The split function fails to work properly on MacOS 10.4.10, either using the builtin perl (v5.8.6) or v5.8.8 from the MacPorts project. For example, running this command perl -e 'print join(":", split(/ */, "hi there"));' produces no output on MacOS, but produces h:i:t:h:e:r:e as expected with perl v5.8.8 on Ubuntu 7.04 I could create a simpler example, but this is sort of canonical, and it's in the documentation for the split function. I submitted this problem via perlbug, but I suspect they will throw up their hands at a Mac version of perl. So I'm sending it here, too. Apologies if this issue is known, but there is no search capability in the worthless mailman program that runs the macports lists. ET -- ________________________________________________ Eric Tiffany | +1 413-458-3743 etiffany@alum.mit.edu | +1 413-627-1778 mobile