>>The upshot is that I think this is a VFP problem rather than something with your code. I know it doesn't help much, but perhaps you could think up an alternate solution.
>>
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>I'm beginning to think this is some kind of scoping problem.
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>I tried an alternate solution--using a button on the form to cancel instead of the escape key. Doing this meant I couldn't use a local variable anymore, so I created a form property called lXit. The click of the button just had thisform.lXit = .T.
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>Most of the time the loop is processing, it's running a method in my application object, i.e. it's outside the form. When I used the button, the behavior changed from ignoring the Escape or hanging to giving and error saying "Thisform can only be used within a method..." (I don't remember the exact wording of the error, but you know the one I mean.)
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>"Ah ha!", I thought. When I run the form directly, I instantiate the application object in the Load of the form, whereas when I call it from my program, I instantiate the application from the program before calling the form. But then why did the local variable work? When I double-checked, I discovered that in my experimenting, I neglected to declare the variable local, therefore it was private.
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>So I figured the solution to this is to create an application property instead. I've done that....but the behavior is worse! It works fine when I run the form directly, but when calling from my program, it hangs without having to press escape or the cancel button.
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>I still believe this is a scoping issue, but the solution escapes me. (Pun intended.)

And pun accepted.:-)

Now that you mention it, it very well could be a scoping issue. Just a guess, but have you tried adding the property to _SCREEN? If that solves it, I'd say that scoping is definetly the problem.