Thanks for that! I've never before understood why in Common Lisp, (gcd 0 0) = 0 > I would appreciate references. I doubt it is what you were looking for, but here's a link to what the Common Lisp definition says: http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/f_gcd.htm That text contains a still obscure-to-me remark that 0 is the identity for the gcd operation. Bob