I wrote an option parser that infers everything about the options from the types of what you pull out of it so there is no need to specify redundant information and you can write very concise code (especially when combined with the overloaded regex module!) like for instance main = do (args,(verb,output_name)) <- getOptions ("v|verbose", "o") putStrLn $ if verb then "verbose mode" else "not verbose" case output_name of Nothing -> putStrLn "no output" Just fn -> putStrLn $ "output file is: " ++ fn will just work, infering from the type that '-v' and '-verbose' are simple flags, while '-o' takes a string argument. you can even set help messages with the (??) operator "o" ?? "output file name" and default values with the (==>) operator. "o" ==> "out.txt" it can be gotten here: http://repetae.net/john/recent/out/GetOptions.html and help is at: http://repetae.net/john/recent/src/hsdocs//GetOptions.html John -- John Meacham - ⑆repetae.net⑆john⑈