>reading a recent post, I read ( then proved ) that if you declear a private var in you main program it will have golbal scope.
>
>WHY!!!?!?!?!

Because you are confusing private with local. xBase has private variables, most other languages do not have private.

Ther are two issues related to scope of a variability, its visibility (can it be read and written) and its lifetime (when is it released automatically).

<strong>Scope         Visibility                            Lifetime</strong>
PUBLIC        In the declaring routine,        From creation unitil it 
              below the declaring routine,     explicitly released or fox 
              and above the declaring          closes
              routine

PRIVATE       In the declaring routine and     From creation until the
              below the declaring routine      declaring routine ends

LOCAL         In the declaring routine ONLY    From creation until the 
                                               declaring routine ends

Hope this helps