Title: Find a component by name
Question: How to prevent direct references to controls or objects ?
Answer:
RTTI (Runtime Type Information) is a strengh of Delphi. Use it wherever you can.
Look how to find a component by name:
var MyComp: TComponent;
begin
MyComp := FindComponent("Name");
If MyComp is TPanel then
TPanel(MyComp).Color := clBlue;
end;