jjn1056,

Lessons learned here could be to take regular backups and use a CVS system, but I'm sure you really don't want to hear that now :)

However to address you immediate issue (loss of source code), people often compile Perl apps containing sensitive data such as database connection strings so that others can't easily access this data as plain text. I don't mean this to sound rude, but for all we know this exe is not yours, and you are trying to extract the source code for someone else's work. I agree with holli, that you should firstly contact ActiveState support or ask on the pdk mailing list.

Martin