> I did not try to discourage you ... may as well give it a try.

Not at all discouraged and yes, I'll play around with the code examples you've given. I've never used eval's and don't bother with modules other than standard ones, since I find that the effort of learning them is usually better spent writing your own.

But the new project will shortly involve others, so I've decided to take a look at solutions I've previously avoided as being better suited to group efforts.