Hi, I sent a similar message last week when the system was down and it didn't seem to go out to everyone so I'm resending it. I've been working with VFP for about 8 months now and am working on my first big project. To a large degree this has also been a learning tool for me. I've noticed that some people seem to prefer hand-coding over using the Visual Tools and I was wondering what the benefits were, if any. I tend to prefer hand-coding and didn't use the tools back in my FPD days. However, programming for Windows seems to be a lot more complicated than programming for DOS so I've been using the tools in VFP. In thinking over the question before I posted it, I came up with the list of advantages and disadvantages which I have included below. I was looking for your thoughts on these as well as any others you might be able to contribute. Thanks, Gary Visual Tools Advantages Objects can be created more quickly with the visual tools. Placement of objects in a form is done by clicking with a mouse rather than writing multiple lines of code. Disadvantages The visual tools tend to hide the workings of the language from you. You don't really see what's going on when you're clicking away with a mouse. This is not a disadvantage if you don't care what's going on. It is more difficult to send an object via email if it was designed by a visual tool. If you do it, you are more likely to annoy a lot of people. Hand Coding Advantages Hand coding gives you a better understanding of what is going on in the language. You can send code via email which you can't do with a VCX or SCX unless you attach them. In a mail list or Usenet newsgroup situation, this is most certain to annoy a lot of people. It is much easier to change the class on which the object is based if the object is hand coded. It is possible to do this with a visually designed object but it is much harder and may require an additional tool (class browser). On the other hand, how often do you do this? The Data Environment can be sublassed but only programmatically. There is no way to do it visually. Disadvantages Hand coding results in slower development than using the visual tools.