Houston,

>state opinions as though they are facts or in this case, truths (I consider one tantamount to the other).

Exactly how is this an opinion of mine? From two standpoints:

1) It is the well defined behavior. From the help file:

Remarks
If no table is open when using the FROM clause, Visual FoxPro displays the Open dialog box so you can specify the file location. Once open, the table remains open once the query is complete.

2) The errors he was running into would have been found by regression testing.

>I am in complete agreement with Fabio, Sergey, Jim Nelson and the many others - this is a flaw / bug / call it what you want, in VFP's implementation.

I call it documented, defined behavior.

>I do not want the User to get an occasional dialog box that I have not explicitly caused to appear.

>I code defensively and rely on good architecture and testing to facilitate the creation of robust solutions - however, I cannot guarantee that I will catch 100% of the possible errors. Hence the need for ON ERROR and TRY ... CATCH. When the Open Dialog appears I am no longer in control, to think anything else is a case of being 'economical with the truth'.

IIRC I stated the exact same thing in an earlier reply to Stephane.

You don't see anything I've posted in this thread that prevents you or anyone else from asking for this behavior to be changed.