May 15, 2003

hello sailor!

interj.

Occasional West Coast equivalent of hello world; seems to have originated at SAIL, later associated with the game Zork (which also included hello, aviator and hello, implementor). Originally from the traditional hooker's greeting to a swabbie fresh off the boat, of course. The standard response is Nothing happens here.; of all the Zork/Dungeon games, only in Infocom's Zork 3 is Hello, Sailor actually useful (excluding the unique situation where _knowing_ this fact is important in Dungeon...).

Posted by Jargon File at May 15, 2003 10:43 AM

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