http://www.perl.com/pub/a/1999/01/foy.html


Perl Monger started as a play on PM. The initial New York user group was called NY.pm to make is look like a module, especially since "use NYpm" could be a phone number (although 212-use-NYpm) was taken. We figured P stood for Perl, but we couldn't figure out M, so we made it a regular expression: /M((o|u)ngers|aniacs)*/. Unfortunately, the State of New York wouldn't accept a regex as a corporation name, and "Monger" seemed to fit the Bedouin motif that has grown up around Perl, so it became the part of the name of the corporation.

The term "Perl monger" is also loosely used to described any Perl hacker, evangelist, or missionary. My dictionary describes a monger as "a dealer in a specific commodity". That certainly seems like what we are.


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I don't know if I can stick that on the www.pm.org FAQ or not. Copyright? -ponder-

j


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