Yes, Clipper was written in C and easily extensible to C routines and I did a couple of C courses way back then and we had Ultrix on the Vax at Uni. It's a pity I was shunted away from it really. I think you might be right. C# could perhaps suit me fine.

 Thanks for your advice, your code and your links. I'll use them all.

 regards,

 ab :)