The properties and evolutionary status of the hot B and O subdwarfs are reinvestigated using recent homogeneous grids of hot, high-gravity model atmospheres and detailed convective envelope calculations appropriate to the hot subdwarf region of the H-R diagram discussed by Greenstein and Sargent. An alternative method of analysis of the hot subdwarfs is outlined, where comparisons between observations and theoretical evolutionary tracks are made as close to the fundamental observational results as possible, and are performed directly in the observer's (i.e., (U-B) versus (B-V), or (B-V) versus D(0.1) of H..gamma..) diagram. As an illustrative example of this procedure, we use a set of gravitationally contracting pre--white dwarf evolutionary sequences at M/sub asterisk//M/sub sun/ = 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 which are found to evolve through the hot subdwarf domain along the extended horizontal branch.