>I was given an important VFP application to “fix” after another programmer quit. The other programmer declared 56 global variables and in some of the most interesting places. Like within methods of objects! He also did the classic thing of using the same global variable and changing the data type. So depending upon where you were in the program it would do the most “interesting things”!

Lovely. I inherited a bunch of code from a clueless guy who never used locals. The first line of every program called a function that cleared all the varibles it used, and some it didn't. Nothing worked and the bugs where impossible to track down. You couldn't even refactor any of the code, I eventually just deleted it all and rewrote it from scratch.

>I have never used a global variable in VFP. An advantage you have with Visual Basic in such an instance such as using global variables is to use Option Explicit, which will keep you “honest”. Now that I think about it that is the only thing I like about Visual Basic! :)

From the real programmers handbook, "Strong typing is for weak minds." ;)