Just for the record, here is a Perl function that does this: ############### sub counter { my $a = shift; my $next = sub { my $to_add = shift ; return counter($to_add+$a); }; return ($a, $next); } my ($result,$next) = counter(5); my ($result2, $next2) = $next->(100); my ($result3, $next3) = $next2->(50); my ($result4, $next4) = $next->(30); print "\$result=$result\n\$result2=$result2\n\$result3=$result3\n\$result4=$result4\n"; ############ Regards, Shlomi Fish ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Shlomi Fish shlomif@vipe.technion.ac.il Home Page: http://t2.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/ Home E-mail: shlomif@iglu.org.il He who re-invents the wheel, understands much better how a wheel works.