Xyzzy (computing)
In
Origin
Modern usage is primarily from one of the earliest computer games,
The origin of the word "xyzzy" has been the subject of debate. According to Ron Hunsinger, the sequence of letters "XYZZY" has been used as a mnemonic to remember the process for computing
Usage
Operating systems
Xyzzy has been implemented as an undocumented
When booting a
According to Brantley Coile, the Cisco PIX firewall had a xyzzy command that simply said "Nothing happens." He also put the command into the Coraid VSX to escape the CLI and get into the shell. It would announce "Foof! You are in a directory. There are files here." The new California Coraid management made the developers change the string to "/exportmode" and get rid of the "Foof!" message.[citation needed] Since regaining ownership of the Coraid software, the command is being returned to the system and now, in VSX release 8, the response is ">>Foof!<< You are in a debris room."
Application programs
Within the low-traffic
A "deluxe chatting program" for DIGITAL's VAX/VMS written by David Bolen in 1987 and distributed via BITNET took the name xyzzy. It enabled users on the same system or on linked DECnet nodes to communicate via text in real time. There was a compatible program with the same name for IBM's VM/CMS.[11]
xYzZY is used as the default boundary marker by the Perl HTTP::Message module for multipart MIME messages,[12] and was used in Apple's AtEase for workgroups as the default administrator password in the 1990s.[citation needed]
The
In most versions of the Ingres dbms, select xyzzy('')
returns "Nothing happens." However, select xyzzy('wim')
returns "Nothing happens to Wim". The xyzzy()
function has been part of the Ingres product since at least version 5 (late 1980s), but was removed from the main codeline sometime in the early 2000s. While talking to one of the members of the Ingres development team, Wim de Boer, at that time the secretary of the Ingres Users Group Nederland (IUGN), mentioned the removal of this Easter egg. This developer, who was a frequent speaker at the events organised by the IUGN, managed to put the function back into the product and—especially for Wim—added handling for the 'wim' value of the parameter.
Other computer games and media
The popular xyzzy
, then pressing the key sequence shift and then enter, which turned a single pixel in the top-left corner of the entire screen into a small black or white dot depending on whether or not the mouse pointer is over a mine.[13] This easter egg was present in all Windows versions through Windows XP Service Pack 3, but under Windows 95, 98 and NT 4.0 the pixel was visible only if the standard Explorer desktop was not running. The easter egg does not exist in versions after Windows XP SP3.[14]
In the game
In the 1994 game Road Rash, if the user were to enter "xyzzy" in the main menu,[15] they could access several cheats such as nitrous refills, oil refills, etc.
In the 2022 game Return to Monkey Island the code is written on a sign at the entrance of a cave labyrinth. Ripping the sign off and using it in the cave, which leads to reading it, lets the protagonist, Guybrush Threepwood, return to the entrance of the cave.[16]
References
- ^ xyzzy in the Jargon File.
- ^ David Welbourn. "Xyzzy responses". A web page giving responses to "xyzzy" in many games of interactive fiction.
- ^ Rick Adams. "Everything you ever wanted to know about…the magic word XYZZY". The Colossal Cave Adventure page.
- ^ Dennis G. Jerz (12 September 2007). "Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original "Adventure" in Code and in Kentucky". Digital Humanities Quarterly. 001 (2).
- ^ Rick Adams. "Everything you ever wanted to know about…the magic word XYZZY". The Colossal Cave Adventure page.
- ^ "Sun Integrated Lights Out Manager 2.0 Supplement for the Sun Blade X6275 Server Module" (PDF). p. 17. Retrieved 2009-08-20.
- ^ Wells, Brad. "How I cracked the Cr-48 Easter Egg". Archived from the original on 2 September 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
- ^ Wells, Brad. "Cr-48 Joke BSOD Screen". Archived from the original on 11 November 2012. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
- ^ "Pidgin source code repository".
See gtkconv.c
- ^ "mIRC - Encrypted internal strings".
- ^ David Bolen (August 24, 1989). "VAX/VMS XYZZY Reference Card".
- ISBN 0-596-00178-9
- ^ eeggs.com. "Windows 2000 Easter Eggs - Eeggs.com". Eeggs.com. Retrieved 2009-08-20.
- ^ "Minesweeper Cheat codes".
- ^ "Road Rash Cheats, Codes, and Secrets for PC - GameFAQs". gamefaqs.gamespot.com. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
- ^ "Return To Monkey Island: How To Find The Secret". Screenrant.com. Retrieved 2024-06-11.