>>>Thank you so much for your input. I will probably follow your suggestion (unless someone gives me a compelling reason otherwise). The only reason, I thought, for using a separate number in the configuration file is that it would be "easier" to guess the actual color by looking at the number. Instead of looking at the total number derived from the RGB() function.
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>>You can always design a grid for your metadata, with the color column's .dynamicbackcolor="metatable.bkcolorfield" (i.e. same as controlsource... even .dynamicbackcolor=this.controlsource should work) and you'd see it in its own color. Or you could specify some way to display it in hex.
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>I do that. What I said, or what I meant to say, is I thought I would guess the color simply by looking at the raw data in the configuration file (while opening it in the command box using USE command).

browse field bkColor, hx=transform(bkColor, "@0")