Excerpts from michael rice's message of Tue Jan 26 21:34:42 -0500 2010: > fromMaybe d x = case x of {Nothing -> d;Just v -> v} > fromMaybe z = maybe z id They're equivalent. Here the definition of maybe: maybe :: b -> (a -> b) -> Maybe a -> b maybe n _ Nothing = n maybe _ f (Just x) = f x Cheers, Edward