>Private and public variables are NEVER the same.

Its nice to see you again, in fact, the reason I don't use public variables in this case is from the wisdom you've shared online here.

But, I'm not sure what advantage private or public variables have over each other when creating an application object in the top level of your app. Seems to me, they are the same when used in this fashion. Whats the dif?

If there is none, I would still choose private just to be consistant in avoiding publics.