Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!gwyn From: gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn) Newsgroups: net.unix Subject: Re: '#' as comment character vs. '#' as erase character Message-ID: <11388@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Fri, 5-Jul-85 12:44:26 EDT Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.11388 Posted: Fri Jul 5 12:44:26 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 7-Jul-85 04:40:35 EDT References: <291@ucdavis.UUCP> <2401@pegasus.UUCP>, <2360@sun.uucp> <5750@utzoo.UUCP> Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 10 > > 2) Why were the '#' and '@' characters used as editing characters, > > other than nostalgia for Multics (which used lots of weird IBM > > 2741 printing terminals over half-duplex lines, and couldn't > > do much better)... > The older UNIXes in cooked mode would echo everything one typed, including control characters. About the only safe characters to use for "magic" things were printable characters such as \ # @. This works out better on hardcopy terminals, too, which is what most of the original UNIX terminals were.