I was thinking about creation of many identical sprites. For example, in the "Facing2D" example many identical targets are created:
  For i = 1 To NumberOfTargets
   Define target As Sprite = LoadSprite( "Target" + I, "SmallRedBall.png" )
   target.Visible = True
   PositionTarget( target )
   list.Add( target )
  Next
This seemed to me inelegant - why should I load the same sprite several times from the disk?

So I replaced this with:
                Define template As Sprite = LoadSprite( "SmallRedBall.png" )
  For i = 1 To NumberOfTargets
   Define target As Sprite = template.Clone()
   target.Visible = True
   PositionTarget( target )
   list.Add( target )
  Next

Well, it didn't work. instead I got: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object". When stepping in with a debugger I notices all my local references where nilled.
wierd.

(1) Any ideas why this does not work?
(2) Is cloning more efficient then loading?
(3) Also, why did the original set a name for the targets?
(4) Why do we need a "LoadSprite" which defines a sprite name in some global space?