>Bob,
>
>could you give me a brief explanation of early vs late binding with perhaps a "practical example"? Thanks!
>Ken
>

I don't really undertand it all that much myself... but I belive it has to do with COM and the IDispatch interface.

My understanding...

Early binding means that a COM client can get information about an object without actually instantiating it.

Late binding means that we must wait untiil we have instantiated an object before we know what it's exposed interface is. This is why you get the LBR file, so a VFP6 COM server can expose it's interface to a COM client, before the COM client instantiates it.

*************

Perhaps Randy Brown, or Ken Levy or Rick Strahl can jump in and clarify/correct this.

So, I guess Robert Green was saying, to provide that list of drop downs, VFP must 'early bind' to the object to get it's interface to put in the drop down. Well, when it comes to VFP classes, this seems simple enough, since we don't actually need to bind to the object, vfp can know what the methods and properties are... Ken Levy does this with his SuperClass Intelesense clone.

I guess the problem comes in when you want intelesense for a COM of activeX control. When you want to use a COM object in VB, you have to add it to your project... My guess is VB instantiates it in Design time, or at least 'early binds' to it to get the interface.

In VFP when you do:

oX = creatobject('MyServer.ThisClass')

Vfp doesn't bind to it, or require that you locate or add it to your project, so it's interface isn't avilable. This doesn't mean that it is not doable... since VFP can get info about COM and ActiveX controls.

BOb