>Ed,
>
>You said making public variables can have all kinds of side effects. What side effects are there?

The obvious ones - since you don't hgave to declare a variable in VFP before using it, you can stomp on an existing global accidentally with no warning. There are some problems with pass by reference when you pass a PUBLIC or PRIVATE varialbe by reference, and then try to use it by its original name in a function or procedure that receives the variable by reference (it hides the PUBLIC/PRIVATE name, since VFP would get extremely confused if two name entries in the active Name table point to the same Value structure.) PUIBLIC variables persist until you explcitly release them, so they can end up being accidentally initialized. In general, except in very rare situations, there's no need for PUBLIC variables if you design your application properly.

In this case, since you need to have the variables visible to methods in a form, the proper scope of the variable is the life of the form object; you can get that easily with properties of a Form. You can further restrict the visibility of form properties to just inside the form instance if you like. Encapsulation avoids most of the accidents that occur because of accidental, unplanned side-effects.