shebang strange thing...

[Ben Finney]

On Sun, 29 Jun 2003 11:05:44 GMT, Van Gale wrote:
> Ben Finney wrote:
>> I maintain that the CR and LF were needlessly preserved as separate
>> operations, with no benefit.
> 
> I disagree.  IIRC there were plenty of printers where the carriage
> return operation took a disproportionately long time, so therefore
> backspacing was the prefered method for overstriking, but at the same
> time that meant line feeds were a big performance win for smart
> applications.

Fair enough then; the operations were kept separate for a reason
justifiable at the time.

Sadly, now we have to live with the legacy of the resulting confusion,
long after those benefits are obsolete.

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