About the Authors Larry Wall Larry originally created Perl while a programmer at Unisys. He now works full time guiding the future development of Perl as a researcher and developer at O'Reilly & Associates. Larry is currently developing the software for the first Perl Resource Kit. Well known for his idiosyncratic and thought-provoking approach to programming, Larry is also known for his groundbreaking contributions to the culture of freeware programming. He is the principal author of the bestselling Programming Perl, known colloquially as "the Camel book." Ellen Siever Ellen is a writer at O'Reilly & Associates, where she has also been a production editor and tools specialist. Before that, she was a programmer for many years at various high tech companies in the Boston area, until she decided that she'd rather play with words than bytes. She has degrees from the University of Chicago and MIT, neither of which is in computer science. David Futato David has a bachelor of science in creative writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, so – with such a unique degree – O'Reilly seemed like the logical choice; David has worked as a production editor at O'Reilly for more than two years. Stepping to the other side of the fence for the Perl Resource Kit, this is David's first full writing/editorial assignment. He lives just outside of Boston with his husband Ron, their two cats, Cairo and Minsk, and more CDs and vinyl than any one person should own. Brian Jepson Brian is a "100-foot-tall nonstudent" who specialized in Social Sabotage as a student at the University of Rhode Island. His now-defunct coffeehouse, Cafe de la Tete, was part of a successful "culture jamming" experiment disguised as a program for mass liberation. Not content to enjoy the relaxed life of a coffee house operator and student, Brian made his way to Wall Street, where he remained cleverly disguised as a database programmer for many years. After picking up a copy of Programming Perl, he entered a larval stage, and emerged with the realization that Perl's aesthetic and culture would allow him to get back to where he was trying to get to in the first place. Wherever that is...