Let S=Sym(\Omega) be the group of all permutations of an infinite set \Omega.
Extending an argument of Macpherson and Neumann, it is shown that if U is a
generating set for S as a group, respectively as a monoid, then there exists a
positive integer n such that every element of S may be written as a group word,
respectively a monoid word, of length \leq n in the elements of U.
Several related questions are noted, and a brief proof is given of a result
of Ore's on commutators that is used in the proof of the above result.Comment: 9 pages. See also http://math.berkeley.edu/~gbergman/papers To
appear, J.London Math. Soc.. Main results as in original version. Starting on
p.4 there are references to new results of others including an answer to
original Question 8; "sketch of proof" of Lemma 11 is replaced by a full
proof; 6 new reference