I'm wondering, what are we talking about here? - the meaning of "error" and "exception"? - personal responsibility when writing programs? - language features - library functions, runtime implementation etc.? The first two, I think could serve as the basis for an entertaining discussion. Where the third applies, if there are real disagreements it would be helpful to frame the discussion at least partly in those terms, so anyone who has a practical interest in the matter may understand what's being discussed. In my view, the discussion so far has shown that while everyone has interesting and valuable opinions about how various contingencies ought to be handled, in the end it no doubt it must be up to the programmer writing the code ... right? Donn Cave, donn@avvanta.com