Jim,

I disagree that there's any problem in the VFP object containership hierarchy model. What you are calling a contract is just the defined public interface of an object. For objects to successfully interact they must know each other's interface. And that interface is based on a myriad of design choices.

>Making a "contract between objects" has to be just some fancy terminology/footwork to get around this **problem** of VFP (let me call it the 'object addressability problem'. It is way beyond my limited capabilities, but I have to believe that it *can* be solved elegantly if the right heads are applied to its resolution.
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>And David, I thought that the whole premise of both Windows and Objects *IS* the passing of messages to/fro. I cannot see how this would "break" encapsulation.
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>I can imagine that frameworks will be significantly different once the 'object addressability problem' is resolved. And so will classes generally, as well as their overall usefulness.