Jim, Christof, Dan, Vlad, Ken:

Thanks for all your comments. Based on this discussion, I would conclude that a custom data class is just as good a place as any to store a body of generic functions, if your objective is to get in and out of your application as quickly and cleanly as possible (i.e., on the web). Especially if it is true that an entire proc file loads into memory with a SET PROC command as Jim suggests:

>Speculating, though... assuming that a Custom class would be loaded only once
>(at least the one with all those common procedures), I would *guess* that it >comes out almost the same. Also guessing that a PROC file stays loaded >throughout.

And, taking into account what Ken Levy says about memory caching for classes and objects, I would imagine that memory management here is much more sophisticated that it was for procedure and program files in the older versions of Fox:

>VFP does things to release caching either automatically or by user (modifying >a class, etc.) so it is kind of an auto garbage collection within VFP on class >caching. Yes the class is a memory structure internally, but the VCX table it >was instantiated from is cached in a special way for pure performance reasons.

One thing I hadn't thought of was the memory that's requird to buffer tables. If I open tables READ ONLY, would that involve some sort of memory saving?

I am also wondering that if you instantiate an object on a web server, and that machine is serving multiple clients, if an object has been instantiated, will it be able to serve multiple users? Both Vlad and Christof have indicated that subsequent object instantiations occur much more quickly.

Linda