I'm late getting in, but I just now read it. Two viewpoints: First: Scanning code, looking for a quick idea of what's happening. In this context, definitely the second format. Without spending 15 seconds to readjust my glasses, and beginning to mentally parse thru each symbol in the function, I couldn't make heads or tails of the first format. Second: When you KNOW this function has an issue, and you simply MUST trace thru it. Then perhaps the first format, although I didn't get that deep. I stopped after 15 seconds (since I'm not getting paid for looking thru that code). I TRY to write code knowing that non-programmers (but smart folk nonetheless) will be picking thru my code at some point in the future, and I try to write as literarily as possible. Non-literary symbols (the standard C++ operators like &, *, ::, etc.) can make the code difficult to read, even for me, and I do this stuff 8 hours/day! By the way; excellent discussion on exit points. Thanks to the contributors. David