just a comment

[Chipp Walters]

Hi John,

Actually the behavior is correct. If you declare a local variable
OUTSIDE the other handlers of an object, it will stay persistent and
is accessible to all handlers/functions for that object.

This has some nifty benefits. It allows you to create persistent
variables, which aren't global (and therfore less likely to conflict),
and best of all, unlike custom properties, are automatically reset at
opening of a stack.

One thing to note, is the local variables are reinitialized to empty
during the editing of the script of the object-- at least this is the
behavior prior to 2.7. In 2.7, I believe, that behavior can be
changed, so they stay persistent even when editing the script.

You can also create a simple function to access the local variable
from outside the object. Say you have a group "test" with the script:

local lVar

function getlVar
   return lVar
end getlVar

then access it:

put value("getlVar", group "test")

HTH,
Chipp