Reply to post: Re: Vi

Windows Notepad fixed after 33 years: Now it finally handles Unix, Mac OS line endings

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Re: Vi

DOS and Windows treat text files as though they are going to be printed by a teletype, which did use separate line feed and carriage return characters to move to the next line and then the beginning of the line respectively. This was because early teletypes were simple electro mechanical devices, and at the baud rate they operated it took the same time to line feed and carriage return as it did to print two characters.

Interestingly, although Unix came from a telecoms background, it didn't have this requirement for text files. I assume that when sending data to a mechanical teletype via a phone line a carriage return character would be transmitted before each line feed.

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