Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
But that's not what was being done. Hitch talked about "hard hyphens", which is a whole different thing.
I go back rather farther, and learned the difference early. Learning not to treat an editor on a computer like a typewriter was a lesson I learned on the mainframe that was the first system I dealt with.
I had different issues. Conceptually, a word processor is a text editor, with additional features to control what the printed output looked like. Early systems made output formatting a separate process. Unix systems, for example, used the vi editor to create and edit text. Output formatting was handled by embedding code in the text that would be processed by the nroff program, which output the file fed to a printer. The old WordStar editor on DOS used "dot" commands that did not appear in the text, but were interpreted by the printer. More modern word processors combined text editing with output formatting, using a WYSIWYG format so formatting appeared onscreen.
Typewriters tended to have Line Feed and Carriage Return keys. The Line Feed key advanced the paper one line, but left the column you were on the same. The Carriage Return returned the platen to the home position, so typing would begin at the start of the line on the page. Computer editors used non-printing characters to indicate this. The Line Feed was the ASCII 11 character, and the ^J character indicated it in the text. Carriage Return was indicated by ASCII 13, or ^M.
Text editors created and edited ASCII files, and the question was what indicated End Of Line? On Unix machines and derivatives, the LF character was the EOL character. Macs using OS/9 and earlier used CR. MSDOS and Windows used both, in a CRLF combination.
I spent a fair bit of time doing line end conversions to move files between systems. For instance, I had a script at one employer running on Unix machines to create a nightly report of what was done and email it to the project managers. Unix used LF as EOL character. The mail got sent to users as an attachment in email, and they'd double-click the attachment to read it.
The standard program for text file on Windows was Notepad, and Notepad was stupid. When it encountered the LF character it advanced to a new line, but there was no CR so it didn't home the cursor. Users saw a stair-step in the attached file, and it was hard to read. I had to insert a step in the script that turned all LF characters into CRLF combos to produce output users could read. (Editors I used all understood *nix conventions and displayed the files properly.)
I think Notepad on Windows is a bit smarter these days, but since the first thing I do is replace Notepad with something better, I don't know for sure.
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Dennis
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I did take typing in high school. (Two different classes at the same time.) Old electrics (not the good selectrics in typing class). And a newer typewriter in Vocational Office Education. 10 key, typing and whatever Mr. Davis could think of for me to do.
I was supposed to be in Coordinated Vocational Academic Education, but the teacher knew I could master a tax form in a hurry and didn't want me bored so she made a deal with Mr Davis that I could do first semester VOE that semester, then my senior year, do second semester and just test the packets he loved 3rd semester.
I missed senior year, I had a case of the stupids instead.
When I went to college years later, I had a Brother word processor, then later a homemade computer (my brother put it together for me.) Been through several computers since then.
Notepad was a 4 letter word. Yuck.
So now what is a hard hyphen?