You MUST read comp.sys.hp48 (A Usenet/Internet Newsgroup) if you can! Even the most mindboggling questions are answered there. For example, I couldn't think of a real-world use of START/STEP, so I asked everybody who reads comp.sys.hp48, "Is START/STEP useless?" I even made a bet with a friend that nobody would think of a use of the START/STEP structure. The very same day, this brilliant reply came back: ----- Response by kskalb@immd1.informatik.uni-erlangen.de [Klaus Kalb] Interesting question... My first reaction was: Yes, it is totally useless. No wonder that I never realized that it existed. After some seconds of thought, I came up with some use for this construct: Assume you want to count how many random numbers, generated by RAND, it takes to sum up to a number greater then, say, 10. My standard program would look like \<< 0 0 WHILE DUP 10 \<= REPEAT RAND + 1 ROT + SWAP END DROP \>> More obfuscated, but shorter, the same thing looks like \<< 0 0 10 START 1 + RAND STEP \>> The second one wins by 43 vs. 65.5 bytes and it will even be faster. I'm sorry if this makes you lose your bet. -KK | Manche meinen, lechts und rinks kann man nicht velwechsern. Klaus Kalb | Werch ein Illtum! (Ernst Jandl)