note jynx after a few hours work, this is the best that i can come up with that doesn't deviate from your original algorithm. It's shorter by some 50+ characters (but still 6 characters over an 80-character, 4-line sig), and i'm sure more could be done; i just don't see what at the moment... <code> # This has been tested with perl 5.6.1 on Solaris 9 only @a=map{sub{my$a="push\@s,($_[2]".join($_[1],('(pop@s||1)')x$_[0])."$_[3])";sub{ eval$a}}->(@$_)}[1,'','','x2'],[2,'+'],[2,'*'],[0,'',1],[1,'','print chr'];&{$a [$_]}for map{($f=ord(substr'"!3!+"%"#*9):B"--11$2A);"-!$):)1+!-%")*%")*-*%"!#'. '#))*%2!2%"##))B)1!#"*"A$)",+B"$")*%"#)C*-1!3"-"%"#*A)1!1+,%"1*B',$_,1)-33)%8,$ f/8}0..111 </code> anyone else?<br> jynx 307322 307322