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Cyhist Mar 12 1997 F
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Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 12:48:46 -0500
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: John Cowan <cowan@CCIL.ORG>
Organization: Lojban Peripheral
Subject: Re: Games and XYZZY
X-cc: Eric Raymond <esr@ccil.org>
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Leslie Pearson wrote:
>In 1983, WPI was donated a Data General MV8000 (the machine documented in the book The Soul of A New Machine). If you typed XYZZY at the command prompt, it said nothing happens :)
The Jargon File (http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon.html) saith:
# Xyzzy has actually been implemented as an undocumented no-op # command on several OSes; in Data General's AOS/VS, for example, it # would typically respond "Nothing happens", just as ADVENT did if # the magic was invoked at the wrong spot or before a player had # performed the action that enabled the word. In more recent 32-bit # versions, by the way, AOS/VS responds "Twice as much happens".
And on locke.ccil.org, the command prints out:
Nothing happens, in accordance with IEEE 1003.2.
Note for the humor-impaired: POSIX.2 does not really specify an "xyzzy" command, but nothing prevents a program which doesn't comply with a standard from claiming compliance: standards specify only the behavior of compliant objects, not non-compliant ones. Hence the infamous Microsoft definition of __STDC__ as 0, meaning "sort of ISO C, but not really".
--
John Cowan cowan@ccil.org
e'osai ko sarji la lojban
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: John Cowan <cowan@CCIL.ORG>
Organization: Lojban Peripheral
Subject: Re: Games and XYZZY
X-cc: Eric Raymond <esr@ccil.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Leslie Pearson wrote:
>In 1983, WPI was donated a Data General MV8000 (the machine documented in the book The Soul of A New Machine). If you typed XYZZY at the command prompt, it said nothing happens :)
The Jargon File (http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon.html) saith:
# Xyzzy has actually been implemented as an undocumented no-op # command on several OSes; in Data General's AOS/VS, for example, it # would typically respond "Nothing happens", just as ADVENT did if # the magic was invoked at the wrong spot or before a player had # performed the action that enabled the word. In more recent 32-bit # versions, by the way, AOS/VS responds "Twice as much happens".
And on locke.ccil.org, the command prints out:
Nothing happens, in accordance with IEEE 1003.2.
Note for the humor-impaired: POSIX.2 does not really specify an "xyzzy" command, but nothing prevents a program which doesn't comply with a standard from claiming compliance: standards specify only the behavior of compliant objects, not non-compliant ones. Hence the infamous Microsoft definition of __STDC__ as 0, meaning "sort of ISO C, but not really".
--
John Cowan cowan@ccil.org
e'osai ko sarji la lojban
______________________________________________________________________
