[oak perl] beginning perl question

[Sandy Santra]

Hi, folks...  I'm a super newbie with a *very* beginning perl question.

I'm writing scripts with PFE 1.01 on a Win98 machine using PerlIndigo to 
execute them.  My perl program (I think version 5.6.1) is located in the 
"c:\pearindigo\bin" directory and I put a PATH statement in my autoexec.bat 
so that typing "perl" at a command line would allow Windows to find the 
program.  My scripts are stored in a directory of their own and I run them 
from a DOS window with the prompt set to the same directory.

What I'm confused about is (1) how to run the scripts, and (2) what goes in 
the first line of the script.

For example, if I type "perl hello" from the command line, the "hello" 
script executes.  Great.

Now the first line of said script is "#!perl".  If I *remove* said first 
line ("#!perl") and type "perl hello" again, the script *still* 
executes.  Why?  How can it work without that first line identifier?

If I type just "hello" from the command line, I get "bad command or file 
name," whether I have that first line or not.  (Is it possible to get 
*that* to work?  How?)

See, it's nice to know that I can omit that first line from my scripts (and 
I would love to know why), but what I'd really like is to be able to 
execute the script by just typing its name at the DOS window prompt without 
"perl" in front of it.

Sorry for such boneheaded questions.  Thanks in advance.

--Sandy Santra