hi Some time age wrote a program using an array of pointers to fixed capacity strings. The plan is to rewrite the program to use variable capacity strings. So while playing to see what *might* work got this: ../../../gcc-2.95.3/gcc/p/types.c:1107: failed assertion `capacity && TREE_CODE (capacity) == INTEGER_CST' buff.pas:25: Internal compiler error in `declared_string_capacity', at types.c:1107 Please submit a full bug report to the GPC mailing list <gpc@gnu.de>. See <URL:http://home.pages.de/~GNU-Pascal/todo.html> for details. from this: unit Buff; interface const MAXLINES = 20000; type lline = string ( 4000 ); {buffer for data xfer} procedure BB_AppendLine( Aline: lline ); {adds to end} implementation var cap : integer; type ptrline = ^Line; Line = string ( cap ); TbbArray = array[1..MAXLINES] of ptrline; var BigBuffer : Tbbarray; {array of pointers to data} LineCount : integer = 0; FileUpdate : boolean = false; LineItem : Line; procedure BB_AddLine( Aline: lline ); begin cap := lline.length; BigBuffer[ LineCount ] := new( ptrline, LineItem ); BigBuffer[ LineCount ]^ := Aline; inc( LineCount ); end; j.i.c., installed that latest patch - same results. Incidently, this won't work, either: type cap = integer; Aline = string( cap ); {gives err msg} Thanks, Russ