On Nov 21, 12:12 am, Steven D'Aprano <st...@remove-this- cybersource.com.au> wrote: > On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:22:22 -0800, Scott David Daniels wrote: > > > If you've actually typed on a physical typewriter, you know that moving > > the carriage back is a distinct operation from rolling the platen > > forward; > > I haven't typed on a physical typewriter for nearly a quarter of a > century. > > If you've typed on a physical typewriter, you'll know that to start a new > page, you have to roll the platen forward until the page ejects, then > move the typewriter guide forward to leave space, then feed a new piece > of paper into the typewriter by hand, then roll the platen again until > the page is under the guide, then push the guide back down again. That's > FIVE distinct actions, and if you failed to do them, you would type but > no letters would appear on the (non-existent) page. Perhaps we should > specify that text files need a five-character sequence to specify a new > page too? > > > both operations are accomplished when you push the carriage > > back using the bar, but you know they are distinct. Hell, MIT even had > > "line starve" character that moved the cursor up (or rolled the platen > > back). > > </rant> > > > Lots of people talk about "dos-mode files" and "windows files" as if > > Microsoft got it wrong; it did not -- Unix made up a convenient fiction > > and people went along with it. (And, yes, if Unix had been there first, > > their convention was, in fact, better). > > This makes zero sense. If Microsoft "got it right", then why is the Unix > convention "convenient" and "better"? Since we're not using teletype > machines, I would say Microsoft is now using an *inconvenient* fiction. > > -- > Steven
It's been a long time since I have typed on a physical typewriter as well, but I still vaguely remember all the crazy things I had to do to get the tab key to produce a predictable indentation on the paper output. I agree with Steven that "\r\n" is completely insane. If you are going to couple character sets to their legacy physical implementations, you should also have a special extra character to dot your i's and cross your t's. Apparently neither Unix or Microsoft got that right. I mean, think about it, dotting the i is a distinct operation from creating the undotted "i." ;) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list