>PMFJI....I think "most" of the time, PUBLIC/Global variables aren't necessary.
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>But I'd stop short of saying 100% of the time.
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>I don't think they were necessary in the example where Mike Y provided a nice clean solution - but instances where you have scalar values that need to be visible across the entire app are served by a global setting (e.g. Company Name, current user signed on, etc.) In most .NET apps I had a global class of properties for such values.
>
>Just my 2 cents

I advise people to assume/pretend that public variables are a bad idea 100% of the time, so they will find alternatives. Way too often they are the first solution and are abused by Rick's so-called experienced developers. What is experienced? Is a guy who sells a piece of software to hundreds of stores experienced? Not in my experience.