>2. Open all tables when the exe is first instantiated.
> a. You can have Splash screens and other bells and whistles lighting up the CRT while the tables open. This is less likely to causes a user problem with “load time”. All tables are ready for use. In your Form you simply reference whatever alias is required.
It is interesting to note that sometimes a trick called "delayed instantiation" is used (in a form with several Pages) to do more or less the opposite: instead of concentrating all the delay at the beginning, spread it over time (i.e., only instantiate objects on a page when a user clicks on it).
Of course, it is not just a matter of concentrating or spreading the delay: in the case of the form with delayed instantiation, it is quite possible that the user doesn't use a certain page, so that time is saved. And in the case of opening tables, it is likely that some tables will be used over and over again.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
