Since the advent of VFP, most people control the state of their forms through a custom form property. For example, we may have a form property called EditState with valid values of 0(idle),1(editing),2(appending).

So, typically, in the Click() method of an Edit button on a form, you may have similar to the following (but probably more complicated):

THISFORM.EditState=1             
THISFORM.SetAll("Enabled",.T.)   
THISFORM.Refresh()

With VFP6, there is a much simpler way to do this. With the new ASSIGN method, you can add an _Assign to any property, custom or native. So...we would create an EditState_Assign method for our form, with the following code (THIS not THISFORM as its a form method):

LPARAMETERS tNewVal
THIS.EditState=tNewVal
THIS.SetAll("Enabled",.T.)
THIS.Refresh()

The Edit button Click() method is reduced to nothing but THISFORM.EditState=1. The EditState_Assign method automatically does the rest, encapsulating the behavior of a state change at the level it belongs.

TTFN!