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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!ima!mirror!cca!dee
From: dee@cca.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,rec.games.hack
Subject: Re: MacHack
Message-ID: <12880@cca.CCA.COM>
Date: Sat, 7-Feb-87 09:52:53 EST
Article-I.D.: cca.12880
Posted: Sat Feb  7 09:52:53 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 9-Feb-87 01:36:44 EST
References: <11956@sun.uucp> <169@uop-wirth.UUCP> <620@mcgill-vision.UUCP>
Reply-To: dee@CCA.UUCP (Donald Eastlake)
Organization: Computer Corp. of America, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 28
Xref: watmath comp.sys.mac:1201 rec.games.hack:213

In article <620@mcgill-vision.UUCP> mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse) writes:
>> Subject: Re: Mac HACK status (you asked for it...)
>
>Oh my.... MacHack?  You mean it plays chess too?  Can I bet on the
>outcome of the game?  Do we have not only shops but also chess clubs?
>					der Mouse
>[For those who don't know....MacHack was (is?) a chess-playing program
> running on a pdp-something at MIT back in the good old bad old days...
> I think.]

MacHack was the official name under which the Greenblatt Chess Program, which
I worked on, was registered with the US Chess Federation.  It was the first
program to get an official rating and participate in tournaments.  The name
came from Project MAC at MIT.  MAC was held to stand for both "Machine Aided
Cognition" and "Multiple Access Computers" as it did a log of early time
sharing and AI work (at some times the MIT AI Lab was part of Project MAC).
When the name Project MAC became less appropriate, there were proposals to
change it but all polls taken indicated that those there wished to retain the
old name.  Eventually a new director came along who didn't bother to take a
poll and just changed the name to LCS (Laboratory for Computer Science) but
with the compromise the "Formerly Project MAC" would appear on the letterhead
for a year.  This provoked a hack memo about how the 5th floor Men's Room
in the building was being renamed the Lavatory for Computer Science but as
a compromise the toilet paper would, for the next year, be imprinted with
"Formerly the 5th Floor Men's Room".
-- 
	+1 617-492-8860		Donald E. Eastlake, III
	ARPA: dee@CCA.CCA.COM	usenet:	{cbosg,decvax,linus}!cca!dee