Re: Mac vs unix Carriage returns on a text file format
Re: Mac vs unix Carriage returns on a text file format
- Subject: Re: Mac vs unix Carriage returns on a text file format
- From: "Dennis W. Manasco" <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 04:02:43 -0500
At 3:42 PM -0700 4/4/05, Christopher Nebel wrote:
<lore class="apocryphal">
I was once told that the reason "carriage return" and "line feed"
were separate operations was for timing reasons, plus the fact that
sufficiently old TTYs didn't have any sort of buffer. It took a
while to move the print head back to the beginning of the line, so
by separating out the "line feed" part, they made the complete "move
to beginning of next line" operation take *two* characters worth of
time, which gave the print head time to make it back. This also
explains why it's carriage return then line feed, and not the other
way around.
</lore>
Quite possible. I never heard of this, but it does make sense.
However, didn't underline and strike-over require CR not performing
an LF on the older TTYs?
(I'm thinking specifically of the old "giant yellow roll of unperf
paper" ones that usually had a paper-tape reader attached, but
generalizing to their contemporaries.)
IIRC you had to do a CR to get back to the beginning of the line,
then TAB/SP to get to where you wanted your effect, do
underline/strike-over, [repeat], then CR+LF to get to the next line.
I'd guess you'd have had to do the same thing on a line-printer when
batch processing, but I never tried for special effects with a card
deck: Waiting from one AM to one thirty to find out that on your 10th
batch you'd made a typo on card 290 of a 300-card deck actively
discouraged underclassmen from wasting paper on something as useless
as "pretty" formatting....
Best wishes,
-=-Dennis
.
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Applescript-users mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden