Hi John,
I have no opinion either. However, once you get to VFP 8, you can use this type of code.

PROCEDURE LoadDLLs()
LOCAL DLLPath, arrDLL[1], RetVal, oErr As Exception 
RetVal = .T.
IF ADLLS(arrDLL) = 0 OR ASCAN(arrDLL,'cxx',1,-1,2,1+6+8) = 0
   DLLPath = ADDBS(SYS(2004)) && I put DLLs in the same folder as VFP runtime files.
   TRY
      *DEBUGOUT "Declaring DLLs..."
      DECLARE Integer compress IN (m.DLLPath + "zlib.dll") As cxx String @, String @, String @, Integer sourcelen
      * etc...
   CATCH TO oErr
      ASSERT .F. MESSAGE oErr.Message 
      RetVal = .F.
   ENDTRY
ENDIF
RETURN m.RetVal