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Xenophon · 02-17-2012, 05:27 PM

For those of you old enough to remember the ASR-33 Teletype:

"Some girls hug and some girls kiss
And SOME girls like to go like this..."
<UPPERCASE><lowercase><UPPERCASE><lowercase><UPPER CASE><lowercase><UPPERCASE><lowercase><UPPERCASE>< lowercase><UPPERCASE><lowercase> [repeat, ad infinitum]

For this to really make sense, you have to know that uppercase and lowercase were control codes sent over the wire. They caused the teletype to move its printhead UP <for uppercase> or DOWN <for lowercase>, regardless of whether any other characters were sent. So the teletype's print head would make a terrible racket as it went UPdownUPdownUPdown...

Xenophon
(Yes, I'm old enough to remember using an ASR-33. But I was young enough at the time that I didn't get the above joke.

)

02-17-2012, 05:27 PM	#113
Xenophon curmudgeon Posts: 1,487 Karma: 5748190 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Redwood City, CA USA Device: Kobo Aura HD, (ex)nook, (ex)PRS-700, (ex)PRS-500	For those of you old enough to remember the ASR-33 Teletype: "Some girls hug and some girls kiss And SOME girls like to go like this..." <UPPERCASE><lowercase><UPPERCASE><lowercase><UPPER CASE><lowercase><UPPERCASE><lowercase><UPPERCASE>< lowercase><UPPERCASE><lowercase> [repeat, ad infinitum] For this to really make sense, you have to know that uppercase and lowercase were control codes sent over the wire. They caused the teletype to move its printhead UP <for uppercase> or DOWN <for lowercase>, regardless of whether any other characters were sent. So the teletype's print head would make a terrible racket as it went UPdownUPdownUPdown... Xenophon (Yes, I'm old enough to remember using an ASR-33. But I was young enough at the time that I didn't get the above joke. )