In a different thread Mark Derail made a comment. Since it's not really germane to the original topic, I took my question to a new thread.

Isn't the only 'bad' thing about DBF's is record addition, which can be compensated with
creating millions of records ahead of time and doing record recycling?

I'm looking for more detail on exactly what this means. For example

INSERT INTO table FROM MEMVAR

should be avoided in favor of preloading a large number of empty records and then

SELECT table
LOCATE FOR available for adding
GATHER MEMVAR MEMO (or some equivalent like GATHER NAME)

All instruction gratefully appreciated............Rich