It would probably be more polite to give a warning in 'nls' that the 'weights' argument is ignored. Something like the following should do: if(missing(weights)) warning("weights are not currently implemented") > version _ platform i386-pc-mingw32 arch i386 os mingw32 system i386, mingw32 status Under development (unstable) major 2 minor 3.0 year 2005 month 12 day 07 svn rev 36656 language R Patrick Burns patrick at burns-stat.com +44 (0)20 8525 0696 http://www.burns-stat.com (home of S Poetry and "A Guide for the Unwilling S User")