It's a bit of a hack, but don't most char implementations in C just ignore the high-order bit? --Alan Wexelblat, Reality Hacker, Author, and Cyberspace Bard Media Lab - Advanced Human Interface Group wex@media.mit.edu Voice: 617-258-9168 Page: 617-945-1842 na53607@anon.penet.fi We are Chaos Boys. We are coming to a paradigm near you.