THanks for heads up on debouncing. I think I understand that part. The part I am missing is how to have complete prgm that goes through all the states and then keeps looping. I think that I need the prgming format info but not sure as I don't know what to ask for? If a pushbutton is pressed momentarilly and there is a long prgm how can I be sure that the status of the button was noticed since the port is not constantly monitored, and Arduino might be looking elsewhere at that critical time.
I could do the debouncing and latching externally, with discrete logic chips, to the Arduino but I am trying to avoid all that complications. More ideas and help please