Hiya David ---

One of my goals in starting this thread was to re-examine theory versus what we do day-to-day in VFP. Specifically, I was trying to test the validity of a new design pattern I had worked out that relied on Access/Assign. To my surprise, I have found that direct query of a property is counter to basic OOP theory but almost every language has the constructs to do so.

That may sound trivial but I don't believe it is. If we follow pure OOP as defined by Jacobson, we're gonna get klunky apps because VFP relies on a lot of abstract messaging and interaction which would be an SOB to avoid.

The damn thing is that we're not alone with this dilemma. The other VS tools (especially VB) make compromises. Shoot, MS COM theory is a compromise as it doesn't require inheritance and inheritance is a requirement for OOP.

Maybe we need new Bibles......books on practical OOP for VFP and other VS languages that accept those trade-offs and use them, rather than avoid them. Something that delves deeper into the issue than just a tired old redefinition of inheritance or polymorphism. Something that goes beyond frameworks.