This might not be the solution you are looking for, but a mathematical approach to solving this problem is explained by Edsge W. Dijkstra in a video at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/video-audio/video-audio.html Click on "The Power of Counting Arguments" Met vriendelijke groet, Henk-Jan van Tuyl -- http://Van.Tuyl.eu/ -- On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 05:44:07 +0100, wrote: I am very new to haskell. my project is to solve Missionary and Cannibal this is what I have been given : 1. 3 Missionary and 3 Cannibal . 2. 1 boat. 3. Max passengers=2. 4. RULE: at any given time number of cannibal cannot exceed number of missionary 5. I need to move all the missionary and cannibal from one bank to the other. I am really confused as to how to proceed to solving this problem. based on 2 passenger I can come of with five different boat loads. this would lead to five different combination at each state. how would i preserve the previous state value and pass it to the next state, What would be the best way to tackle this problem? any direction any help in this will be highly appreciated. -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: https://secure.bmtmicro.com/opera/buy-opera.html?AID=789433