internal objects - I agree and (per other post) don't do this except in very speciailized cases.

I have no problem with accessing a property though ...

Ken

>Ken,
>
>Yes, both client app and form must subscribe to the interface of the parameter object, so they are coupled. There is always coupling in a system.
>
>But accessing the internal objects of the form is an order of magnitude more coupling. You now prevent the form from changing to use alternate controls (changing a textbox to a cbo, or moving controls to a pageframe for example) without breaking every client of the form. You can bind the form directly to the parameter object's properties so it really isn't that difficult to use.
>
>
>>I understand and agree with your observation, but disagree that it matters. While I am all in favor of blackboxing many things. decoupling is not the holy grail - at least not within a homogenous application. On the other hand, I doubt there's much code/performance cost (if any) in doing it with an object, so it's worth thinking about.