I think it depends on whether you're talking about writing to files or to memory. In files, I believe it's about 20% slower using bits (IO is slow blah blah blah); in memory it's probably more like your 250% :). - Hal -- Hal Daume III | hdaume@isi.edu "Arrest this man, he talks in maths." | www.isi.edu/~hdaume On Wed, 21 May 2003, Simon Marlow wrote:

...

Several tests by SimonM and I have shown that the bit style is about 20% slower than the byte style.

Really? I seem to recall it was more like 250% :-)

http://haskell.org/pipermail/libraries/2002-December/000742.html

Cheers, Simon