>Did you have live oApp during edit ? Did you try dangling from _Screen ?
>Some checks with iif, evl or eval ?
>
>I use vcx/scx only when forced to...

Coincidence: after so many months (years?) I created a new form today :). Programmatically. It should have one grid (autosized) and perhaps a button. And the grid starts with no columns, and then I add two... programmatically, via .addObject(), not .addcolumn() because the latter adds a base class column and I may want to use some column of my own, maybe later.

Ah, speaking about setting expressions to be evaluated in the PEM window - perhaps prefixing the expression with an equal sign would work? I know I once solved the problem of how to have a bizobject attached to a container before any of its controls instantiate, by having a "=thisform.oFactory.make('bizBlaBla')" as a property expression. And it worked - the container's oBiz property would be there and go through its .init() before any control on the container was there, so it opened its cursors and the textboxes etc had their controlsources ready.