I like the list pop method because it provides a way to use lists as thread safe queues and stacks (since append and pop are protected by the global interpreter lock). With pop, you can essentially test whether the list is empty and get a value if it isn't in one atomic operation: try: foo=queue.pop(0) except IndexError: ... empty queue case else: ... non-empty case, do something with foo Unfortunately, this incurs exception overhead. I'd rather do something like: foo=queue.pop(0,marker) if foo is marker: ... empty queue case else: ... non-empty case, do something with foo I'd be happy to provide a patch. Jim -- Jim Fulton mailto:jim@digicool.com Python Powered! Technical Director (888) 344-4332 http://www.python.org Digital Creations http://www.digicool.com http://www.zope.org Under US Code Title 47, Sec.227(b)(1)(C), Sec.227(a)(2)(B) This email address may not be added to any commercial mail list with out my permission. Violation of my privacy with advertising or SPAM will result in a suit for a MINIMUM of $500 damages/incident, $1500 for repeats.