[OT] Re: are there some special about '\x1a' symbol

[Gabriel Genellina]

En Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:00:16 -0200, John Machin <sjmachin at lexicon.net>  
escribió:

> I didn't think your question was stupid. Stupid was (a) CP/M recording
> file size as number of 128-byte sectors, forcing the use of an in-band
> EOF marker for text files (b) MS continuing to regard Ctrl-Z as an EOF
> decades after people stopped writing Ctrl-Z at the end of text files.

This is called "backwards compatibility" and it's a good thing :)
Consider the Atucha II nuclear plant, started in 1980, based on a design  
 from 1965, and still unfinished. People require access to the complete  
design, plans, specifications, CAD drawings... decades after they were  
initially written.
I actually do use (and maintain! -- ugh!) some DOS programs. Some people  
would have a hard time if they could not read their old data with new  
programs.
Even Python has a "print" statement decades after nobody uses a teletype  
terminal anymore...

-- 
Gabriel Genellina