the xalam to xalan!

heard of xalan.jar?? the java jar file u use alongwith xercesImpl.jar for xml parsing and other stuff .. ever wondered where the weird sounding name came from? here it is .. it originated from the "xalam" - a west african (senegal, to be precise) stringed instrument (http://www.geocities.com/jbenhill/xalam.html) .. just like other jargon in the java world, which includes the word "java" itself (some noteworthy others being apache, xerces, geronimo, jakarta, lenya, struts, batik and so on), this too has some good history behind it .. now why the javagurus choose such weirdo names is a mystery to me .. but it's nice to have some history behind such things .. it takes ur mind off the mundane (read 'coding and designing') and once in a while delve into west african jungles or martian soils!