so, as a n00b to haskell i can't say much about its laziness, and not knowing much about how python works i'm about the same there. though i do know ruby, and afaik ruby doesn't _care_ what type something is, just if it can do something. example from the rails framework: #------- class NilClass # nil is mostly equivalent to c's NULL def blank? true end end class String def blank? self.size == 0 end end ["", "person", nil].each do |element| puts element unless element.blank? end #------- the output of course would simply be "person", but that's not the object of my post. in ruby they use what some call "duck typing" if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck... it's a duck. unlike in most other programming languages where you have to draw blood in order to check if it's a duck (i mean, it could be a goose for all we know, and we all know what geese do to our programs...) and while this programming style might be useful in this (and many other) contexts, there are probably a bunch of others where it only gets in the way. also, in case you are wondering... haskell is going to be the second language i delve into. i've already started ruby and will have to un-learn a bunch of things because of that from what i read, but i find a number of haskells features to be interesting. and hey, it's a new way to think about problems right? hex