I had considered not using eval, but in this case I could see no practical advantage to the alternatives – and eval was more consistent with my goal of simplicity. For non-trivial uses, however, I agree that eval's costs (e.g., quoting clutter, parsing overhead, and security concerns) almost always outweigh its benefits.

Still, if you think there is something inherently evil about eval that ought to eliminate it from all consideration, I would be interested in hearing your reasoning.

Thanks for your comment.

Cheers,
Tom