Jim,

PMFJI, but I think the point that Ken was making with his PUBLIC oApp, is that he's doing it for pretty much the same you reason that you do it (conditionally based on your dev mode variable) ... only so that he can access it from the command window in dev mode when the app is suspended. The only difference is that he's not putting in the extra code to make it conditionally PUBLIC or not, as you are. He didn't see any reason to jump thru the extra hoops.

~Bonnie

>>>A private variable created in the startup program of an application is GLOBAL to that application. Declaring that variable public has absolutely no effect on the global visibility, it doesn't cause it or destroy it. But declaring the variable public does cause that variable to exist beyond the end of the startup program potentially interfering with the dev environment, any thrid party add on products that you use etc.
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>>In my case - I explixitely destroy the ONE public variable called in my startup program at the end of my start-up program -
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>Ken,
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>So let me see if I understand this. You are arguing with the premiss that public vars are inherently a flawed design. You base that argument on the fact that you delcare a var public and then expressly release it essentially causing it to be a private in scope instead of declaring it private in the first place?
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>So, then, why do you need to declare that variable PUBLIC? What does declaring it public get you?
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>The absolutely ONLY thing that declaring a variable public does is to give it life beyond the routine that creates it. If you release the var at the end of the routine then you are declaring a public and then making act like it was private.