Historical question: LF vs. CR\LF in text files

Mark Warren mwarren at mips2.cr.bull.com
Wed May 30 21:42:22 AEST 1990


In article <952 at ashton.UUCP> tomr at ashton.UUCP (Tom Rombouts) writes:
> ... relating to the differences between
>UNIX vs. DOS (and CP/M, correct?) in handling end of lines, I am
>wondering how this started.  Since UNIX came first, I am going to
>guess that at some time, somewhere someone said "Hey - let's add
>a carriage return!"
>
"Unix came first" ????  Ulp!  Makes me feel pretty old.  The simple
history relates to the olden days, when boys were boys, men were men,
and advanced computer terminals were Teletype Corp. ASR33's with cute
little 10 cps paper tape readers on the side.  Quite simply, as in a
standard typewriter (the old fashioned kind that did not have a
computer attached, or even an electrical cord), the real physical
indication of the end of a line was a carriage return, followed by a
new line.
-- 

 == Mark Warren                      Bull HN Information Systems Inc. ==
 == (508) 671-3171 (FAX 671-3020)    300 Concord Road     MS820A      ==
 == mwarren at granite.cr.bull.com      Billerica, MA 01821              ==



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