>Sure. I agree, theoretically. In practice I find that it's often enough not worth the extra effort to go to the extremes. In those cases I develop routines, forms and classes that have some interdependency. But I always DOCUMENT those interdependencies! And one might view those interdependent things together as ONE virtual object. It's all a matter of perception and that perception must be made clear to the next developer through documentation.
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>>Another goal of both is a reduction in the time required to maintain the system. Maintenance and modification take up far more time than implementation.
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>>The use of public variables goes against both these goals. Therefore, before using them, one should not only be aware of it and the consequences, but quantifiably justify the use as well.
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>BTW, I appreciate the discussion, George. :)

Peter;

I document everything I do with inline comments and seperate documents. Some developers I have worked with joke that sometimes my comments are longer than the code I write! :)

Most developers I have worked with do not comment anything. They have the attitued, "I will go back and comment my code later". If you do not document and comment as you create your code you will not have time to go back. The "boss" always has something for you to do when you are "finished"! :)

Tom