>>I'm confused - why not just use the SET PROCEDURE command? Like SET PROCEDURE TO MAIN.PRG ???
>
>a SET PROCEDURE sets up the references to any UDFs and procedures defined in MAIN, but doesn't create and assign the PUBLICs, nor does it handle anything like SET DEFAULTs or SET PATHs or other environmental settings. Yes, you could do a DO MAIN -- but that could also trigger stuff like changes to the system menu as well -- which is likely to be a pain if you're trying to use the development environment.. That's why I'm suggesting a "stub" program that sets up the environment -- which could include any publics that may be assumed to be declared in the form code. Yes, it's bad form to have that in the form code, but if you're starting out with form code that was already made, you can't do much about it without having to recode (which is likely to make the update more involved).

Or just move that stuff into a procedure inside main, and have the startup code run that (do setup in main.prg) instead of going linearly through all that.

And in the .load() of a form, on the first line,

if vartype(someGlobalVar)="U"
   do setup in main.prg
endif

Note that I said .load(), because .init() may be too late - some tables may not be found (as it seems to be happening) etc etc.