should I use activex?

[mamut]

I have to make a vb program that will be easy to extend in the future. it should be oo and so on.....

this is what the tool is suposed to do:

1) when the tool starts, the user will have to decide for what purpos he will use the tool. for example: "client from greatbritain", "client from usa", "client from germany" .....

2) the tool will consist of several general masks for gathering data. for example: name, street, housenumber and so on.
every mask should provide a save, open and clear procedur

3) there will also be certain mask's that will only be used for the purpos choosen in point number 1 (one mask only gaters information for britisch clients an other mask only for american clients and so on)

4) the special mask's from point number 3 will all be equipt with the same interface. those fields that only exist on one mask but not on a other mask will be filled with a default value.

Now to my questions:
Is the idea mentioned in point number 4 (same interface and default values) a good idea? also when considering that in the future there could be other mask's like "client from...." added?

Is it a good idea to make an activex component for every mask?

How could i create a "client" - class that gathers it's information from all the general mask's and also from the specific mask? since the specific mask always use the same interface there should be a "cool" way to design a abstract data structur, right?

where in the code would i set the pointer to the apropriet specific mask? (meaning: should i add a "public sub setTypeOfSpecificMask" procedur to the "client" class?)


well, I hope that those people among you that reed this far understand what my program is supous to do
I would be really greatful for any ideas or hints since i'm not quite sure how to implement the whole thing yet.

greetings mike

[ChiefRB]

First off, whats a mask? Do you mean a form or a class object?

It sounds as if you just want a form that has several default values depending on which button is clicked. In my opinion, this doesn't call for a large oo solution. Saing and reading from files will be easy as long as the file format is consistent.