Hi Mike,
>>>There is nothing "better" about a public property on a public object than a public variable. Making the properties non-public with get/set methods or access/assign is the only thing that would make it better.
>>
>>not disputing the base argument that a global memvar and a globally accessible property can create identical code problems, your statement sounds a bit harsh from my point of view.
>
>I don't think we're disagreeing at all. A completely open property is no better than a public variable unless/until one uses the bindevent, access/assign or get/set to protect a property against code problems. :)

I assumed we were again not far from each other's POV, but the post perhaps could be understood that it makes no difference if you don't use _access or bindevent() right from start. Case in point: one of the features of vfp7 was the sys(3054, nn, lcMemvar).

I tried for some time to get some access method to hook/log the showplan - not possible back then without much redundant code or a SQL-Wrapper class. Having the option to specify a global property there (which can be a global "necessity") would have helped a lot, but was not planned for. So I asked for (and received! MS listened to dev wishes...) another possibility to persisist showplan info via sys().

best regards

thomas