>David,

>Any contained object can use the services it's container supplies. For example from a method I can call this.parent.SomeMethod() the parent container can process the request, maybe even pass the message on to it's .parent. This does mean that the object in question can only be put into some container that has a SomeMethod method. This may or may not be a serious design issue for you.

Yes, I understand all of this very well now. The bottom line is I have to do a little more work. The great power of inheritance is that you change something at the top and everything trickles down magically. Unfortunately, since you cannot get inside of VFP's native baseclasses, you must first create your own set of parent classes which you then can use to distribute behavior to subsequent subclasses you design. This, in the immortal words of Maynard G. Krebs, is WORK !!!

>Have you read the article over at Stonefield.com?

No, but several people have suggested it to me and I certainly will read it before proceeding further on this part of my project.

Thanks