On Thursday 29 May 2008 21:28, Miles Fidelman wrote:
> Ron Johnson wrote:
> > Since 90% of all computers are DOS/Windows, and got that method from
> > CP/M, which did it that way back in 1976/77, your "gratuitously
> > different" comment is absurdly wrong.
>
> Actually, it dates back further than that, to ASR33 teletype machines,
> where you needed to issue separate carriage return and line feed
> characters to end a line - to i) physically return the carriage to the
> beginning of the line, and ii) feed a line of paper (turn the platten).
> (Anybody else out there old enough to remember when ASR33s where THE
> standard i/o device? :-)
I don't recall it being THE standard, but I recall that numerous
research Unix servers used to have DECwriter consoles as late as
the mid-1980s.
These had one small advantage over modern consoles, namely, they
were pretty loud. Sysadmins could use this to simulate psychic
powers -- when the server wrote an error message to its console,
you could hear it, subtly but distinctly, from several rooms
away. You could then announce to your less-attentive colleagues,
"there's a server problem," and they'd never figure out how
you knew.
Not that I ever did that. Purely hypothetical, you understand.
-- A.
--
Andrew Reid / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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