Michael has explained his authorship of UUCP as a stop gap. The networking team was building the real solution and it was due in three weeks. So he wrote UUCP to fill in until the official solution arrived.

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nygeek.net

On Thu, Jan 16, 2025 at 11:05 AM Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:

> I often repeat a throwaway sentence that UUCP was Lesk,
> building a bug fix distribution mechanism.

> Am I completely wrong? I am sure Mike said this to me mid 80s.

That was an important motivating factor, but Mike also had an
unerring anticipatory sense of public "need". Thus his programs
spread like wildfire despite their bugs. UUCP itself is the premier
example. Its popularity impelled its inclusion in v7 despite its
woeful disregard for security.

> Does anyone have [Robert Morris's UUCP CSTR]? Doug?

Not I.

Doug