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How UUCP Addresses Came Into Being

wht@n4hgf.gatech.edu (Warren Tucker)
Tridom Corporation, VSAT communications leader, an ATT subsidiary

(usenet, national stereotypes)

This came to me as I was explaining domain vs. uucp addresses to
a friend:

Bang paths are more ancient than the Internet.  As a matter of
fact, bang paths were often seen as early as 4500 years ago back
in ancient China when too much gunpowder got put into the
fireworks.  When such pyrotechnics went off, you would hear
things like "Choi!  Lo!  Ying-Chow!  Run!".  Over the years, this
type of addressing became contracted to "Choi!Lo!Ying-Chow!Run!".
When UNIX began its life, either the developers were lazy or the
ASR-33 teletypes they were using mandated the use of primarily
one case (your guess is as good as mine).  Anyway, early versions
of UNIX had pyrotechnics of their own.  Rumor has it the first
PDP-11 to run Version 0.1 just took off and flew across the room,
smoking and flaming.  Hence, one bright Bell Labs engineer, who
just happened to be a student of Ancient Chinese History (less
esoteric than many areas of UNIX study) came up with the idea to
use Bang Addressing.  Hence the now familiar form:
     choi!lo!ying-chow!run!username

(From the "Rest" of RHF)

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