--- In IBObjects@y..., guido.klapperich@t... wrote:

> When I try to use a IB_Date without EditMask, I have discovered, that
> then the editmask is always !99.99.9999;1

[cut]

>
> What is the reason, that a empty Editmask is automaticly converted ?

I think that the IB_Edit control was developed (not by me!) with some kind of standard data entry in mind. One of the first roules is having an edit mask, and a short one. Some places of the code rely upon the conversion with StrToDate, that works only if the string is in a shortdate format.
I don't fully understand what you can gain not having the edit mask set (!99/99/99 for dd/mm/yy, for example).
If you have to enter the date "05/04/02", with the mask (that includes date separators) you type
050402 -- 6 keystrokes
without you should type
5/4/02 -- 6 keystrokes

Also consider that for a trained user is faster to type only numbers instead find out where the date separator is (ok, maybe you are lucky and your separator is '.', but with '/' it's harder).
Just some thoughts
Marco Menardi