I would also like to know which sadist techi told him what 'PERL' stands for.

I remember having read somewhere (sorry, I don't remember where exactly) about Larry Walls pains to name what he had created.

Apparently he sifted through a dictionary searching for words with some kind of positive connotation.

Finally he came up with Pearl, but Pearl with the a in it was taken. So he took the a out of it.

All the explanations like "Practical extraction and report language" or even "Pathologically ecclectic rubbish lister" came up much later. Most people recognize the second explanation as a joke but not the first.

Please tell me what Pascal stands for - or C. ;)

neophyte Niederrhein.pm