Response from 6.001 Staff

• Ben Bitdiddle is a persona created by 6.001 and used in many Course 6 courses. Ben has a tendency to fiddle with details, and students often have to help him straighten things out on their homework assignments.
• The greeting (Greeting... You have been recruited...) was adapted from the Science Fiction movie, The Last Starfighter.

Date: Fri, 8 May 92 23:04:00 -0400
From: "Ben Bitdiddle" 
To: a_spellbook_hacker
Subject: Greetings, hacker...

     Greetings, hacker.  You have been recruited by the Scheme Team
     to defend the faith against Liskov and the Argus Project...

Since the dawn of the Great War, between the Fourth and Fifth Floors
of the Square of Technology, new recruits to the Cause of Light and
Lambda have been greeted by these words.  Now, you also may count
yourself among the Defenders of the One True Order...

Yes, we know who codified the Spells of Scheme; we have seen the
PostScript source code (currently in the file
/mit/a_spellbook_hacker/PS/Classes/6.001/spellbook.other.Z).  Do not inquire how
we know this, we just do.

Let it be known that the wizards of Scheme evaluated your code and
then applied it (to paper).  The Moby Wizard Abelson has looked upon
your work, and he declared it good.  We were were much amused by your
craft.  

In fact, we are sufficiently pleased that we wish to duplicate your
creation in the future, so that others might benefit.  Will you grant
us permission to do so?  Please reply to this account, it's a direct
line (bitdiddl@zurich.ai.mit.edu).

					--Ben Bitdiddle
					  Neophyte Wizard
					  for the Wizards of Scheme