Hi,
I am a new .NET programmer starting with the Visual C# 2005 Express Beta 2,
trying to replicate a VCL component that I use.  I am trying to handle a
collection of classes within the component, this class has its own
properties that are editable by the standard collection editor.  To break
down the problem as much as possible, I have the following code:

namespace mycomps {

public partial class testcomp : UserControl
{
   public class itemcollection : List<item>
   {
       public itemcollection() : base() { }
       public itemcollection(IEnumerable<item> collection) :
base(collection) { }
   }
   private itemcollection FItems;
   public testcomp()
   {
       FItems = new itemcollection();
       InitializeComponent();
   }
   [DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content)]
   public itemcollection Items { get { return FItems; } }
}

[TypeConverter(typeof(item.converter))]
public class item
{
   private string FCaption;
   public item()
   {
   }
   public item(string caption)
   {
       FCaption = caption;
   }
   public class converter : TypeConverter
   {
       public override bool CanConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context,
Type destinationType)
       {
           if (destinationType ==
typeof(System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.InstanceDescriptor))
               return true;
           return base.CanConvertTo(context, destinationType);
       }
       public override object ConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context,
System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture, object value, Type
destinationType)
       {
           if (destinationType ==
typeof(System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.InstanceDescriptor))
           {
               item value_item = (item)value;
               System.Reflection.ConstructorInfo ctor =
typeof(item).GetConstructor(new Type[] { typeof(string) });
               return new
System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.InstanceDescriptor(ctor, new
object[] { value_item.FCaption });
           }
           return base.ConvertTo(context, culture, value, destinationType);
       }
   }
   public string Caption { get { return FCaption; } set { FCaption =
value; } }
}

} // namespace mycomps

When I place this component on a form, I can edit the Items property ok,
adding new items and changing the Caption property.  But when I hit ok and
try to run it or look at the designer code I get the following in a message
box:

Code generation for property 'Items' failed. Error was: 'Unable to case
object of type 'mycomps.item' to type 'mycomps.item'.'

Thanks for any help that anyone can give,

Steve