[Coco] End-of-Line Character

Roger Taylor operator at coco3.com
Sun May 6 13:21:07 EDT 2007


At 03:54 PM 5/5/2007, you wrote:
>With the CoCo, I cannot remember for the life of me what constitutes 
>the end-of-line character in DECB. Does it use CHR$(10) or CHR$(13) 
>or both? It's been way too long since I worked with this.


I'm sure you'll get plenty of replies, but the CoCo uses only a 
single character (13) for the Carriage Return.

I think this is probably the biggest stinkin' issue with computer 
file compatibility, and I can't understand why print drivers, 
terminal programs, etc. can't just add a line feed (10) if one is 
needed for the end device used to print or display the file.  Some 
computers use just a line feed (10) for the carriage return, causing 
an even bigger headache, but you knew this, too.  I think any OS that 
does this was purposely designed that way as a rebelious act. :)  It 
just goes to prove that nobody really sticks to the standards anymore.

Even some of the text file converters are a nightmare, making you 
specify command-line switches as if you already know what format the 
file is in.  There's also the issue of whether 10 comes before 13 or 
after.  Maybe we need a command that lets you specify -fromwindows 
-tolinux, or -fromlinux -tococo, etc.


-- 
Roger Taylor





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