uucp VS 4.2

[trb at masscomp.UUCP]

Re:
	Regarding changing the default line kill character from '@' to
	ctl-U:  it may break one or two things temporarily, but I'd say
	it's a change that's vastly overdue.  Using printing characters
	for line editing is an anachronism that should go the way of
	using UNIX on a DECwriter over a 300 baud line.

Nah, I think that the change is vastly underdue in getty's case.  Why?
gummo!ber told me about the wonderful grace of giving getty an atsign
enema.  Obviously, if the remote system is at the right baud rate, the
atsign will clear crap (if any) out of getty's input buffer.  Less
obviously, if getty is at a baud rate that's too fast, the atsign will
effect a baud rate change on the remote UNIX.  This is true because an
atsign is has the binary value 01000000, and if if you send it too
slowly, you'll get a cute little one bit with no stop bit.  Hence,
frame error, which the remote detects as break, and presto, UNIX
changes gears.  This is why it's a good idea to cycle the speeds in
your getty tables from fastest to slowest.

^U is 00010101, which isn't pretty when you're looking for a long
string of 0's to look like a break.  Anyway, if UCB wanted to be cool,
they should have hacked getty/login to accept @, ^X, and ^U for kill
and #, ^H, and DEL for erase.

I think that changing getty/login to ONLY accept DEL/^U is an extremely
losing idea.  L.sys entries will be broken all over the universe.  (No,
I don't use @/#, nor do I use DEL/^U.)

	Andy Tannenbaum   Masscomp Inc  Westford MA   (617) 692-6200 x274