also, i've never seen this done: `

property string variables.firstName;

with variables. explicitly included. is that a typo or is there some benefit to doing that, given that properties will be in the variables scope anyway...

Ha, no. I was trying to right sensible code like

private string property firstName

and CF was being "helpful":

Access modifier cannot be applied to non static variable.
Try using scoping instead.

So... the above "worked". However as you say, the scoping there is irrelevant. "Interestingly", it's actually ignored by the looks: if I change it to

this.firstName

to try to make it public: nope.

I really enjoy learning "the weird" things!