Using IBM's choice of Linux and Apache as an example, the compiler is not theirs, it's GCC. Also, when I was doing support for biochemical and statistical modelling at Merck, the scientists choice was GCC over the HP native compiler. (porting GCC to HPUX was one of my responsibilities) Linux itself thrives as the least common denominator principle and its world market share will keep increasing-- base compiler GCC. MinGW GCC is coming along on the Win32 platform and this is where I plan to cut my teeth. Maybe this is where corporate involvement is most appropriate, they can patch the GCC-isms that dont meld w/ their own compilers. Perl gurus can instead concentrate on moving forward w/ the implementation. Bringing these huge companies on board w/ Perl as it is presently licensed may prevent the same kind of ugliness that errupted between Microsoft and Sun. By the time the dust settles, Java may not be worth fighting over, but Perl might ;) John
