Hi Kamal,

>Lets wait till VFP7. This could be asked for and is a very valuable functionality for any developers.
>
Agreed. I personally think that as the backend becomes more complex as to type, etc., this type of abstraction will become increasingly needed.

>Infact it is very difficult for beginners to get the concept of the DE being as a class in itself. It is true that the DE is not documented well. The help just displays the Events and Properties and they have not changed the help in VFP6 either. Not that we would expect them <g> but a white paper on it would be very helpful to developers.

It's disappointing to note that this hasn't (as yet) been corrected in 6.0. Maybe in the final release, but I wouldn't expect it.

It's comforting to know that my feelings in regard to the DE are shared by others (especially by a member of a firm as respected as yours).

Final thought, I've always thought that having the DE as a member (technically) of the form was backwards. When I see "member" I tend to think in terms of "child" for the DE and "parent" for the form. I think of the data using the form to display itself and get input. It just seems that the way it is, the form uses the data. If we really encapsulated the data, then everything it need to manage itself (load, save changes, etc.) would be with the data, and the form would merely be an I/O device. Granted some of this functionality is already present, much of it isn't.

Thanks for for input.