ok so taking MAN's suggestion: "I think It's time for you to get serious with the monads" that's just what i'm going to do! i found the following references: You Could Have Invented Monads! http://blog.sigfpe.com/2006/08/you-could-have-invented-monads-and.html an interesting way to become familiar with the idea Monads for the Working Haskell Programmer http://www.engr.mun.ca/~theo/Misc/haskell_and_monads.htm seems to have several practical ideas there (though i don't understand them yet) A tour of the Haskell Monad functions http://members.chello.nl/hjgtuyl/tourdemonad.html a nice reference with brief explanations Explaining Haskell IO without Monads http://neilmitchell.blogspot.com/2010/01/haskell-io-without-monads.html possibly a good conceptual aid for background All About Monads http://www.haskell.org/all_about_monads/html/index.html this seems to have everything though it'll take some work to dig in in any case, monads seem to be a rather important concept to getting anything done in haskell. for instance, i have a program which is generating the output it is supposed to (i can print it), but i can't seem to get it into another function and keep getting the error i've seen so many times: Couldn't match expected type `[String]' against inferred type `IO [String]' so it's time to understand them. besides, the stuff looks rather intriguing and certainly appears to take one into computer language design theory. any sources others have found useful would be appreciated as well as suggestions on how to proceed through the above. in friendship, prad -- In friendship, prad ... with you on your journey Towards Freedom http://www.towardsfreedom.com (website) Information, Inspiration, Imagination - truly a site for soaring I's