>But clear all will be the 'death certificate' for the calling program/form, wouldn't it?

Yes, but why would you need to release the fxp anyway? In the development environment it's released automatically when you edit the prg, and in the runtime environment the fxp would be embedded in the exe so even in a multi-user situation there would be no problem. I don't see where this causes any real problem, except (as you described) if you try to compile the prg from another instance of VFP before doing a CLEAR ALL in the original instance of VFP.