Okay, I give up. What is the real story?

[Kent Paul Dolan]

kirkaas at makaha.cs.ucla.edu (paul kirkaas) writes:

>What the heck is the history behind "xyzzy" ????  I've seen so many
>references to it here I feel like I'm missing a vital piece of
>historic computer lore.

>What gives?  What is the origin of xyzzy, what is it supposed to
>do; how have so many people heard of it???

I can only justify posting this because it will be the first answer on
_my_ machine.  ;-)

In Adventure, the original, very first computer text adventure, by Crowther
and Woods, the magic word "xyzzy" is a short-cut from the hut next to
the starting point of the adventure, to a location well into the adventure,
and back.  When you type xyzzy at either end of the magic path, you are
whisked to the other end.  When you type it anywhere else, the response is
"Nothing happens".

Adventure has been ported to many systems, and so has been played through by
many people, thus the widely known "in joke".

The implication of "Nothing happens" in the Data General OS is that if you
were in the correct location (directory), something _would_ happen.  From
an earlier posting, that is, or was, /etc.

By the way, Adventure is also the source of the line "you are in a maze of
twisty little passages, all alike", in case that one also had you confused.

                                                           /// It's Amiga
                                                          /// for me:  why
Kent, the man from xanth.                             \\\///   settle for
<xanthian at Zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <xanthian at well.sf.ca.us>   \XX/  anything less?
--
Convener, ongoing comp.sys.amiga grand reorganization.