A remark on naming: I don't like names like "absolutizePath". The "Path" suffix in fact expresses type (resp. module) information, and I would think that it is typical for languages *without* proper type resp. module system to force programmers to simulate them by mere naming conventions. So I would suggest to use qualified names (Path.absolutize). Of course that's seems to be a general problem, for instance, with insertFM, lookupFM. But then, the FiniteMap module is much older than hierachical namespaces. But for Paths, the point is designing a new library, so we should use the best techniques available. In fact it's only one technique, qualified names - the other candidate would be a type system that allows static overloading... Best regards, J. W.