Thanks, Brian,

Perhaps I wasn't clear.  The code posted by me (as corrected by you) does 
create the problem - I don't need anything else for the problem to occur.

I have bounds error checking, but no error ever appears.  There are 
occassional crashes when this code is used in the complete app - I created 
one but got no crash log even with the OS X debugger labels selected.

What normally (incorrectly) happens is that the window appears, but nothing 
written to the window appears. The window is then nonresponsive, either on 
its own or because there is nothing written in it that can dismiss it. BUT, 
if I step through or place a set of "stops" in the code, all statements are 
executed.  That's why it's so frustrating - all lines of code are executed, 
but they do not work as intended so long as the FILES line is present. 
Comment it out and it works like a champ.

??

S