The following code: chars = '23456789' chars = chars + 'ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ' chars = chars + 'abcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz' chars = list(chars) gives me: File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.3.1b1-src/lib/python/Products/PythonScripts/Guarded.py, line 189, in __careful_list__ TypeError: cannot convert string to list What could be insecure abotu turning a string into a list of characters?! cheers, Chris