      */
     public static const DEFAULT_MAX_HEIGHT:Number = 10000;
 
-    /**
-     *  @private
-     *  The inheritingStyles and nonInheritingStyles properties
-     *  are initialized to this empty Object.
-     *  This allows the getStyle() and getStyle()
-     *  methods to simply access inheritingStyles[] and nonInheritingStyles[]
-     *  without needing to first check whether those objects exist.
-     *  If they were simply initialized to {}, we couldn't determine
-     *  whether the style chain has already been built or not.
-     */
-    mx_internal static var STYLE_UNINITIALIZED:Object = {};
-
     //--------------------------------------------------------------------------
     //
     //  Class mixins

        if (p)
        {
            var inheritChain:Object = p.inheritingStyles;
            if (inheritChain == UIComponent.STYLE_UNINITIALIZED)
                inheritChain = nonInheritChain;
        }
        else

        var isInheritingStyle:Boolean =
            StyleManager.isInheritingStyle(styleProp);
        var isProtoChainInitialized:Boolean =
            inheritingStyles != StyleManager.STYLE_UNINITIALIZED;
        var valueChanged:Boolean = getStyle(styleProp) != newValue;
        
        if (!_styleDeclaration)
