note punch_card_don Ya, I don't know. I can think of few things more fleeting or temporary than a computer program. <p> Some simple stone masons built the frame of my house about a century ago. Their work is likely to still contribute to the character of a community another century from now. <p> The Perl code I wrote today,on the other hand. will be erased and long forgotten before babies born this same day finish high school. <p> Hope that gets nobody's shorts in a knot - but it's a fact of life that except for really exceptional creations, like inventing Perl, programming is probably the least likely road to creating anything lasting or worth being remembered for. <p> That said, it is the lot in life of most techies to make infinitesmal contributions to progress that will never be recognized by more than the week's paycheck. 643317 643426