>Another consideration is that we intend to have non-programmers build many of the UI forms, with a programmer coming in after to hook up control sources and write any additional validation code or what ever needs to be done.
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eek!

>I know that I could add properties to "generalize" the class, but it doesn't help the non-programmers much.

On the contrary, it helps non-programmers a great deal. All they have to know is how to set a couple of properties - even better, though, you could create a builder for these controls. Then all the have to do is right-click on the control and set the properties with the builder.

>We considered creating a control with an array of possible values for the label prompt and a property set to an index into the array of possible label values. IMO, this added complexity without positively reducing testing or maintenance.

Again, this is where the custom builder comes in handy.

>Steven Black mentioned at FoxTeach in Toronto (1999), that he didn't feel there was any serious impact with sub-classing to 6 levels and maybe little impact with even more levels.

Creating 500-1000 classes is much different that subclassing several layers deep. Now you're talking wide. The form controls toolbar for this is going to be huge. This, IMNSHO, will confuse the hell out of non-programmers.

I'm cringing because I tried the non-programmer thing once. *Once.* Just MODIFY FORM was confusing...<g>