What I want to do is parse an argument to a tcl proc as a string without any evaluation. For example if I had a trivial proc that just prints out it's arguments: proc test { args } { puts "the args are $args" } What I'd like to do is call it with: test [list [expr 1+1] [expr 2+2]] And NOT have tcl evaluate the [list [expr 1+1] [expr 2+2]]. Or even if it evaluated it I'd still like to have the original command line. Thus with the trivial "test" proc above I'd like to be able to return: the args are [list [expr 1+1] [expr 2+2]] Is this possible in tcl 8.4 ? Thank you. -MP