XTL's example code "xdr", designed to test XDR_format now compiles and runs on Alphas without error using either gcc-2.95.2 or DEC cxx under both LinuxAlpha and Tru64 unix. Hoorah! xtl/text.h has problems still and so I have a question for the C gurus out there: What do you use if snprintf() is not defined on your system? #define def_simple_output(type, form) \ void output_simple(type const& data) { \ space(); \ unrequire(20-snprintf((char*)require(20), 20, form, data)); \ } My brain has gone to sleep and if there's a common solution I'll take it happily :-) Angus