There's a few other names that I recall of similar influence on me from way back in the "Perl 4 is only reliable way to make websites dynamic" days. Randal Schwartz. Toms Christiansen and Phoenix. Tad McLelland(sp?) Simon Cozens, brian d foy - without hints/examples/advice in comp.lang.perl.misc from them (and others) I 100% wouldn't have ended up where I am today (whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is, perhaps, still up for argument...)