Michelle:

>
So how is that better than having the control itself tell me what the problem is? I still need to cancel the form and go fix it. I don't see any difference except in one I have to make sure the debugger is running and the other I don't.
>

IMHO, it does not matter which approach to take in your particular case because you already know why the calendar failed to initialize. ASSERT is very handy when you are not sure what caused the problem because it allows you to enter the debugger to view variable, properties, parameters, call stack, etc... In this particular case, enterring the debugger does not make sense. I think that using a placeholder is a good idea in this case.

Daniel