im having an issue with a project using visual studio pro 2005 if it makes a difference the librarys im using are Qt, pdflib, boost, and some crystal com stuff thorugh activex my problem is that when I build in release my command line args are parsed fine and my application behaves as expected. when I build in debug mode, I get an asertion failure as follows Assertion failed: n == name.size()-2, file libs\program_options\src\options_description.cpp, line 122 the relevent code is as follows // process command line args.. po::options_description desc( "TEST" ); desc.add_options( ) ("help", "produce help message" ); ("hideSplash", "hide splash message" ) ("report", po::value<int>( ), "show requested report and quit" ) ; po::variables_map vm; po::store( po::parse_command_line( argc, argv, desc ), vm ); po::notify( vm ); if( vm.count( "help" ) ){ Log::Info::out( ) << "Help Message requested"; // show help window return true; } there is more blocks the same as the last if block that look for my other messages they are commented out now for testing though I am completely stumped and sought help on the #boost irc channel volodya and others on that channel were stumped as well if anyone has any insight into this issue I thank you in advance for your help :-D -- To follow the Path, Look to the master, Walk with the master, See through the master, Become the master