I am using JavaFX 1.2 on Linux. It seems that the init and postinit blocks do not keep their variable assignments.

public class DataInputForm extends CustomNode {
    var countries: String[] =["South Africa","Namibia","Botswana","Zimbabwe","Lesotho","Swaziland","Mozambique"];
    var provinces: String[]=["Gauteng","Western Cape","Northern Cape","Limpopo","Eastern Cape","Free State","Mpumalanga","KwaZulu-Natal","North West"];

    
    //Sort the sequences alphabetically.
    postinit{
        sort();
        println("{countries}"); //shows sorted list
    }
    init{
          sort();
          println("{countries}"); //shows sorted list
    }

    function sort(){
            countries = Sequences.sort(countries,Comparator{
               override public function compare(obj1: Object, obj2: Object):Integer{
                     var string1:String = obj1 as String;
                     var string2:String = obj2 as String;
                     return string1.compareTo(string2);
                }
          }) as String[];

            provinces = Sequences.sort(provinces,Comparator{
               override public function compare(obj1: Object, obj2: Object):Integer{
                     var string1:String = obj1 as String;
                     var string2:String = obj2 as String;
                     return string1.compareTo(string2);
                }
          }) as String[];
    }

     override function create():Node {
            println("{counties}"); //unsorted
            ................
     }
}

Thanks