[Zope] Using the DTML REQUEST Object

Dear Exalted Sirs and Madams, I'm a Zope newbie, so be gentle. I'm using DTML on Zope (yes I know Plone and Tal is now the norm) and I was wondering if regularly using the REQUEST(set and get) object is bad practice. I'm mostly a C++ programmer and I know of the horrors of global variables, but I was wondering if there was any way to pass information from DTML Documents to DTML Methods and vice versa (and maybe from DTML Methods to DTML Methods) without using the REQUEST object. Thanks and take care, Muk Yan