Changes in the SYS(0) Function in Visual FoxPro

SUMMARY

In earlier versions of FoxPro, the SYS(0) function returned a name from the network such as the UserName from Novell. Many developers used this function to determine the login of the user, to keep track of who had which files open, and so on.

In Visual FoxPro, the SYS(0) function does not look to the network. It may return all pound signs or it may return an unexpected name, depending on how Windows is set up.

In Visual FoxPro 3.0, SYS(0) returns information from the Windows configuration files. In Windows for Workgroups, it returns the ComputerName and UserName from the [Network] section of the System.ini file. In Windows 95, it returns the ComputerName and what seems to be the first login name from the Registry. (In other words, if you logged into two different servers with two different login IDs, Sys(0) would only return the first one.)

This behavior is by design, in order to make the function more compatible with a larger number of networks.