"On a very early computer system, which lacked any shared directory structure but also lacked any protection tools, a programmer invented a novel way of making the game available to several users. A version of the game existed in one user's directory. Whenever he played the game, the program made a copy of itself into another directory. ... If that directory had previously no version of ANIMAL, the game had been offered to yet another user."
...ANIMAL was such a popular game that eventually every directory in the company system contained a copy. "Furthermore, as employees of the company were transferred to other divisions...they took ANIMAL as well, and thus it spread from machine to machine within the company." ... Only when someone devised a more "virulent" version of the game was the situation brought under control. When the new version of ANIMAL was played, it copied itself into other directories not once but twice. Given enough time, it was thought, this program would eventually overwrite all the old versions of ANIMAL. After a year had passed, a certain date triggered each copy of the new ANIMAL program. "Instead of replicating itself twice whenever it was invoked, it now played one final game, wished the user `goodbye' and then deleted itself, And thus ANIMAL was purged from the system."
posted by Pete Gilbert @ 3:12 pm
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