>Every time you need a single return value from a form class?


I won't say everytime because circumstances can be different. I will simply leave it with this: it is one of several alternatives available to a developer.


>
As far as the level of "cleaness", in what ways would a private variable be cleaner? Unless this is old news to everyone else, we can list the pros and cons of both approaches here or at the wiki.
>


Cleanliness is a point you have brought up. You suggested there are cleaner alternatives. I will leave it to you to flesh this issue out. Then, if compelled to do so, I will respond in kind. Until then, it would be difficult, if not improper for me to provide counter-arguments to an as yet to be defined argument...


>>Why not a public variable for these items?
>
>Why not? I dunno, but in that scenario, Private and Publics are pretty much the same, and I aviod using a public, so I use a private.
>

As long as the private is defined in the top-most program, I would agree. As a matter of practice, if something is supposed to have global scope, I declare it as such. From a documentation standpoint, I read private variables and global variables to be different things.


>
Ahh, I see. Bad grammar and rushed thoughts (there was a large line of students behind me in the computer lab).
<

A pitfall that will indeed be an impediment between thought and clarity...


<<
The paragraph explained where I would use a private variable, and then I attempted to say that I wouldn't use one to return a value from a class.
<<

That clarifies things a little. I feel fairly confident in saying that I don't agree with the premise you bring up with respect to abstract code, parameters, and private variables. I don't see the relationship between the level of abstractness and whether you would use private variables as opposed to parameters. Two, presuming the validity of the premise, I don't see how it supports your viewpoint that a private variable should not be used to return a value from a form.

For example...

Using your logic, if I have a "really" abstract form class that accepts user input and returns a value, shouldn't I eschew parameters in favor of private variables???

And...just to show how this issue can cut right between OO and private variables, what if you had the following:

oApp.ReturnValue


What if you had a returnvalue property on your global application object? What if your single-value form class directly referenced this item? Is it wrong? I don't think so? This gets to the issue of where frameworks obviate the need for 100% encapsulation. It is not a private variable. If anything, it is a global property. Globals are supposed to be bad...right? Or, is it OK for global properties????