Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz!hrc!gtx!sue
From: sue@gtx.com (Sue Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: ^Z in files (was: Unix-like cat for MS-DOS)
Message-ID: <1129@gtx.com>
Date: 14 Aug 89 01:59:24 GMT
References: <380@wjh12.harvard.edu> <1436@mks.UUCP>
Reply-To: sue@gtx.UUCP (Sue Miller)
Distribution: na
Organization: GTX Corporation, Phoenix, Arizona
Lines: 22

In article <1436@mks.UUCP> andy@mks.waterloo.edu (Andy Toy) writes:
>Why, oh why, do programmes insist on putting ^Z in files?  ^Z is just
>another character and it could be in files for real.  There is
>absolutely no reason to have ^Z in MS-DOS files because there no
>requirement for a MS-DOS file to end in ^Z.  The actual size of
>the files is stored elsewhere.


  I have always rather fuzzily assumed that ^Z was a requirement for
MS-DOS 1.0 or so.  Is this true?  I have then further assumed that it
is a vestigial leftover that many developers have preserved Just In Case
that there may still be some people who are still using that antique OS.
The reason I assume that MS-DOS 1.0 might have used ^Z is because I 
remember that CP/M used it, and MS-DOS is quite heavily based on CP/M.
My next question is:  Why the heck was ^Z used for EOF?  That seems a very
strange choice.

-- 
             listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door; 
                             let's go.        
   __________________________________       ee cummings
  |Sue Miller ...!sun!sunburn!gtx!sue|