you're right of course ... best thing to do would be to screen out all novices so that you wouldn't be bothered by beginners like us ... who do we think we are tapping into a site like this anyway ... been working through perl for 3 weeks now but apart from this "post" I don't reckon I'll be brave enough to ask any questions for a few years ... fyi, that issue that was raised resolved issues of understanding that I had ... without your puerile rant.