Here's an interesting one. There is something about comments containing the work join that breaks actual join commands - presumably the parser gets confused: I had this in the file: join wilfords1_s4 grumble3_s1 #(grumble3 -> grumble1 join) # wilfords1_s4 grumble2_s3 line joins: join grumb2_s3_l2 wilf1_s4_l2:3 join grumb2_s3_l1 wilf1_s4_l1 With this neither of the joins 'worked' I changed it to: join wilfords1_s4 grumble3_s1 join wilfords1_s4 grumble2_s3 #line joins: # join grumb2_s3_l2 wilf1_s4_l2:3 # join grumb2_s3_l1 wilf1_s4_l1 Now the wilfords1_s4 grumble3_s1 join works, but the wilfords1_s4 grumble2_s3 join still doesn't. Then I changed it back to: join wilfords1_s4 grumble3_s1 # join wilfords1_s4 grumble2_s3 #line joins: join grumb2_s3_l2 wilf1_s4_l2:3 join grumb2_s3_l1 wilf1_s4_l1 to try and isolate the problem. This works the same as above (first join OK, second broken). This doesn't work either (I was hoping it would :-( ) join wilfords1_s4 grumble3_s1 # join wilfords1_s4 grumble2_s3 join grumb2_s3_l2 wilf1_s4_l2:3 join grumb2_s3_l1 wilf1_s4_l1 Prety wierd huh? It really does look like using the word 'join' in a comment breaks things. And what exactly is going on ( I can't quite see a pattern about it affecting the current line or the next line) If you need the whole dataset it's at http://wookware.org/mulu/benarat-therion<date>.zip and the above is in benarat/terikan/terikan.th2 Wookey -- Aleph One Ltd, Bottisham, CAMBRIDGE, CB5 9BA, UK Tel +44 (0) 1223 811679 work: http://www.aleph1.co.uk/ play: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~wookey/