FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 1, 1998

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
Ellen Maremont Silver
(707)829-0515 ext. 322 silver@oreilly.com
http://www.oreilly.com/

JAVA/PERL TOOL AVAILABLE AS OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
Programmers Can Use Strengths of Two Popular Languages in the Same Environment

Sebastopol, CA--Java/Perl Lingo (JPL), software which enables programmers
to use the use the strengths of both Java and Perl in the same environment,
is now freely available as open source software. Until now, the tool has
been available exclusively in O'Reilly & Associates' Perl Resource Kit-UNIX
Edition, a commercial product. JPL was developed by Larry Wall, creator of
Perl and Senior Software Developer at O'Reilly & Associates.

JPL, available since November, 1997, is a unique project whose goal is to
seamlessly unite the two popular languages in a way which lets them
complement each other's strengths. Java excels at helping computers across
a network or the Internet communicate and share data; Perl is used
especially for system administration and interactive Web sites. JPL enables
programmers to implement Java methods with Perl, and for Perl code to
access Java via the Java Native Interface (JNI). It includes a translator
and build system that make it easy to create JPL applications.

The JPL tool and its source code are available as part of the latest
development release of Perl (version 5.005_54) and can be obtained at
http://www.perl.com/. Subscription information for the JPL mailing list is
available at http://www.perl.org/maillist.html/.

"O'Reilly has been a strong supporter of open source software, so releasing
JPL as open source matches our company values," said Gina Blaber, Director
of O'Reilly's Software Products. "JPL will benefit from the attention of
the broader development community. Further, our Perl books and software are
an important part of the O'Reilly business, so we want to thank and support
the open source community by making the JPL source available."

O'Reilly first released the Perl Resource Kit-UNIX in November, 1997,
and followed it in August with the Perl Resource Kit-Win32 Edition.