()   && 1 2