I've written this both ways before, but generally prefer the style that merlyn used in the snippet. I like to see potential failures at the beginning of a block of code if it makes sense (it does to me in this snippet). It also fits my brain best to see the child before the parent, since it will most likely be doing the heavy lifting.

After all this talk of child labor is reminding me of William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper". Guess I have my night reading lined out for me ;-)

-- dug