>>I believe that the DataEnvironment is too closely tied to Forms/Reports. What
>>I'd like to see is an independent DE that could be manipulated without the need
>>for either a Form or Report. It would especially helpful in developing forms
>>that would be more re-usable than they are now.
>
>I think we already have that now, if you do it in code: you can create a DE class object and instantiate it in the Form.Load or the Report.DE.BeforeOpenTables....

Garrett,

I realize that in some ways we can manipulate the DE, and even subclass it. There are a couple of short comings with this, however.

From what I understand, allowing FoxPro to open the tables (as opposed to writing the code yourself) is faster. If you subclass the DE, you've got to write this code (which means there's more to maintain), plus you lose the speed advantage. Further, I did some tests in which I set .AutoOpenTables to .F. only to find that the compile file size grew, even though the code to open the tables was included in both compiles.

Another reason would be that you have a couple of tables which are used in a form and also to generate a report. Again, you have two indentical DEs. If you need to make a change in one, you've got to remember to change the other, rather than changing it in one place. Admittedly, this isn't that big a deal.

By being able to seperate it from the form/report, these disadvantages would be overcome.

Thanks for the input.