I am not saying this at all. I have read the documentation carefully, and it states that hidden properies can only be seen within the class definition. But what happens in VFP 5.0 is hidden properties cannot be seen by anyone, not even the class itself.

>What you are effectively saying, therefore, is that not only it is a bug,
>but they have documented the bug as a FEATURE !!!
>
>I always thought it was crazy not to be able to hide properties that
>are only used by the class - glad to see that on this issue I am the one
>who is sane, not Microsoft .... :)
>
>Michel.
>
>=================== Original message follows =======================
>
>>>Actually, Erik, I am not so sure that it is a bug. If it is I'd like to know.
>>
>>It is.
>>
>>>From the documentation a hidden property is hidden from all objects but
>>>the class itself.
>>
>>The code that breaks my class is in the class definition itself, not in a subclass, and not in an instance. Since
>>
>>>It's in the doc. I personally cannot see the point of it since
>>>you cannot "run a class", you always have to create an object based
>>>on it ....
>>
>>The point is to create a 'clean' interface for your object. If some properties and methods are designed to be used only internally by the class itself, they should not be exposed in the instance or subclass' interface. This was the purpose in the design of Protected and hidden properties, but it seems that something was lost along the way, and the functionality is dysfunctionality.