>The DECLAREs will occur exactly once, when the object is instantiated from the class; if the object is scoped globally to the app (either added to a common VFP object like _SCREEN via ADDOBJECT(), or created as a PUBLIC variable, then you can simply check if the object exists and create it if it doesn't:

This method has one weakness: any CLEAR DLLS as well as any other DECLARE of the same function but with different name/paras/return_value will break it. EVen if it works today with the existing code, nobody can be sure that future code (in-house or third-party) will not break it.

So, DECLARE any dll function where/when it is used. The overhead is minimal. The advantage is, as always, solid code.

Vlad