Command Families

This page groups command families that are easy to miss in the alphabetical catalog. The catalog remains the row-level reference; this page records the documentation lanes.

Tables, Lists, and Browsers

Table inspection and browsing are a family, not one command:

Surface	Current role
`SMARTLIST` / `SL`	Filter-aware, order-aware table listing with projections, tuple output, deleted-record modes, and predicate filtering.
`SMARTBROWSE` / `SM` / `SMART`	Smart browser surface over table/tuple/workspace data.
`SIMPLEBROWSE` / `SB`	Simple browser surface; current shortcut resolver maps `SB` to `SIMPLEBROWSE`.
`BROWSE`	Legacy/global browse entrypoint forwarded to the refactored browse module.
`BROWSER`	Minimal interactive browser with list, display, goto, edit, help, and quit actions.
`BROWSETUI` / `BT`	Text-mode browser UI that delegates table operations to command handlers.
`BROWSETV`	Turbo Vision browser lane where enabled.
`RBROWSE` / `ERSATZ`	Relation-aware browsing.
`TABLE`, `TABLE_BUFFER`, `TABLEMETA`	Table buffering, stale/dirty state, and metadata diagnostics.

Use SMARTBROWSE, SM, SMART, SIMPLEBROWSE, SB, and SMARTLIST for the current smart/list/browser surfaces.

Data Mutators

REPLACE, CALC, CALCWRITE, and MULTIREP/REPLACE_MULTI are the mutation-sensitive command family. They deserve separate treatment from ordinary scalar functions and report commands.

Command	Documentation boundary
`CALC`	Read-only when evaluating an expression; mutating only when assignment targets a real field and delegates to `CALCWRITE`.
`CALCWRITE`	Expression-backed single-field mutation; honors TABLE buffering when enabled and direct write/index maintenance when disabled.
`REPLACE`	Single-field mutation; honors TABLE buffering when enabled and direct write/index maintenance when disabled.
`MULTIREP` / `REPLACE_MULTI`	Multi-field direct-write path; validates all assignments, uses one record lock and one physical write, and does not currently participate in TABLE buffer dirty state.

See Data Mutators for buffered/unbuffered behavior, stale/dirty state, memo mutation, scalar evaluation, and index-maintenance boundaries.

DDL and Schema

DDL is the schema-oriented command family:

DDL FETCH <url> TO <file>
DDL VALIDATE <schema.json> USING <validator.json>
DDL CREATE DBF <out.dbf> FROM <schema.json>
DDL CREATE DBF <out.dbf> FROM <schema.json> EMIT SIDECARS
DDL CREATE DBF <out.dbf> FROM <schema.json> SEED CSV <path.csv>
DDL CREATE DBF <out.dbf> FROM <schema.json> SEED BLANK <n>

Current contract notes: FETCH can perform network access and write schema-side files; CREATE DBF writes DBF output and optional sidecars; existing output is refused unless OVERWRITE is supplied; SEED CSV is recognized by the contract but not complete in the current drop-in.

Data Dictionary

DDICT is the active Data Dictionary inspection surface:

DDICT STATUS
DDICT TABLES
DDICT FIELDS <table-or-alias>
DDICT TAGS <table-or-alias>
DDICT REL <object> [IN|OUT|BOTH]
DDICT EVIDENCE <object>

The current source contract is read-only. It preserves DD* aliases such as DDOBJECT, DDATTR, DDEDGE, and DDEVID, while resolving authoritative DATA_DICTIONARY_* names.

External App and Network Boundaries

These commands cross the runtime boundary and need explicit risk notes:

Command	Boundary
`EDIT` / `TEXT`	Launch or use configured editor behavior.
`IMAGE`	Reads image metadata; `IMAGE <file>` opens the OS image viewer on Windows.
`WEB`	Opens URLs, performs HTTP `GET`/`HEAD`, or writes fetched content to a file.
`SFTP`	Remote file-transfer lane.
`PSHELL`, `!`, `BANG`	Host shell / external command lane.
`ZIP`	Archive read/write/extract lane through the configured backend.

Documentation must separate external-process, network, viewer/browser launch, and filesystem-write risks from database mutation.

SelfDoc, Help, Maintenance, and Manuals

Command	Role
`HELP`	Routes user help across command, function, FoxPro, PowerShell, SQL, beta, predicate, and education surfaces.
`CMDHELP`	Builds or reports HELP DATA catalogs; `CMDHELP BUILD` mutates HELP DATA DBFs.
`CMDHELPCHK`	Validates HELP/catalog/reflection artifacts; default behavior is report-only.
`MAINT`	Read-only maintenance inspector for lanes, cookbooks, contracts, boundaries, and docs.
`BBOX`	Teaches the Blackbox model and contract lane relationships.
`MANUAL`	Read-only inspector for accepted MAN* manualgen catalog evidence.
`MANSTAR`	Manualgen/publication support lane.
`DRAWIO`	Diagram generation/export lane.

The repeatable curation path is:

source behavior
-> @dottalk.usage / @dottalk.contract / source comments
-> comments and SRC* evidence
-> HELP DATA and CMDHELP
-> CMDHELPCHK validation
-> SelfDoc reports and manualgen artifacts
-> reviewed manual section
-> website derivative

Education and LabTalk

LabTalk should expose education commands as runnable labs: ASCII, BBOX, RETRO, STUDENTHELLO, SHELLO, STUDENTECHO, SECHO, IDX, BOOLEAN, CASE, CHRISTMAS, COBOL, CODASYL, NORMALIZE, and SIX.

These should be proof-labeled and connected to transcripts, HELP/CMDHELP output, and SelfDoc evidence when promoted into curriculum.