NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/comp/lang/perl/5357

Internet Message Format | 1992-08-18 | 3.4 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!ogicse!reed!romulus!merlyn
From: [e-mail] (Randal L. Schwartz)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Applauds for Mr. Wall (LOUD)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 18 Aug 92 14:28:23 GMT
Article-I.D.: romulus.MERLYN.92Aug18072820
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In-Reply-To: [e-mail]'s message of 17 Aug 92 23:42:45 GMT

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Joel Rosi-Schwartz) writes:
   I for one, want to applaud Larry for the "kind, faceless, gentle,
   unassuming, *non-obnoxious* and generally friendly way he supports us.

Some people assume that Larry and I are "old buddies" going "way back"
just because he and I share the by-line on the Camel Book.  We're not.

In case you missed the story while it was unfolding, Larry had just
released Perl 3.0 (Beta) to the net, and some were shocked at how the
manpage had gone from 20 to 60 pages.  A few cries for "more
documentation" were echoed through the mailing list (before the
newsgroup, I think), and Larry responded, gently as always, "When I
get a little time, I'll write something more up."

I had been working with Larry to alpha test Perl 3.0 by email from my
home in Portland, but had never met him.  (Living in or travelling to
LA doesn't exactly appeal to me. :-) I took the opportunity to chime
in, "If Larry is going to write something up, I'll help him.  After
all, I helped test 3.0, and have been a technical writer for more than
half of my last twelve years."

That fateful piece of email changed my life.  A staff member of
O'Reilly and Associates was reading the net, and approached me in
email, essentially saying, "If you're gonna write something up, we
might as well publish it!"

Wow.  Years of ghostwriting for big computer companies, but now an
offer to be a published author.  Of course I jumped at the chance. I
immediately invited Larry to partner up with me to write the book,
which we did after one brief evening meeting to "eyeball" each other.
The whole book was written by email and FTP, with a few brief phone
calls to make sure we were both on track.

The next time I saw Larry was at the 1991 January Usenix in Texas, at
the premiere party for the camel book.  Since then, the book has gone
through its third (albeit small :-) printing, and there's another OR&A
book in the works, due out in early January if all goes well.  (A
third famous name will almost certainly grace this cover, but I'm not
really announcing anything yet. :-)

But what I really started to say was, I'm *not* an insider.  But I
personally owe a *lot* to Larry, both for making my life easier as a
system administrator through Perl, *and* for allowing me the
opportunity to share the limelight a bit.

Larry is a true giver.  He works hard at all hours of the night so
that *we* can work a little easier. He's that way with his family, and
with his friends, and with the thousands of people that have used rn,
patch, and Perl.

Thanks, Larry.

print "Just another Perl hacker," if "not also a big Larry fan"
--
Randal L. Schwartz / Stonehenge Consulting Services [phone]
[e-mail] (guest account) [e-mail] (better for permanent record)
cute quote: "Welcome to Portland, Oregon -- home of the California Raisins!"