> The last version of perl4 was in '93 when perl5 started work. Perl 5.000 was released October 17, 1994. 5.004 was in '99... and then the long dark time began

> The last version of perl4 was in '93 when perl5 started work. Perl 5.000 was released October 17, 1994. 5.004 was in '99... and then the long dark time began as efforts for perl6. Four years later we got perl 5.6... and another five years for perl 5.8. Still no perl6. Some of your dates are off a bit. 5.004 was in 1997, 5.6 in 2000, 5.8 in 2002, it was only 5.10 that took 5 years after that.