>
>Problem: A form called from a TL form's init cannot be seen unless it is itself a top-level form. A top-level form cannot be modal, and therefore cannot return a result. I could set the form's showwindow property to 'In-Screen', and temporarily show the screen, but this seems kludgy.
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>I am looking for a logical program flow that will get deal with my being forced to choose between "in-screen" and "In top-level form".
>

I have no experience with TL but I wuold try something like this:
add a property called PseudoModal to the form and set it to .t. It will be turned to .f. in, say, the QueryUnload event.
the Deactivate event could contain the following:

  if ThisForm.PseudoModal
    nodefault
  endif

* launch the form as:

  do form MyForm name xMyForm linked

* add something like the following:

  do while type("xMyForm.BaseClass") == "C"
  enddo

... rest of prog

I don't know if it works but at least is linear and clear.
As for the parameter passing, well, we don't want to spread bad habits.

HTH