Why Is Escaping Data Considered So Magical?

[Roy Smith]

In article <mailman.14.1277891765.1673.python-list at python.org>,
 Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au> wrote:

> Jeez. PDP-11s, 16 bit addressing, tiny tiny disc drives!

What you talking about, tiny?  An RK-05 was huge!  Why would anybody 
ever need more than that?

> The original V7 (and probably earlier) UNIX filesystem has 16 byte directory
> entries

Certainly earlier.  I used v6, and it was like that there.  I'm 
reasonably sure it pre-dated v6, however.