[Shirik]

Originally Posted by Slakah I think the second method is moderately faster.

Yes, the second method is faster, though it should be pointed out that you should use the standard name _G, not the lowercase g you used, just to follow convention. Similarly, you should use the Blizzard-supplied _G available. To localize it, just do "local _G = _G"

Originally Posted by Slakah Then to say hide the frame do. frames.1:Hide()

This is illegal. You meant

frames[1]:Hide()

You also run into the problem of "what if they have more than 7 chat tabs?" Your best way of doing it would be:

local _G = _G
local x = 0;
repeat
   x = x + 1;
   local this = _G["ChatFrame"..x];
   if this then this:Hide() end;
until not this