>I recently started using VPM, and was surprised that they don't implement an edit mode by default, they recently added some functionality to do so, but it's not fully supported, in their documentation they say that having forms always in edit mode was a more common practice since VFP came along.
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>I've always used an edit mode, and prefered it, because it's harder to mess things up this way, so I was surprised to hear that this was an "uncommon" practice ... what do you all think?, do you use an edit mode?

My base DataEntry form has a property called AutoEdit. Setting this value to .T. leaves all databound controls editable on form startup. All baseclass databound controls have code in their InteractiveChange events that calls THISFORM.DBFieldChange(). DBFieldChange sets the form into edit mode, enables/disables undo buttons, etc. Setting AutoEdit .F. causes all databound controls to be readonly on form startup and shows the form's edit button, which only has code to put the form in editmode.

This has NOT been difficult to use or maintain, I just have to remember to put a DODEFAULT() in a control's InteractiveChange if I want to put instance code there. But since I built the framework, it's not hard for me to remember.

So I have the best of both worlds, because different clients demand different behavior. FWIW, most of my clients request to have to click the edit buttons to change a value.