Editing Xyzzy (computing) (section)

==Origin==
Modern usage is primarily from one of the earliest computer games, ''[[Colossal Cave Adventure]]'', in which the player explores a cave with many rooms, collecting the treasures found there. By typing "xyzzy" at the appropriate time, the player could move instantly between two otherwise distant points. As ''Colossal Cave Adventure'' was both one of the first [[adventure games]] and one of the first [[interactive fiction]] pieces, hundreds of later interactive fiction games included responses to the command "xyzzy" in tribute.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.plover.net/~davidw/sol/xyzzy.html |title= Xyzzy responses |author= David Welbourn}} A web page giving responses to "xyzzy" in many games of interactive fiction.</ref>

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 [[Cross Product#Mnemonic|cross product]]s.<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/c_xyzzy.html |title= Everything you ever wanted to know about…the magic word XYZZY |work= The Colossal Cave Adventure page |author= Rick Adams }}</ref> [[Will Crowther]], the author of ''Colossal Cave Adventure'', states that he was unaware of the mnemonic, and that he "made it up from whole cloth" when writing the game.<ref name="paper">{{cite journal |url= http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/001/2/000009.html |title= Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original "Adventure" in Code and in Kentucky |author= Dennis G. Jerz |journal= Digital Humanities Quarterly |date= 12 September 2007 |volume= 001 |issue= 2 }}</ref>