>thank you naomi - unfortunately this still gets the pesky property is read-only message.
>LOCAL oFrm
>
>oFrm= createOBJECT("classrooms")
>oFrm.Top = 24
>oFrm.Left =400
>oFrm.Height = 373
>oFrm.Width = 500
>oFrm.showWindow = 2

Did you read help on ShowWindow - it says there that this property is read-only in run-time. Why you're not designing your form visually? You need to set its property in the Property Sheet.